Thomas Beecham famous quotes

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

#Conscious #Function #Release

Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Writing #Boys #Errands

It is quite untrue that British people don't appreciate music. They may not understand it but they absolutely love the noise it makes.
-- Thomas Beecham

#People #Appreciate #Stupidity

When asked whether he minded if someone smoked in a non-smoking compartment. Certainly not if you don't object if I'm sick.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Sick #Smoking

Composers and musicians have always starved and, as this is a sentimental country, we think the tradition should be continued.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Country #Thinking #Musical

The trouble with women in an orchestra is that if they're attractive it will upset my players and if they're not it will upset me.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Music #Player #Upset

Her singing reminds me of a cart coming downhill with the brake on.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Singing #Musical #Brake

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."
-- Thomas Beecham

#Stars #Errors #Half

The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Two #Skeletons #Musical

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Music #Memories #Magic

A musicologist is a man who can read music but cannot hear it.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Music #Men

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

#Funny #Music #Band

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

#Love #Funny #Music

There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Funny #Music #Two

Magical music never leaves the memory.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Memories

The sound of the harpsichord resembles that of a bird-cage played with toasting-forks.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Bird #Cages #Sound

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.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Musical #Good Enough #Enough

They are quite hopeless - drooling, driveling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Depressing #Hopeless #Doleful

Beethoven's last quartets were written by a deaf man and should only be listened to by a deaf man.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Music #Men #Lasts

Too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Too Much

Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Giving #Musical #Legs

What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Jumping #Musical #Yaks

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

#Tunes

In the first movement alone, I took note of six pregnancies and at least four miscarriages.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Pregnancy #Miscarriage #Musical

"Have you heard any Stockhausen?" Beecham was asked. "No, but I believe I have stepped in some."
-- Thomas Beecham

#Believe #Belief #I Believe

No operatic star has yet died soon enough for me.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Stars #Enough

If I were a dictator I should make it compulsory for every member of the population between the ages of four and eighty to listen to Mozart for at least a quarter of an hour daily for the coming five years.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Years #Age #Four

The British like any kind of music so long as it is loud.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Kindness #Long #British

Music first and last should sound well, should allure and enchant the ear. Never mind the inner significance.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Music #Mind #Ears

I have just been all round the world and have formed a very poor opinion of it.
-- Thomas Beecham

#World #Opinion #Poor

No woman is worth the loss of a night's sleep.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Women #Sleep #Loss

Elgar's first symphony is the musical equivalent of St Pancras Railway Station.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Music #Symphony #Firsts

There are no woman composers, never have been and possibly never will be.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Women #Composer

All the arts in America are a gigantic racket run by unscrupulous men for unhealthy women.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Running #Art #Men

I prefer Offenbach to Bach often.
-- Thomas Beecham

#Music

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

#Musical #Noise #Painful