WIST Quotations

Barzun, Jacques -- Interview (1986-12-04) by John C. Tibbetts, “Jacques Barzun on Robert Schumann”

Dave — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:41 +0000

My notion about any artist is that we honor him best by reading him, by playing his music, by seeing his plays or by looking at his pictures. We don’t need to fall all over ourselves with adjectives and epithets. Let’s play him more.

Jacques Barzun (1907–2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
Interview (1986-12-04) by John C. Tibbetts, “Jacques Barzun on Robert Schumann”

Gladwell, Malcolm -- Outliers: The Story of Success, ch. 2 “The 10,000 Hour Rule,” sec. 2 (2008)

Dave — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 15:30:24 +0000

Once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.

Malcolm Gladwell (b. 1963) Anglo-Canadian journalist, author, public speaker
Outliers: The Story of Success, ch. 2 “The 10,000 Hour Rule,” sec. 2 (2008)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Broken Homes (2013)

Dave — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 14:13:07 +0000

As my dad always says, while improvisation and spontaneity may be the hallmarks of great jazz, the hallmark of being a great player is ensuring the rest of the band is spontaneously improvising the way you want them to.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Broken Homes (2013)