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Terry Teachout Quotes

I loved music from earliest childhood - from as long as I can remember Picture Quote #1

Tom Stoppard, the English-speaking world’s brainiest playwright, thinks that British audiences have grown too dumb to understand his plays Picture Quote #1

Most of us remember Nat King Cole as a vocalist. His warm, grainy baritone is still so closely identified with such familiar ballads as ‘Stardust’ and ‘The Christmas Song’ that it’s hard to imagine anyone else performing them Picture Quote #1

You don’t have to know anything about the Shakers to appreciate Mr. Copland’s score for ‘Appalachian Spring’ any more than you have to know who William Randolph Hearst was to understand ‘Citizen Kane.’ Picture Quote #1

Copland was one of the first American composers to forge a truly modern style of American classical music while also making use of American popular music - including jazz Picture Quote #1

A play is not a play until it’s performed, and unless it’s a one-person play that is acted, directed and designed by the author, many other people will be deeply involved in the complicated process that leads to its performance Picture Quote #1

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You’ve probably never thought about it before unless you happen to write for a living, but professional writers are doomed to spend most of their waking hours sitting by themselves at a desk, staring at a blank computer screen and waiting for lightning to strike Picture Quote #1

Instrumental music is nonverbal and thus radically ambiguous. It doesn’t lend itself to what might be called content-oriented analysis, though plenty of intellectuals have tried to analyze it in precisely that way Picture Quote #1

A critic is not a creative artist, is a commenter, a midwife of creativity, but not creative himself Picture Quote #1

No translation can possibly be perfect. Every production and every performance is a different path up the mountain, and nobody ever makes it all the way to the summit Picture Quote #1

The backstage play, in which the private lives of theater people are put onstage for the world to see, is one of the diciest of dramatic genres Picture Quote #1

For the critic, the word ‘best’ is like a grenade without a pin: Toss it around too freely, and you’re likely to get your hand blown off Picture Quote #1

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Limitations, be they practical or arbitrary, force artists to dig more deeply instead of settling for easy answers Picture Quote #1

Nowadays, most educated people would just as soon stay home and watch ‘Breaking Bad’ as shell out a hundred bucks to see a Broadway play - assuming that there are any plays on Broadway worth seeing, which long ago ceased to be a safe bet Picture Quote #1

It may well be, of course, that America’s pop culture is on balance better than our high art. I don’t think so, but you can certainly make a case that the best of it aspires to a degree of aesthetic and emotional seriousness that is directly comparable to all but the very greatest works of high art Picture Quote #1

All history, and most especially the history of the 20th century, argues against placing ideas in the saddle and allowing them to ride mankind. Too often, they end up riding individual men and women into mass graves Picture Quote #1

I believe deeply that jazz is still a very vital music that has much to say, not just to eggheads, or whatever the musical equivalent of an egghead is, but to ordinary people Picture Quote #1

Does film music really matter to the average moviegoer? A great score, after all, can’t save a bad film, and a bad score - so it’s said - can’t sink a good one Picture Quote #1

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The script of a play is not a finished product: It’s a set of instructions Picture Quote #1

Copland was the first important American classical composer to go to work for Hollywood Picture Quote #1

I am, as it happens, a baby boomer, but not one who feels any broad-gauge nostalgia for the 60s and 70s. My attitude resembles that of my parents, who were born in the 20s and lived through the Great Depression and World War II Picture Quote #1

No cowboy songs, no hoedowns. It’s a more serious piece. Yet every bar of ‘Appalachian Spring’ is clear, clean, tonal, intelligible - great music that anyone can grasp at first hearing Picture Quote #1

If you’re looking for light entertainment, you can’t get much lighter than ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ a flyweight farce about the coming of rock n’ roll to small-town America Picture Quote #1

EXTREMELY FUNNY! A SUPER-VIRTUOSO! I expected to enjoy ‘The Two and Only,’ but I didn’t expect to be touched, much less to find my eyes growing moist Picture Quote #1

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Everybody in America was talking about TV early in 1949, though comparatively few Americans owned a set of their own Picture Quote #1

Were I to be appointed Secretary of Education, I’d issue a prospectus for a compulsory nationwide high school course called ‘The American Experience in Art.’ Picture Quote #1

Not only are most of our citizens fathomlessly ignorant of the glories of American literature, a fast-growing percentage of our students are no longer taught much about any works of American art, be they novels, paintings, symphonies or ballets Picture Quote #1

In addition to giving comfort and joy, art also has the miraculous ability to let us live in other men’s skins, to test our perceptions and beliefs against theirs, and perhaps to be changed as a result. It does this by portraying the world creatively, heightening our perception and enriching our understanding of things as they are Picture Quote #1

A critic should always strive to recapture the sense of wonder and surprise with which he first beheld a now-familiar work of art Picture Quote #1

Direction is the most invisible part of the theatrical art. You don’t see it Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

