Top 11 Quotes & Sayings by Arthur Honegger

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Swiss composer Arthur Honegger.

Last updated on December 22, 2024.

Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably Antigone, composed between 1924 and 1927 to the French libretto by Jean Cocteau based on the tragedy Antigone by Sophocles. It premiered on 28 December 1927 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie with sets designed by Pablo Picasso and costumes by Coco Chanel. However, his most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which was inspired by the sound of a steam locomotive.

Swiss - Composer | March 10, 1892 - November 27, 1955

Source: Wikipedia

The public doesn't want new music.

Arthur Honegger

There is no doubt that the first requirement for a composer is to be dead.

Arthur Honegger

Music is geometry in time.

Arthur Honegger

To write music is to raise a ladder without a wall to lean it against. There is no scaffolding: the building under construction is held in balance only by the miracle of a kind of internal logic, an innate sense of proportion.

Arthur Honegger

Composing is not a profession. It is a maniaa harmless madness.

Arthur Honegger

I dream of a collaboration that will become so complete that, often, the poet will think as musician and the musician as poet, so that the work resulting from this union will not be the random conclusion of a series of approximations and concessions, but the harmonious synthesis of two aspects of the same thought.

Arthur Honegger

The first requirement for a composer is to be dead.

Arthur Honegger

To tell the truth, in Pacific 231 I was on the trail of a very abstract and quite ideal concept, by giving the impression of a mathematical acceleration of rhythm, while the movement itself slowed . I first called this piece Mouvement symphonique. On reflection I found that a bit colorless. Suddenly, a rather romantic image crossed my mind, and when the work was finished, I wrote the title Pacific 231, which indicates a locomotive for heavy loads and high speeds (a type unfortunately disappeared, alas, and sacrificed to electric traction).

Arthur Honegger

The modern composer is a madman who persists in manufacturing an article which nobody wants.

Arthur Honegger

The public doesn't want new music; the main thing it demands of a composer is that he be dead.

Arthur Honegger

I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures and I love them as others love women or horses.

Arthur Honegger