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

George Gershwin

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George Gershwin
Age: 38 †
Born: 1898
Born: September 26
Died: 1937
Died: July 11
Composer
Conductor
Film Score Composer
Jazz Musician
Painter
Pianist
Songwriter
Brooklyn
New York
Jacob Gershvin
Jacob Bruskin Gershowitz
George Jacob Gershwin
Dzhordzh Gershvin
Instruments
Strange
Use
Ideas
Many
Gershwin
Composers
Composer
Require

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It sounds simple, of course, but personally I can think of no more mentally arduous task than making music.
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Gershwin's tragedy was not that he failed to cross the tracks, but rather that he did, and once there in his new habitat, was deprived of the chance to plunge his roots firmly into the new soil.
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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 matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.
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Music sets up certain vibration which unquestionably results in a physical reaction. Eventually the proper vibration for every person will be found and utilized.
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For suddenly, I saw you there And through foggy London town The sun was shining everywhere.
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Upper berth, lower berth, that's the difference between talent and genius.
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The extraordinary thing about my mother, she's so modest about me.
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When I'm in my normal mood, music drips from my fingers.
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I frequently hear music in the heart of noise.
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Originality is the only thing that counts. But the originator uses material and ideas that occur round him and pass through him. And out of his experience comes the original creation.
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I want to say at once that I frankly believe that Irving Berlin is the greatest songwriter that has ever lived.... His songs are exquisite cameos of perfection, and each one of them is as beautiful as its neighbor. Irving Berlin remains, I think, America's Schubert.
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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 the energy stored up in America.
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Writing music is not so much inspiration as hard work.
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Jazz is the result of the energy stored up in America.
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The European boys have small ideas but they sure know how to dress 'em up.
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All these tales of people sitting down and composing symphonies just as though they were writing a letter are very much exaggerated at least, it isn't that way in my work.
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Look at the piano. You'll notice that there are white notes and black notes. Figure out the difference between them and you'll be able to make whatever kind of music you want.
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Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.
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A skyscraper is at the same time a triumph of the machine and a tremendous emotional experience, almost breath-taking. Not merely its height but its mass and proportions are the result of an emotion, as well as of calculation.
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Porgy is...an interesting example of what can be done by talent in spite of a bad setup. With a libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen, a man who should never have attempted it has written a work that has a considerable power.
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