Some of the best quotes are never fully attributable to any one individual. Either that or their words and/or essence have been massaged to suit the quoter.
In the art world, many dubious quotes exist among those attributed to Picasso.
Peter Feuchtwanger, while I studied piano with him, had a wonderful sentence to which he turned often in lessons and which influences me to this day. It ran, broadly, thus:
“The marks in a musical score tell us everything about a musical composition, except the most important element, its essential character”. With these words, Prof. Feuchtwanger encouraged us to 'read between the lines' in a score, and discover its ineffable meaning. My great teacher had enormous respect for the written score, but simultaneously decried the 'book-keeper' tendencies of many modern musicians.
I do not believe for a moment that Feuchtwanger meant to pass these wise observations off as his own; but I believed them to be his, and told many people that this was so, before much later reading the same words attributed to the great conductor Bruno Walter, whom Peter knew! Perhaps even Dr Walter was quoting someone else.
Just the other day, I came across a supposed quote from the Canadian-American artist Philip Guston (1913-1980).
The aphorism goes as follows:
“When you are in the studio painting, there are lots of people in there with you – your teachers, friends, painters from history, critics...and one by one if you're really painting, they walk out, and if you're truly painting, you walk out”.
It seems that Guston did say or write these words, but they have also been attributed (mildly paraphrased) to the American composer John Cage!
I feel a discussion coming on! What do my readers think of this Gusto-Cagey statement? Do feel free to write a public comment.
WITH GUSTO, OR BEING CAGEY? Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2024
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