Top 215 Classical Music Quotes

I love Western classical music – I grew up on that thanks to my parents who loved it too.

We have such a great depth of human history in all of the arts, whether it’s opera or mathematics or painting or classical music or jazz. There’s so many things to study, new books to read, and certainly always ways to transform old ideas and to come up with new ones.

I come from a small village and have had no formal training in music or any classes from the masters of Indian classical music.

Classical music is something that we’re very passionate about, but we always thought it was presented in a stuffy way.

I was interested in both Western and Indian classical music.

I basically love classical music. I love a lot of musicians playing together and the whole culture of that, whether it’s Indian or it’s Western.

If you ever ask me what my all-time dream character is, my answer will be Mia Tansen, the great composer-musician in Hindustani classical music. And ideally, the film should be directed by a person like Bhansali who is a great director and has a marvellous sense of classical music.

When you learn Indian classical music, sometimes it takes decades to perfect a raga.

‘The Shining’ is operatic and sensational and… really shocking. It has this amazing meld of classical music and modern interpretations of classical music, and incredible imagery. From the set design to the costumes, there’s so much to unpack.

Even the most jingoistic person would have to admit that even American cultural music comes from Europe. That’s what classical music is, real European music.

I have a classical music background. I studied violin and trumpet.

Classical music has become rarefied, like a maiden aunt that nobody wants to talk to.

I did classical music when I was a teenager, but the experience of performing a classical concert felt too frighteningly pristine for me to continue with it.

I grew up listening to – it’s kind of embarrassing – all classical music.

Music in Africa is perceived so differently than Western classical music – it’s language and storytelling.

Actually, I’ve had very little classical training, although I love listening to classical music very much.

Part of what I enjoy about writing classical music is communicating through the score and collaborating with such amazing musicians.

For me, it’s classical music I started with and I admire Jacqueline du Pre.

I just loved classical music, but I also loved playing rock guitar, and I loved playing piano, so it was a natural thing that those things would merge at some point.

I had this exceptional classical music voice. If I’d followed a true path for my talent, I would have ended up being an opera singer.

There is this tremendous amount of arrogance and hubris, where somebody can look at something for five minutes and dismiss it. Whether you talk about gaming or 20th century classical music, you can’t do it in five minutes. You can’t listen to ‘The Rite of Spring’ once and understand what Stravinsky was all about.

New music is absolutely integral to classical music.

I had this idea for a while to do mix this Al Green vibe with a samba thing. I tried to do that in many different ways. Peter added his own modern notion of funk and his own deep background in classical music.

Any form of classical music is made for youth.

We were really interested in music from all over the world. We realized that what we were doing was very close to contemporary classical music because of the lack of tonality in the guitar- the fact that I play guitar the way I play.

The classical music world is so snobbish.

There was a time when people were afraid that film music would totally displace classical music.

I listen mostly to classical music.

I like to listen to classical music… I like mainline jazz.

I grew up in a family that was very musical, learned the blues and everything like that. And I became a little bit frustrated with the simplicity of rock n’ roll and blues. I started listening to a lot of classical music – mainly Bach, Vivaldi.

My husband is a former rocker and in charge of our humungous music collection, and I’ve recently been asking him for classical music.

I have very eclectic tastes. I love soul and Motown; I listen to some rap – Stormzy, Tinie Tempah, Drake. I also love classical music, American country and the folk tradition. I often start the day with gospel on my way to work. The only thing I have never got into is punk.

People think you go home and be a celeb, sipping Laurent-Perrier and listening to classical music. You don’t. You go home and wash some pants in the sink.

I had a big background in listening to classical music and I started trying to compose, like I was playing the guitar but I heard an orchestra in my head.

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about… Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.

It is interesting that our biggest fans are the greatest names of the classical music scene, such as Julian Rachlin, Janine Jansen, Mischa Maisky and Gidon Kremer. They even make guest appearances in our concerts occasionally.

I love hip-hop; I love Sleigh Bells. I also love classical music and musical theater.

We were very rich culturally. One Sunday each month, we would do this thing called Chamber Pots at somebody’s house. A classical music group would come over and we’d have dinner. There were thirty people – parents and kids – and we’d sit on the floor and listen to this beautiful music.

Both parents were very encouraging – especially my father. My father thought the sun rose and set with me. Neither one had a musical background or any musical talent. They liked classical music, but neither could carry a tune.

Classical music is for listening but rock and roll is to have fun with.

I thought it would be interesting to play classical music on rock instruments.

Western classical music is participative. Look at the number of people who are involved in a symphony.

Just going to Bangladesh was an experience… if you go into small villages in the U.K., they’re backward and culturally devoid. But if you go into small villages in Bangladesh, they have classical music concerts.

When K. Vishwanath made the film ‘Shankarabharanam,’ he wanted to bring back Carnatic classical music to mainstream. It’s popularity was waning in those days.

Early on, I was a performer playing classical music. It’s in my DNA in a way that I can’t begin to extract it.

My greatest influence came from my parents’ love of classical music. We listened to a lot of arias and operas growing up.

There’s been a time where I was like, I wanna be a folk singer; no, I wanna sing soul. I want to sing classical music. I want to sing R&B. I want to be on Broadway. I just wanna sing. Whatever comes out of my mouth, that’s what I want to do.

The first concert that my parents took me to was in this canyon in Saudi Arabia called Buttermilk Canyon. You sleep under the stars in the desert, and ex-pats – German, Swiss, Canadian, American – would play classical music that filled the whole canyon.

As far as using electronics in my music, I have to do that as honestly as possible. Also, I have a broad range of listeners from a classical music base, as well as people, like me, who listen to a lot of different music. So I’m mindful of letting my sitar playing remain at the center of what I do.

I used to sing classical music to the flowers in the garden and imagine they were all different parts of the orchestra. It used to really annoy the neighbours.

I would love to hone my skills and learn Indian classical music. It’s a vast sea of melodies and ragas, and I enjoy it immensely.

Jazz, for me, is a closed circuit, like the term baroque in the world of classical music.

I got obsessed with classical music, I got obsessed with Chopin, with playing the piano.

That makes classical music work, the ability to improvise.

As a rule, my focus is on classical music, but I love jazz. I love everything, actually.

In contrast, traditional classical music starts from an abstract musical schema. This is then notated and only expressed in concrete sound as a last stage, when it is performed.

I became a professional musician and played all kinds of music. I played bluegrass, I played classical music, and for many years, I played jazz.

I’m a self-confessed geek, and my whole concept of music at first was entirely electronic. In many ways, it turned out to be an advantage. I was so green, so utterly naive about the nature of classical music, that I did things that made me look totally, deliberately unorthodox.

It’s hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel’s success in classical music.

What I do for migraines when I get them, I listen to classical music, and I turn it up really loud.

Guided By Voices was huge when I was 16. Then I got into the Beatles, then classical music, Beethoven.

I also like Western classical music and jazz.

It’s something he used to say when he was happy. It could be a very, very simple day. We might be sitting out on the front lawn. Dad loved classical music and we might be listening to some Stravinsky or something and having some tea and eggs. And he’d say, ‘Oh, good stuff, isn’t it?’