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You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled, listen to them.

Robert Schumann

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Robert Schumann
Age: 46 †
Born: 1810
Born: June 8
Died: 1856
Died: July 29
Composer
Conductor
Music Critic
Music Pedagogue
Musician
Musicologist
Pianist
Robert Alexander Schumann
Unless
Listen
Play
Compositions
Compelled
Composition
Neither

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It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant, lost in his dreams to see how his vision communicated itself through his playing, and how, at the end of each piece, he had the sad habit of running one finger over the length of the plaintive keyboard, as though to tear himself forcibly away from his dream.
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Only when the form grows clear to you, will the spirit become so too.
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My symphonies would have reached Opus 100 if I had but written them down... Sometimes I am so full of music, and so overflowing with melody, that I find it simply impossible to write down anything.
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I was a God-fearing child, innocent and physically attractive.
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When young, one learns his craftsmanship, may become a young master, and it is youth that is most auspicious for developing certain skills.
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Think it a vile habit to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.
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I feel so entirely in my element with a full orchestra even if my mortal enemies were marshalled before me, I could lead them, master them, surround them, or repulse them.
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The aesthetic principle is the same in every art, only the material differs.
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When you play, do not trouble yourself as to who is listening. Yet always play as though a master listened to you.
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In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.
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We have learned to express the more delicate nuances of feeling by penetrating more deeply into the mysteries of harmony.
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Talent works, genius creates.
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My indifference to money and my spendthrift ways are disgraceful. You have no idea how reckless I am how often I practically throw money out of the window. I am always making good resolutions, but the next minute I forget and give the waiter eightpence.
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Send light to the dark hearts of men, that is the duty the artist.
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You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.
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Can that which has cost the artist days, weeks, months and even years of reflection be understood in a flash by a dilettante?
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From a pound of iron, that costs little, a thousand watch-springs can be made, whose value becomes prodigious. The pound you have received from the Lord,--use it faithfully.
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Confidence and courage are special skills to the art ... Within the four walls of his study, the artist should be modest, work diligently and conscientiously. While for the public, he'll show himself audacious, yes even into cheerful boldness. And so a new public's darling has arisen.
Robert Schumann
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Nature best teaches how to pray, and how to reverence all the gifts the Almighty has given us. She is like a vast outspread handkerchief, embroidered with God's eternal name, on which we may dry alike our tears of sorrow and of joy she turns weeping into ecstasy, and fills our hearts with speechless, quiet reverence and resignation.
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For me, music is always the language which permits one to converse with the Beyond.
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