Home » Quotes » Talking about music

Talking about music

Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

Steve Martin

Quotes

7 Comments to “Talking about music”

  1. Ummmm, how does one dance about architecture.
    Is that a 2-step, a 4-step, or a Foxtrot?
    ;-)

  2. I always thought this was a Frank Zappa quote, though Steve Martin is also often credited, but it turns out maybe it was actually Martin Mull. I found a pretty well-researched post about this quote if you’re feeling super-geeky: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/

    No one knows for sure!

  3. The point of the quote escapes me. Even assuming that you can “dance about architecture”, what does that prove? Or disprove?

    • That any meaningful conversation about music would take the form of playing music, not talking about it.

    • I think he’s saying it is a category error. The attributes of the one (music) don’t apply to the other (talking).

      From Wiki:
      “A category mistake, or category error, is a semantic or ontological error in which things belonging to a particular category are presented as if they belong to a different category,[1] or, alternatively, a property is ascribed to a thing that could not possibly have that property.”

      I wouldn’t agree – some qualities of music, such as tempo, volume, pitch are describable by language. Some others – not so much.

Leave a Reply

(required)

(required)


Subscribe without commenting