Quartet Quotes

In spite of all the refinements of society that conspired to make art the dizzying perfection of the string quartet or the sprawling grandeur of Fragonards canvases beauty was savage. It was as dangerous and lawless as the earth had been eons before man had one single coherent thought in his head or wrote codes of conduct on tablets of clay. Beauty was a Savage Garden. (Anne Rice)
The Third Quartet I made the instruments in pairs - Two different pairs - Violin and viola, and violin and cello. They played very different things from each other all through the whole piece. View quote
Elliott Carter
I love working with the quartet. I have more freedom and flexibility. View quote
Boz Scaggs
You hear it in your brain. Whatever makes sense. Some songs work well as quartet songs, sometimes they don't. View quote
Branford Marsalis
The most perfect expression of human behavior is a string quartet. View quote
Jeffrey Tate
Every small town has its dramatic group, its barber-shop quartet, every home has music in one form or another. View quote
Kate Smith
I am touring in Europe. I am putting together a trio and a quartet. I am playing solo concerts with my symphonic sounds. I am very much engaged back to playing and recording and everything. View quote
Miroslav Vitous
I'll tell you what I would do in a shot if I could. I would sing in the barbershop quartet in The Music Man. View quote
Ned Beatty
Growing up in the Bay Area, I played early on with these quartet groups who set guidelines for me. I remember the guys would all have the same clothes and shoes, like these uniforms. I was in awe. View quote
Raphael Saadiq
I owe very, very much to Mozart; and if one studies, for instance, the way in which I write for string quartet, then one cannot deny that I have learned this directly from Mozart. And I am proud of it! View quote
Arnold Schoenberg
Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at fifty miles per hour. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them not as sound effects but as musical instruments. Every film studio has a library of "sound effects" recorded on film. With a film phonograph it is now possible to control the amplitude and frequency of any one of these sounds and to give to it rhythms within or beyond the reach of the imagination. Given four film phonographs, we can compose and perform a quartet for explosive motor, wind, heartbeat, and landslide. (John Cage)
Composers are not human; They can live on diminished sevenths, and be contented with a pianoforte for a wife, and a string quartet for a family. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
Of all obstacles to a thoroughly penetrating account of existence, none looms up more dismayingly than "time.” Explain time? Not without explaining existence. Explain existence? Not without explaining time. To uncover the deep and hidden connection between time and existence, to close on itself our quartet of questions, is a task for the future. View quote
John Archibald Wheeler
And over the last ten years, after my work with the Brodsky Quartet, I had the opportunity to write arrangements for chamber group, chamber orchestra, jazz orchestra, symphony orchestra even. View quote
Elvis Costello
One is that you have to take time, lots of time, to let an idea grow from within. The second is that when you sign on to something, there will be issues of trust, deep trust, the way the members of a string quartet have to trust one another. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
We used to get on planes, and they'd ask who we were, and we'd say, 'The Dave Brubeck Quartet', and they'd say, 'Who?' In later years they'd say, 'Oh', which amounts to the same thing. View quote
Paul Desmond
Until recently we were a trio. Before that, a quartet. Perhaps it's just me, but I'm beginning to detect a trend. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
The main thing is not to lose your identity and to continue working ... You have a quartet. That is such joy! You can forget everything else in the world. I'm playing a lot of chamber music these days. Tomorrow we were going to give the first performance of two trios, but because of the mourning, all concerts have been canceled. View quote
David Oistrakh
'Shantaram' is the second in the series of a quartet of novels that I have planned about my life but is the first to be written. The third book is a sequel to 'Shantaram,' the first a prequel. View quote
Gregory David Roberts
This conflict has been going on for too long. It is essential that the parties start new direct negotiations and negotiate a sustainable peace, with the support of the Quartet. The path will be arduous, no doubt, but the objective is worth it, for the Israelis and the Palestinians and the entire region: an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable State of Palestine, living side by side with the State of Israel in peace and security. View quote
Henri of Luxembourg
I suppose subconsciously I was thinking in terms of having the scale of it matching the scale of the images. Hence the sort of string quartet, jazz band and electronic stuff. (Jonny Greenwood)
I prefer a quartet, it makes everyone work harder. View quote
Adrian Belew
I've been saying for almost 20 years that I need to do a jazz project and it ought to be either big band or I should do some jazz songs with a trio or quartet. View quote
Al Jarreau
My family was very encouraging, and both of my grandparents were both beautiful singers. My grandmother was a coloratura soprano, and my grandfather was an Irish tenor in a barbershop quartet. View quote
Clare Bowen
I know of musicians who have played together for decades who hate each other. The Modern Jazz Quartet for one. View quote
Gary Burton