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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
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Melancholy
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More quotes by Thomas Beecham

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The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.
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Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.
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The sound of the harpsichord resembles that of a bird-cage played with toasting-forks.
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Too much counterpoint what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.
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No woman is worth the loss of a night's sleep.
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They are quite hopeless - drooling, driveling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips.
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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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Elgar's first symphony is the musical equivalent of St Pancras Railway Station.
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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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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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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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The trouble with women in an orchestra is that if they're attractive it will upset my players and if they're not it will upset 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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Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.
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In the first movement alone, I took note of six pregnancies and at least four miscarriages.
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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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If she is attractive, I can't perform with her if she is not, then I won't.
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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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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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