To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.
Robert SchumannRead
For me, music is always the language which permits one to converse with the Beyond.
Interpretation
Music transcends ordinary communication, connecting us to deeper, spiritual experiences.
Robert Schumann suggests that music serves as a unique means of communication that goes beyond the limitations of spoken language. It allows individuals to engage with profound, often unexplainable feelings and ideas, reaching into the essence of existence and the spiritual realm, thereby bridging the gap between the earthly and the divine.
In practice
In a speech about the influence of art, one might quote Schumann to highlight music's power to evoke deep emotions.
To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.
It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant, lost in his dreams; to see how his vision communicated itself through his playing, and how, at the end of each piece, he had the sad habit of running one finger over the length of the plaintive keyboard, as though to tear himself forcibly away from his dream.
I am so fresh in soul and spirit that life gushes and bubbles around me in a thousand springs.
Think it a vile habit to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.
You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.
Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance; that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.
Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.
When I design and wonder what the point is, I think of someone having a bad time in their life. Maybe they are sad and they wake up and put on something I have made and it makes them feel just a bit better. So, in that sense, fashion is a little help in the life of a person. But only a little.
One of the obsessions that the Soviet Union and the Eastern European communist parties had was always controlling the message - all information that everybody gets has to be carefully controlled and monitored. Art was no exception.
Then about 12 years ago it dawned on me that folk music - the music of Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs, early Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger - could be as heavy as anything that comes through a Marshall stack. The combination of three chords and the right lyrical couplet can be as heavy as anything in the Metallica catalogue.
The essential thing is to work in a state of mind that approaches prayer.
You know, it shouldn't just be about women as heroic figures overcoming things, it just needs to be about women in general getting the opportunity to play a multitude of roles, telling a multitude of stories - just to express human experience from a woman's perspective. I hope, someday, we can get to that point. I'm all about representation.
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