Musical Intention Quotes

Music exists when rhythmic, melodic or harmonic order is deliberately created, and consciously listened to, and it is only language-using, self-conscious creatures ... who are capable of organizing sounds in this way, either when uttering them or when perceiving them. We can hear music in the song of the nightingale, but it is music that no nightingale has heard.

I really try to be aware of the purpose of each song. There are songs on my record that I want people to have sex to, and songs people can listen to when they're pissed off.

Don't play the notes. Play the meaning of the notes.

It can't be any new note. When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound different. You got to pick the notes you really mean!

I did exactly what I wanted to do. It was always my intention to put a band together and be a band and not be about the solo pop guy. That was never me. All of the musicians that made me do what I wanted to do were bands. I didn't see it any other way.

Jason [Moran] and John [Patitucci] and Eric [Harland] knew it was a Billie Holiday tribute. I'm sure they assumed it was going to be like another singer date, where we just have a bunch of charts and they write them down and they got paid and kind of moved on. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not what I intended.

The equipment doesn't matter, it's the vibe you put into it. If the music sounds good, music sounds good.

As long as your intention is pure, and you know what you're in it for, then you're alright. And I'm in it because I enjoy it. I take it seriously... real seriously. I mean I could sit and talk all day about the music.

Music is powered by ideas. If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound.

I think the whole question of meaning in music is difficult enough even if you hear me playing live right now in the same room! What I mean and what you take from it may be two quite different things anyway.

Teaching has made me realize that a lot of my fast playing is the musical equivalent of, 'Umm… umm… uhh...' - it's like when you're trying to think of the next thing to say that actually has meaning, you fill space. 'Umm' has about the same meaning as my fast playing.

The difference between noise and music is in what the musician does with the sounds.

It's really been enlightening for me to work with composers because I used to think that everything in the music was exactly what the composer meant. Well, it's what the composer meant in that moment when they wrote it.

As many times as I have done 'Marriage of Figaro,' I have never been able to ask Mozart what he intended in this piece.

What I don't like to hear in music is something has not been thought through: that a sound is just there randomly. I want to make sure that every single little noise that's in my song is there because it's supposed to be there.

The goal is to be free and hopeful in the music. Because that's really the only intention you need. From there, every natural and powerful intention and feeling will, on its own, slide right out of you - out of your spirit.

I don't think the important part of making music is the method used but rather the spirit put into it, so to speak.

It was never supposed to be a hit. It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo.

My memory is not so good so my most memorable show is the last one I played. Songs are written with intention but they only emerge in the moment.

My voice in combination with the harp - which, by the way, I use because I've played it my entire life, not to make some statement about the harp - somehow has ... coloured people's interpretations of the music and projected an idea of childlike or fairytale quality or innocence. Which sometimes prevents people from listening to the songs the way I would like them to be listened to.

We can do many different things as a band. But that doesn't mean we should do that. If we did all we're capable of, it doesn't necessarily mean we'd be writing better songs. None of us are huge fans of bands that seem to go, 'OK, I'm gonna sing for no reason and then scream for no reason just because I can.'

Every single note on this album is there for a reason.

I think my intention was there, and my love for the music was apparent. And there are very few singers who get up and desire to take the kinds of risks that jazz musicians routinely need to be taking.

To try and create a transcendent state through music has always been the intention.