False notes can be forgiven, false music cannot. Nadia Boulanger More Quotes by Nadia Boulanger More Quotes From Nadia Boulanger I adore tradition. I cannot stand habit. Simply to repeat is nothing, also to destroy is nothing. Tradition is never interrupted, we are always evolving but never interrupted. Nadia Boulanger adoretraditionhabit Art is not emotion. Art is the medium in which emotion is expressed. Nadia Boulanger art-isemotionart As far as the execution is concerned ... the most frequent and most serious mistake is to follow the music instead of preceding it. Nadia Boulanger musicseriousmistake It is easier to analyze a work in its form, in its evolution, than simply to love it with all the living forces of our heart. It is easier to define its peculiarities and its details than to draw out of it its emotion, its thought. Nadia Boulanger detailsemotionheart [On being asked how it felt to be the first female conductor of the Boston Symphony:] I've been a woman for a little more than fifty years, and I've gotten over my original astonishment. Nadia Boulanger womenmusicyears The Constitution of the United States is not a mere lawyers' document; it is a vehicle of life, and its spirit is always the spirit of the age. Nadia Boulanger united-statesspiritage In music everything is prolonged, everything is edified, and when the enchantment has ceased, we are still bathed in its clarity; solitude is accompanied by a new hope between pity for ourselves - which makes us more indulgent and more understanding - and the certitude of finding something again, that which lives for ever in music. Nadia Boulanger musicsolitudeunderstanding The great conductor is always a despot by temperament and intractable in his ways. ... The artist is obliged to keep his laughter and tears to himself. If they want to emerge, in spite of himself, then he must hide them or unleash them in someone else. Nadia Boulanger laughtermusicartist Everything we know by heart enriches us and helps us find ourselves. If it should get in the way of finding ourselves, it is because we have no personality. Nadia Boulanger personalityheartway You should never listen to someone practice. That is their work and theirs alone. Nadia Boulanger musicshouldpractice A great work is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty. Nadia Boulanger great-workobedienceliberty [On the music of Richard Strauss:] Too many notes! Nadia Boulanger notesmusic Without a strong cup to carry the emotion, it is only a curiosity. Great art can come to us only in strong cups. Without emotion, there is nothing to carry. Nadia Boulanger curiositystrongart Never forget that your days are blessed. You may know how to profit by them, or you may not, but they are blesses. Nadia Boulanger never-forgetblessedmay Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it. Nadia Boulanger
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