I loved music from earliest childhood - from as long as I can remember (Terry Teachout Quotes) Tom Stoppard, the English-speaking world’s brainiest playwright, thinks that British audiences have grown too dumb to understand his plays. (Terry Teachout Quotes) Most of us remember Nat King Cole as a vocalist. His warm, grainy baritone is still so closely identified with such familiar ballads as ‘Stardust’ and ‘The Christmas Song’ that it’s hard to imagine anyone else performing them. (Terry Teachout Quotes) You don’t have to know anything about the Shakers to appreciate Mr. Copland’s score for ‘Appalachian Spring’ any more than you have to know who William Randolph Hearst was to understand ‘Citizen Kane.’ (Terry Teachout Quotes) Copland was one of the first American composers to forge a truly modern style of American classical music while also making use of American popular music - including jazz. (Terry Teachout Quotes) A play is not a play until it’s performed, and unless it’s a one-person play that is acted, directed and designed by the author, many other people will be deeply involved in the complicated process that leads to its performance. (Terry Teachout Quotes) You’ve probably never thought about it before unless you happen to write for a living, but professional writers are doomed to spend most of their waking hours sitting by themselves at a desk, staring at a blank computer screen and waiting for lightning to strike. (Terry Teachout Quotes) Instrumental music is nonverbal and thus radically ambiguous. It doesn’t lend itself to what might be called content-oriented analysis, though plenty of intellectuals have tried to analyze it in precisely that way. (Terry Teachout Quotes) A critic is not a creative artist, is a commenter, a midwife of creativity, but not creative himself. (Terry Teachout Quotes) No translation can possibly be perfect. Every production and every performance is a different path up the mountain, and nobody ever makes it all the way to the summit. (Terry Teachout Quotes) The backstage play, in which the private lives of theater people are put onstage for the world to see, is one of the diciest of dramatic genres. (Terry Teachout Quotes) For the critic, the word ‘best’ is like a grenade without a pin: Toss it around too freely, and you’re likely to get your hand blown off. (Terry Teachout Quotes) Limitations, be they practical or arbitrary, force artists to dig more deeply instead of settling for easy answers. (Terry Teachout Quotes) Nowadays, most educated people would just as soon stay home and watch ‘Breaking Bad’ as shell out a hundred bucks to see a Broadway play - assuming that there are any plays on Broadway worth seeing, which long ago ceased to be a safe bet. (Terry Teachout Quotes) It may well be, of course, that America’s pop culture is on balance better than our high art. I don’t think so, but you can certainly make a case that the best of it aspires to a degree of aesthetic and emotional seriousness that is directly comparable to all but the very greatest works of high art. (Terry Teachout Quotes) All history, and most especially the history of the 20th century, argues against placing ideas in the saddle and allowing them to ride mankind. Too often, they end up riding individual men and women into mass graves. (Terry Teachout Quotes) I believe deeply that jazz is still a very vital music that has much to say, not just to eggheads, or whatever the musical equivalent of an egghead is, but to ordinary people. (Terry Teachout Quotes) Does film music really matter to the average moviegoer? A great score, after all, can’t save a bad film, and a bad score - so it’s said - can’t sink a good one. (Terry Teachout Quotes) The script of a play is not a finished product: It’s a set of instructions (Terry Teachout Quotes) Copland was the first important American classical composer to go to work for Hollywood (Terry Teachout Quotes) I am, as it happens, a baby boomer, but not one who feels any broad-gauge nostalgia for the 60s and 70s. My attitude resembles that of my parents, who were born in the 20s and lived through the Great Depression and World War II. (Terry Teachout Quotes) No cowboy songs, no hoedowns. It’s a more serious piece. Yet every bar of ‘Appalachian Spring’ is clear, clean, tonal, intelligible - great music that anyone can grasp at first hearing. (Terry Teachout Quotes) If you’re looking for light entertainment, you can’t get much lighter than ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ a flyweight farce about the coming of rock n’ roll to small-town America. (Terry Teachout Quotes) EXTREMELY FUNNY! A SUPER-VIRTUOSO! I expected to enjoy ‘The Two and Only,’ but I didn’t expect to be touched, much less to find my eyes growing moist (Terry Teachout Quotes) Everybody in America was talking about TV early in 1949, though comparatively few Americans owned a set of their own. (Terry Teachout Quotes) Were I to be appointed Secretary of Education, I’d issue a prospectus for a compulsory nationwide high school course called ‘The American Experience in Art.’ (Terry Teachout Quotes) Not only are most of our citizens fathomlessly ignorant of the glories of American literature, a fast-growing percentage of our students are no longer taught much about any works of American art, be they novels, paintings, symphonies or ballets. (Terry Teachout Quotes) In addition to giving comfort and joy, art also has the miraculous ability to let us live in other men’s skins, to test our perceptions and beliefs against theirs, and perhaps to be changed as a result. It does this by portraying the world creatively, heightening our perception and enriching our understanding of things as they are. (Terry Teachout Quotes) A critic should always strive to recapture the sense of wonder and surprise with which he first beheld a now-familiar work of art. (Terry Teachout Quotes) Direction is the most invisible part of the theatrical art. You don’t see it. (Terry Teachout Quotes)

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