"Do you really think that my music is devoid of religious antecedents? Do you wish to put an artist's soul under restraint? Do you find it difficult to conceive that one who sees mystery in everything — in the song of the sea, in the curve of the horizon, in the wind and in the call of the birds — should have been attracted to a religious subject? I have no profession of faith to utter to you: but, whichever my creed may be, no great effort on my part was needed to raise me to the height of d'Annunzio's mysticism. I can assure you that my music was written in exactly the spirit as if it had been commissioned for performance in church. Have I succeeded in expressing all that I felt? It is for others to decide. Is the faith which my music expresses orthodox? I do not know; but I can say that it is my own, expressed in all sincerity."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
On his music for Le martyre de St. Sébastien (1911), in a 1911 interview, as quoted in Dancing in the Vortex : The Story of Ida Rubinstein (2001) by Vicki Woolfe, p. 56
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Claude_Debussy
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Claude Debussy
1862 – 1918
französischer Komponist
40 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Claude Debussy →
Related Quotes
"The attraction of the virtuoso for the public is very like that of the circus for the crowd. There is always the hope…"
"Claude Debussy was a rare phenomenon — a composer profoundly and subversively revolutionary..."
"The colour of my soul is iron-grey and sad bats wheel about the steeple of my dreams."
"I confess that I am no longer thinking in musical terms, or at least not much, even though I believe with all my hear…"
"Collect impressions. Don’t be in a hurry to write them down. Because that’s something music can do better than painti…"
"Every sound perceived by the acute ear in the rhythm of the world about us can be represented musically. Some people …"
"The worship of Adonis is united with that of Christ."
"I do not practise religion in accordance with the sacred rites. I have made mysterious Nature my religion. I do not b…"
"I wish to write down my musical dreams in a spirit of utter self-detachment. I wish to sing of my interior visions wi…"
"Music should humbly seek to please; within these limits great beauty may perhaps be found. Extreme complication is co…"