What I have set down in a moment of ardour I must then critically examine. Sometimes I must do myself violence before I can mercilessly erase things thought out with love. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share Image
We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If… — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
I have put my whole soul into this work [The Pathetique Symphony] . . . You cannot imagine what joy I feel at the… — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
Only music clarifies, reconciles, and consoles. But it is not a straw just barely clutched at. It is a faithful friend, protector, and comforter,… — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
How can one express the indefinable sensations that one experiences while writing an instrumental composition that has no definite subject? It is a purely… — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
Music possesses much richer means of expression and it is a more subtle medium for translating the 1000 shifting moments of the feelings of… — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
Music is an incomparably more powerful means and is a subtler language for expressing the thousand different moments of the soul's moods. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
Sometimes I observe with curiosity that uninterrupted activity which, independent of the subject of any conversation I may be carrying on, continues its course… — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
There is no doubt that even the greatest musical geniuses have sometimes worked without inspiration. This guest (inspiration) does not always respond to the… — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
When Brahms is in extra good spirits, he sings, "The grave is my joy". — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
What I have set down in a moment of ardour I must then critically examine. Sometimes I must do myself violence before I can… — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
Mozart is the highest, the culminating point that beauty has attained in the sphere of music. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
It is already a great thing if the main ideas and general outline of a work come without any racking of brains, as the… — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Copy Share
