Charles Rosen

Citations

• “Critical evaluation was transformed into understanding, and criticism became not an act of judgment but of comprehension.”

• “Music has its existence on the borderline between meaning and nonsense. That is why most attempts to attribute a specific meaning to a piece of music seem to be beside the point—even when the attribution is authoritative, even when it is made by the composer himself.”

• “To paraphrase Goethe's grandiose warning to the scientist: do not look behind the notes, they themselves are the doctrine.”

• “This is the true paradox of Chopin: he is most original in his use of the most fundamental and traditional technique. That is what made him at the same time the most conservative and the most radical composer of his generation.”

• “The creation of a classical style was not so much the achievement of an ideal as the reconciliation of conflicting ideals-the striking of an optimum balance between them.”