Don't play the notes. Play the meaning of the notes.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of expressing emotions and ideas rather than merely playing notes technically.
Pablo Casals suggests that true musicality comes from understanding and conveying the deeper meaning behind the notes we play, rather than just replicating them accurately. This perspective invites musicians to connect with their audience through emotional expression and interpretation, highlighting the art of music as a profound form of communication.
In practice
In a speech about musical education at a conference, one could use this quote to inspire budding musicians to delve deeper into their art.
Bach is the supreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.
In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.
The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.
I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.
To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world.
I have written a great many stories and I still don't know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances.
The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.
I don't ... like rhythm, assonance, all that stuff. You just go on your nerve. If someone's chasing you down the street with a knife you just run, you don't turn around and shout, 'Give it up! I was a track star for Mineola Prep.'
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
Drawing is a kind of hypnotism: one looks in such a way at the model, that he comes and takes a seat on the paper.
You come in off the street, through the doors of the theater. You sit down. The lights go down and the curtain goes up. And you're in another world
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