The War on Music Quotes

“The violent response to hearing new music by Schoenberg (his Chamber Symphony No. 1) and his students, Anton Webern and Alban Berg, led to the concert’s being terminated before its scheduled final work by Mahler, as objects were being hurled and furniture destroyed.”
― John Mauceri, The War on Music: Reclaiming the Twentieth Century

“For centuries, composers studied with their teachers and only heard other living composers’ music. Equally important, they did not expect their music to last past whatever performances they could arrange before moving on to their next piece. They received no royalties, and if they sold their music, it was to a publisher who earned money for his company. Although this situation began to change in the nineteenth century, music was seen as a disposable art form and audiences were used to hearing only new music.”
― John Mauceri, The War on Music: Reclaiming the Twentieth Century

“Maybe we can get away from our yes/no world of classical music, stop thinking in terms of pop versus serious, and refuse to ghettoize movie music…. Maybe, as we encourage our to sing in their personal voice, we can also bring back the music taken away from us.
If you are very fortunate, music will take you to all those places and states of being that physicist are trying to explain/prove - parallel universe, non-linear times, and the vast majority of things that exist but we cannot see/hear, that connect us from today into the very reason we love music, the heart of the matter.
Charles Ives made a distinction between the Unknown, and the In-Known the latter being what we profoundly sense but cannot prove or even explain. Just widen your embrace and listen without prejudice. What is the sound of it? No metaphors. No similes. No false criteria. No imposed walls: a gateway to the thing that is infinite, curved, expanding, and imploding - that always existed and will always exist as long as humans walk the earth. It is right there invisible to they eye, yet palpable to your ear, your mind, and your heart.
It is called music. It is yours, and because it is yours, it is great.”
― John Mauceri, The War on Music: Reclaiming the Twentieth Century

“We have all participated one way or another in creating today and perpetuating yesterday”
― John Mauceri, The War on Music: Reclaiming the Twentieth Century