Horace Silver Quotes

You want the song to be at least at the same level of goodness throughout. Whereas with something you're doing live, a song dips and rises and that can actually be worked to the song's benefit.

When I got my band in 1983, I knew what I had to do. If I'm going to have a big band, they're going to have to sound equally as good as what I'm used to hearing.

A Beethoven symphony should be rehearsed like chamber music, only for a lot more people.

The less people that are on the stage, there's more drama. You start living the music with each individual. When you see a band with ten people on stage, just a huge ensemble, you don't know who's doing what.

As an improviser I'm now pretty comfortable with trios, so I'm thinking of working up to quartets.

There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.

Orchestras have become used to the emphasis on the separation of layers, of the ultimate precision and clarity.

At every moment, each instrument knew what to play. Its little bit. But none could see the whole thing like this, all at once, only its own part. Just like life. Each person was like a line of music, but nobody knew what the symphony sounded like. Only the conductor had the whole score.

I want to write musicals for my whole life. I always did.

In any musician's career, a film like 'Manikarnika' becomes a landmark dream project, which is challenging and musically enriching at the same time.

We really like having songs where we think the arrangement is just as important as the melodies, even though they're typically not.

I can stitch a song together in about an hour anytime you want, but it won't have the depth.

Somebody told me about a band that works out their whole set as if it was one song. They learn the whole set as one piece, so they know how the dynamics of it work. It's really difficult to do, and you can only really do it while you're on tour, as being in a rehearsal studio is not the same as being on stage in front of an audience.

Japanese orchestras are generally playing at quite a high level on the first day of rehearsal, but they don't improve very much from there.

Producing isn't just making beats on a beat machine. It's bringing together these string players with this flute player and this singer, and telling them to all work in the key of C major... You bring these people together and let them all cook.

You're creating a score that has to have an emotional and story logic to it. You want a dramatic arc. You want all the songs to push story forward. That's the same whether it's for stage or film or television or whatever.

Many musicals you can take and throw in the garbage can because no one took the time to write a song you can care about.

Typically in Korea when I perform I have a full band, a ten-piece band, and that's a completely different monster in itself to prepare and rehearse.

A great solo is one that's so frail that it actually teeters on the edge of falling apart, but doesn't.

A lot of people think the orchestra is playing and the conductor doesn't do very much, but the conductor's the person that gives shape to the music, gets the phrasing, and if he has really fine musicians in solo spots, the question is does he try to help them phrase, or does he let them go?

I'm a composer like every maestro on this earth.

Composing music for 'Mungaru Male 2' is a big responsibility and challenge.

I don't want impersonators playing our music badly.

I play a very streamlined piano.

Any musician in any band - for a really good band - you know your part in the band.