Wealth & Money Quote by Gunther Schuller

There’s a disarming modesty in Schuller’s shrug at the afterlife, and it’s doing more work than it first appears. The line opens with a half-joke - “heaven or hell, wherever I’m going” - that punctures piety and prestige in the same breath. For a composer who spent his life inside institutions that often treat art like a trophy case (conservatories, orchestras, foundations), the quip is a small act of refusal: he won’t launder his giving through moral certainty or legacy-building. He’ll just do the decent thing because it’s decent.

The specific intent is practical, almost anti-heroic. He’s explaining why he donates, supports, or funds projects: because money is only meaningful while it can move in the world. The subtext, though, is a critique of cultural philanthropy as a rich person’s sport. “My means are very limited. I’m no millionaire!” reads like a preemptive defense against the expectation that “important” artists are comfortably financed, or that generosity requires vast resources. He’s reframing patronage as a habit, not a headline.

Context matters: Schuller straddled classical and jazz, advocated for “Third Stream,” and worked as an educator and administrator - roles where you see, up close, how fragile musicians’ lives are and how often good work dies for lack of small sums. The quote’s power comes from its plainspoken ethics: not grand salvation, not self-mythology, just urgency. Spend what you can. While you can.