83 Tenor Quotes
Following is our list of tenor quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about tenor voice.
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Famous Tenor Quotes
The soprano has all those other instruments in it. It's got the soprano song voice, flute, violin, clarinet, and tenor elements and can even approach the baritone in intensity. — Steve Lacy
I admire Tebaldi's tone; it's beautiful - also some beautiful phrasing. Sometimes, I actually wish I had her voice. — Maria Callas
Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos. — Gustav Mahler
In opera, there is always too much singing. — Claude Debussy
The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as a tenor or a prima donna. — Giuseppe Verdi
The real exertion in the case of an opera singer lies not so much in her singing as in her acting of a role, for nearly every modern opera makes great dramatic and physical demands. — Maria Jeritza
There's a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste. — Sarah Vaughan
It is simple nonsense to speak of the fixed tempo of any particular vocal phrase. Each voice has its peculiarities. — Anton Seidl
Seungri sounds mournful while T.O.P has a masculine and husky voice. My voice is thin, just like when I talk — G-Dragon
The high note is not the only thing. — Placido Domingo
The essential elements of singing are voice, musicianship, and story. It is the rare artist that has all three in abundance. — Linda Ronstadt
The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument that is outside of your body. — Stan Getz
A German singer! I should as soon expect to get pleasure from the neighing of my horse. — Frederick the Great
There's no half-singing in the shower, you're either a rock star or an opera diva. — Josh Groban
Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive. — Moliere
Short Tenor Quotes
- A tenor is not a man but a disease. — Hans von Bulow
- Opera is when a tenor and soprano want to make love, but are prevented from doing so by a baritone. — George Bernard Shaw
- Eventually, if you're lucky in life, you find someone with the same chemical imbalance you have. — Robert Breault
- I'm a farmer with a mandolin and a high tenor voice. — Bill Monroe
- I play saxophone, I play tenor sax. — Andy Serkis
- Tenors get women by the score. — James Joyce
- A superb tenor voice, like a silver trumpet muffled in silk. — Alec Guinness
- There is not many tenors in the male category and that makes me stick out. — Bryan White
- I am a tenor buff. I hear myself. — Luciano Pavarotti
- Even in today's opera world, the position of the black tenor is problematic. — Bobby Short
Tenor Singing Quotes
When I was very young, I started trying to sing like the great tenor Mario Lanza; my family used to play his records. We all learn best by imitating others. — Andrea Bocelli
You have to make a choice when you start to sing and decide whether you want to service the music, and be at the top of your art, or if you want to be a very popular tenor. — Alfredo Kraus
The question Who ought to be boss? is like as Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet? Obviously, the man who can sing tenor. — Henry Ford
I will sing whatever I'm given to sing. Growing up, I would sing anything that I was given. If the choir needed a first tenor, I would sing first tenor. If they needed a bass, I would sing bass. Throughout my life, I just figured out ways to hit notes I needed to hit. — Josh Young
Bud Johnson, God rest his soul of fame, a tenor saxophonist. Bud was always a big, big, big booster of mine and he always when I first met Bud in Pittsburgh when he came through there, he heard me sing and he wanted me to come to Chicago. — Billy Eckstine
They would wake me up when I was sleeping, and say sing a song for our friends. I had a sweet voice, I had a nice little tenor voice. God knows what I sang, but my whole family would admire me. — Dominic Chianese
Opera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?) — Edward Abbey
Tenor Voice Quotes
The cello is a hero because of its register - its tenor voice. It is a masculine instrument, whereas the violin is feminine because of its soprano pitch. When the cello enters in the Dvorak Concerto, it is like a great orator. — Mstislav Rostropovich
I don't have that kind of voice, the big baritone or rousing tenor sound. My wheelhouse was in the frothier pieces. So my appreciation for those older musicals and revivals grew. — Jesse Tyler Ferguson
The baritone can serve functions that the alto and tenor cannot, in orchestral voicing. — Gerry Mulligan
I've got no deep voice today. I've got a cold. But when I was young, I had a high tenor voice. — Johnny Cash
