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It is quite untrue that British people don't appreciate music. They may not understand it but they absolutely love the noise it makes.

Thomas Beecham

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Thomas Beecham
Age: 81 †
Born: 1879
Born: April 29
Died: 1961
Died: March 8
Conductor
Sir Thomas Beecham
2nd Baronet
Appreciate
Quite
Untrue
Understand
Sarcasm
Makes
Sarcastic
May
Stupidity
Music
Noise
Love
British
People
Absolutely

More quotes by Thomas Beecham

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Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.
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Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.
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At a rehearsal I let the orchestra play as they like. At the concert I make them play as I like.
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Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it.
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Composers and musicians have always starved and, as this is a sentimental country, we think the tradition should be continued.
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In the first movement alone, I took note of six pregnancies and at least four miscarriages.
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Elgar's first symphony is the musical equivalent of St Pancras Railway Station.
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I find brass bands have a melancholy sound. All right out of doors, of course - fifty miles away. Like bagpipes, they turn what had been a dream into a public nuisance.
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No woman is worth the loss of a night's sleep.
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No operatic star has yet died soon enough for me.
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Without question the most unpopular medium of musical sound in the world.
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The sound of the harpsichord resembles that of a bird-cage played with toasting-forks.
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If she is attractive, I can't perform with her if she is not, then I won't.
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There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.
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The bagpipes sound exactly the same when you have finished as when you started
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A soprano in Massenet's Don Quixote complained that she had missed her entry in the aria, because Mr. Challiapin always dies too soon. Madam, you must be profoundly in error, said Sir Thomas, No operatic star has yet died half soon enough for me.
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The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes.
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The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.
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Too much counterpoint what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.
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Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.
Thomas Beecham