Quote #7

Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.

More from George Gershwin

  1. Modern European composers:have very largely received their stimulus, their rhythms and impulses from Machine Age America. They have a much …
  2. A skyscraper is at the same time a triumph of the machine and a tremendous emotional experience, almost breath-taking. Not merely its heigh…
  3. Jazz I regard as an American folk music; not the only one, but a very powerful one which is probably in the blood and feeling of the Americ…
  4. When jazz is played in another nation, it is called American. When it is played in another country, it sounds false. Jazz is the result of …
  5. The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself:Making music is actually little else than a ma…
  6. An entire composition written in jazz could not live.
  7. My people are American, my time is today:music must repeat the thought and aspirations of the times.
  8. I like to think of music as an emotional science.

All George Gershwin quotes