11 March 2006

Gershwin's Law


"Many people say that too much study kills spontaneity in music, but I claim that, although study may kill a small talent, it must develop a big talent. In other words, if study kills a musical endowment, it deserves to be killed."

The George Gershwin Reader, p. 136.

via The Rest is Noise

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brav-fucking-o.
I've just had it with the legions of whiney indyrocker hacks who always seem to be justifing their (plagaristic musical approach of) songwriting by a simple reasoning of "my talent being spoiled by a musical-education." Gah..

Anonymous said...

well to me the sentiment by ol' George is a given, and doesn't need to be labored. HOWEVER it is interesting to me that an essentially non-improvising musician had such a strong take on "spontanteity"; or izzit just posturing?
and Who Gives A Fuck about indy hacks? you care about tha,t it just feeds what oughtta be ignored. go play or make some music WHYDONCHA.