Abstraction Quote by Sarah Caldwell

“That's what it is that you rehearse - the making of music, not the playing of notes as abstractions.”

Sarah Caldwell

About This Quote

True musical mastery comes from internalizing the process, not merely manipulating abstract symbols.

In simple terms: Music is lived, not just noted.

Key Takeaway

Embodiment beats intellectualization.

Themes

artistic practice mindfulness creativity skill acquisition

Mood

inspirational thoughtful

Type

philosophical instructional

When to use this quote

instrument learning
dance rehearsal
software development

Key Concepts

embodied cognition

Practical Applications

Practice with focused attention on feeling, not just technique

Questions to Reflect On

How does feeling the music change performance?
When is analytical study essential?

A Different Perspective

May undervalue the role of theoretical study in artistic growth.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 3.7 out of 5 (5 ratings)

Abstraction Making Music Music Music Playing Notes Playing Notes Rehearse Rehearse Making Song

More by Sarah Caldwell

The secret of living is to find people who will pay you money to do what YOU would pay to do if you had…

Sarah Caldwell

Image

If you approach an opera as though it were something that always went a certain way, that's what you get. I approach an opera…

Sarah Caldwell

Image

The fact is that great musical pieces take and hold the stage because they provide great emotional experiences.

Sarah Caldwell

Image

Once in a while, when everything is just right, there is a moment of magic. People can live on moments of magic.

Sarah Caldwell

Image

Music - opera particularly - is a process which is endurable or successful only if it is achieved by people who love to collaborate.

Sarah Caldwell

Image

We must continuously discipline ourselves to I remember how it felt the first moment.

Sarah Caldwell

Image

I enjoy doing both of them very much, concert work particularly, and the division varies from season to season.

Sarah Caldwell

Image

Opera is everything rolled into one - music, theater, the dance, color and voices and theatrical illusions.

Sarah Caldwell

Image

If you can sell green toothpaste in this country, you can sell opera.

Sarah Caldwell

Image

Tanglewood [summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra] was a place where gods strode the earth.

Sarah Caldwell

Image

Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you…

Sarah Caldwell

Image

As the director of an opera, it is my responsibility to unify the style of the particular performance, but one can certainly approach the…

Sarah Caldwell

Image

Explore all 15 Sarah Caldwell quotes

More Abstraction quotes

Everything in dancing is style, allusion, the essence of many thoughts and feelings. The abstraction of many moments.

Alvin Ailey

Image

The premises from which we begin are not arbitrary ones, not dogmas, but real premises from which abstraction can only be made in the…

Melchor Lim

Image

Two elements are needed to form a truth - a fact and an abstraction

Remy de Gourmont

Image

But we must not underestimate the potency of the mathematical process of abstraction. A surprising variety of things happen to have both magnitude and…

Banesh Hoffmann

Image

Sometimes I start in a very realistic fashion, and as I go on from one painting to another of the same kind, it becomes…

Georgia O'Keeffe

Image

I like residing in abstraction.

Sufjan Stevens

Image

Cancer begins and ends with people. In the midst of scientific abstraction, it is sometimes possible to forget this one basic fact. Doctors treat…

June Goodfield

Image

Yes, there was an element of abstraction and unreality in misfortune. But when an abstraction starts to kill you, you have to get to…

Albert Camus

Image

Computer Science is a science of abstraction -creating the right model for a problem and devising the appropriate mechanizable techniques to solve it.

Alfred Aho