Daily Inspiration Quote by Leo Ornstein

Ornstein is smuggling a hard truth into a deceptively plain sentence: the real drama of avant-garde art isn’t invention, it’s translation. He waves away the obvious topic - technique, style, even “expression” as composers like to sanctify it - and points to the awkward negotiation underneath: the compromises required so the listener can follow you into unfamiliar territory without bolting for the exit.

Coming from a composer who spent his early career scandalizing audiences with violent modernism, the line reads like veteran wisdom, not capitulation. Ornstein isn’t asking permission from the crowd; he’s acknowledging the social contract of performance. Music is private feeling turned public event. If the listener can’t parse any of it, the work becomes a soliloquy delivered in a locked room. The subtext is that intelligibility isn’t a betrayal of originality; it’s the medium through which originality lands.

His phrasing matters. “Somewhat” lowers the bar: total understanding is a fantasy, even with “easy” music. “Compromises” is bluntly unsentimental, rejecting the romantic myth that true art arrives unfiltered. The quote also hints at a power dynamic: you can make the listener do work, but you can’t make them stay. So you build handholds - repetition, recognizable gesture, pacing, a hint of tonal gravity - not to domesticate the idea, but to keep the channel open long enough for the strange parts to register.

In a century obsessed with “breaking” tradition, Ornstein is talking about the equally modern skill of being heard.