Never criticize the composition of a Royal Highness. You never know who may have written it.

Composers in the old days used to keep strictly to the base of the theme, as their real subject. Beethoven varies the melody, harmony and rhythms so beautifully.

Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.

If we cannot write with the beauty of Mozart, let us at least try to write with his purity.

The fact that most people do not understand and respect the very best things, such as Mozart's concertos, is what permits men like us to become famous.

Study Bach. There you will find everything.

In him converge all previous streams of tendency, not as into a pool, stagnant, passive, motionless, but as a noble river that received its tributary waters and bearss them onward in larger and statelier volume.