When I hear that young people have come to the theater for the first time to listen to opera, I'm very happy. Because it's the same thing that happened to me as a child. When I first heard the tenor voice, I immediately fell in love with this kind of music. — Andrea Bocelli
I wanted my voice to be a tenor sax, really. — Robert Plant
People Writing About Tenor
| Name | Quotes | Likes |
|---|---|---|
 Steve Lacy |
50 | 433 |
 Maria Callas |
38 | 2500 |
 Gustav Mahler |
62 | 943 |
 Claude Debussy |
56 | 2296 |
 Giuseppe Verdi |
18 | 207 |
 Sarah Vaughan |
10 | 155 |
More Tenor Quotes
Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life. — Robert Louis Stevenson
An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along. — Evelyn Waugh
To survive there, you need the ambition of a Latin-American revolutionary, the ego of a grand opera tenor, and the physical stamina of a cow pony. — Billie Burke
America is destined to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs. — John Adams
Scottish bagpipe has two tenors and one bass - three drone pipes - and then the one chanter. If you put bagpipes together, it creates such a fine sound. — Yoshi Wada
By learning to control the tenor and flow of your electromagnetic energy, you are learning to take control of your destiny. — Lynn Grabhorn
My father was a jazz tenor sax player. He played in a lot of big bands. So I had that sound around me all the time. The first record that really caught my ear was Clifford Brown's 'Brownie Eyes.' I grew up listening to John Coltrane and Illinois Jacquet. This is where I come from... I love improvisational music. — Meshell Ndegeocello
O no, thy love though much, is not so great, It is my love that keeps mine eye awake, Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat, To play the watchman ever for thy sake. For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere, From me far off, with others all too near. — William Shakespeare
When I was a young man, I was a baritone, very far from possessing the whole range of the tenor then. — Placido Domingo
I spent five years, at least, working with Miles. Together, we recorded ESP, Nefertiti, Sorcerer -- and I can tell you; each of these albums instantly became jazz classics. Hey, we had Wayne Shorter playing tenor sax, Ron [Carter] on bass, Tony Williams played drums. That was great band we had. — Herbie Hancock
By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young; but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression. — Edmund Burke
In high school, I was Mr. Choir Boy. I had solos, I was helping out the tenors with their parts and our choir teacher would ask me what songs we should do. — Lucas Grabeel
My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away... the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances His disciples in asserting that He was God. — John Quincy Adams
There is a gentle, but perfectly irresistible coercion in a habit of reading well directed, over the whole tenor of a man's character and conduct, which is not the less effectual because it works insensibly, and because it is really the last thing he dreams of. — John Herschel
You got to play the flute as a flute, like that. You can't play like a tenor concept on soprano; it sounds wrong. But some guys do it, and they think it's O.K., but not so! — Jerome Richardson
Then, of course, I played alto and tenor, wherever there were jobs. — Gerry Mulligan
When I started studying tenor saxophone as a kid in Belfast, I did so with a guy named George Cassidy, who was also a big inspiration. — Van Morrison
You don't try to duplicate certain things that other cats do, because you could never do it as well as they do. Nobody can get on that tenor saxophone and play like Trane, because he's the only one who can spell out chords and sound good when he does it. — Wynton Marsalis
The problem of translation is to retreat to a simpler tenor of one's own style and creatively adjust this to one's author. — Paul Goodman
Whoever shall review his life, will find that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by some accident of no apparent moment. — Samuel Johnson
My family was very encouraging, and both of my grandparents were both beautiful singers. My grandmother was a coloratura soprano, and my grandfather was an Irish tenor in a barbershop quartet. — Clare Bowen
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. — Thomas Gray
Prince or commoner, tenor or bass, Painter or plumber or never-do-well, Do me a favor and shut your face - Poets alone should kiss and tell. — Dorothy Parker
Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighborliness. — Jonathan Sacks
I would sit in at a jazz brunch [at sweet Basil] with Eddie Chamblee, who was a great tenor player. Really a kind man. The whole band was great. — Jon Gordon
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