Quote

I don't choose what I compose. It chooses me.

Gustav Mahler

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Gustav Mahler
Age: 50 †
Born: 1860
Born: July 7
Died: 1911
Died: May 18
Classical Composer
Composer
Conductor
Musician
Mahler
Compose
Chooses
Choose

More quotes by Gustav Mahler

Image
When I have reached a summit, I leave it with great reluctance, unless it is to reach for another, higher one.
Gustav Mahler
Image
Tradition is laziness.
Gustav Mahler
Image
The longer you live and the more you learn, the more clearly you will feel the difference between the few men who are truly great and the mere virtuosi.
Gustav Mahler
Image
Only when I experience do I compose - only when I compose do I experience.
Gustav Mahler
Image
The real art of conducting consists in transitions.
Gustav Mahler
Image
Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.
Gustav Mahler
Image
In Bach, the vital cells of music are united as the world is in God.
Gustav Mahler
Image
The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.
Gustav Mahler
Image
An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.
Gustav Mahler
Image
What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.
Gustav Mahler
Image
In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.
Gustav Mahler
Image
I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed.
Gustav Mahler
Image
To write a symphony is, for me, to construct a world.
Gustav Mahler
Image
It's not just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it.
Gustav Mahler
Image
I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.
Gustav Mahler
Image
Don't bother looking at the view - I have already composed it.
Gustav Mahler
Image
It is always the same with me only when I experience something do I compose, and only when composing do I experience! After all, a musician's nature can hardly be expressed in words.
Gustav Mahler
Image
A full cup of wine at the right time is worth more than all the kingdoms of this earth!
Gustav Mahler
Image
There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.
Gustav Mahler
Image
Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.
Gustav Mahler