The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.

We cannot expect you to be with us all the time, but perhaps you could be good enough to keep in touch now and again.

Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.

A soprano in Massenet's Don Quixote complained that she had missed her entry in the aria, "because Mr. Challiapin always dies too soon." "Madam, you must be profoundly in error," said Sir Thomas, "No operatic star has yet died half soon enough for me."

Movie music is noise. It's even more painful than my sciatica.

The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes.

The grand tune is the only thing in music that the great public really understands.