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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.

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
Away
Band
Dream
Doors
Bagpipes
Find
Turn
Nuisance
Right
Courses
Brass
Like
Course
Melancholy
Public
Bands
Turns
Fifty
Sound
Miles

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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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If an opera cannot be played by an organ grinder, it's not going to achieve immortality.
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The sound of the harpsichord resembles that of a bird-cage played with toasting-forks.
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They are quite hopeless - drooling, driveling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips.
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In the first movement alone, I took note of six pregnancies and at least four miscarriages.
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The bagpipes sound exactly the same when you have finished as when you started
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Too much counterpoint what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.
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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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What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about.
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I have just been all round the world and have formed a very poor opinion of it.
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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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Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.
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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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The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.
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Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.
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No woman is worth the loss of a night's sleep.
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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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Without question the most unpopular medium of musical sound in the world.
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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.
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The British like any kind of music so long as it is loud.
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