Any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself.

My religion lies in my composition.

Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing.

American teachers have one indisputable advantage over foreign ones; they understand the American temperament and can judge its unevenness, its lights and its shadows.

The office of President is a great one; to every true American it seems the greatest on earth. And to me, as I was engaged in weaving a background of music for the pageantry of it, there came a deeper realization of the effect of that office on the man.

I forsee a marked deterioration in American musicand a host of other injuries to music in its artistic manifestations, by virtue—or rather by vice—of the multiplication of the various music-reproducing machines

Composers are the only people who can hear good music above bad sounds.