I feel like a ghost wandering in a world grown alien. I cannot cast out the old way of writing and I cannot acquire the new. I have made an intense effort to feel the musical manner of today, but it will not come to me.
Sergei RachmaninoffRead
Music is enough for a lifetime - but a lifetime is not enough for music.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Music is a profound art form that can fill a lifetime, yet even a lifetime is too short to experience all the music that exists.
This quote by Sergei Rachmaninoff suggests that music is a vast and infinite realm of expression and creativity. While one may dedicate their entire life to exploring and creating music, the depth and richness of musical experiences are so abundant that a single lifetime may be insufficient to fully appreciate or experience all that music has to offer.
Themes
MusicLifetimeArtExpressionCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech at a music festival, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of music in life.
More from Sergei Rachmaninoff
All quotes βWhat is Music? How do you define it? Music is a calm moonlit night, the rustle of leaves in Summer. Music is the far off peal of bells at dusk! Music comes straight from the heart and talks only to the heart: it is Love! Music is the Sister of Poetry and her Mother is sorrow!
Sergei RachmaninoffRead
The new kind of music seems to create not from the heart but from the head. Its composers think rather than feel. They have not the capacity to make their works exalt - they meditate, protest, analyze, reason, calculate and brood, but they do not exalt.
Sergei RachmaninoffRead
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