"History may eventually decide that Stanley was the most progressive and important white South African composer of his generation."
Michael Blake, fellow South African composer
It is in my blood, this matter of music-making, and that's that.
Professor Stanley Glasser, South African Composer and Academic
"This occupation of making music is a most humiliating business. Often, I've felt that it isn't worth the labour, and have been on the point of saying to hell with it all.
It is an occupation in which no one can help you. You can't buy the creation of a work with any money, no matter how much one has; you can't conjure forth a work by pure foxing; you can't, in the final analysis, be helped by anyone, no matter if they're the best professors in the land. It is a matter of slogging away, building up technique, getting to know the very heart and nerve centre of music, and once this is acquired – a long and painful business – then the rest depends on the extent of one's talent.
Nevertheless, it is in my blood, this matter of music-making, and that's that."
Stanley Glasser, 1954