Quotations
Music has charms to soothe a savage breastWilliam CongreveThe Mourning Bride
There's no passion in the human soul,
But finds its food in musicGeorge LilloThe Fatal Curiosity
Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficultyThomas Beecham
Bach gave us God's word
Mozart gave us God's laughter
Beethoven gave us God's fire
God gave us music that we might pray without words from a German Opera House poster
Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don't take it too seriouslyHenry MillerThe Air-Conditioned Nightmare
The opera ain't over till the fat lady singsDan Cook
Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he singsEd GardnerDuffy's Tavern
It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotonyBenjamin Brittenletter
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lieJohn MiltonArcades
The greatest moments of the human spirit may be deduced from the greatest moments in musicAaron CoplandMusic as an Aspect of the Human Spirit
My music is best understood by children and animalsIgor Stravinsky
When I get those really intense moments it doesn't feel like it's the violin that's giving them to me, it's like I'm in touch with some realm of consciousness which is much bigger than I am ... It's the music which takes overNigel Kennedy
Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your hornCharlie Parker
Hell is full of musical amateurs; music is the brandy of the damnedGeorge Bernard ShawMan and Superman
Music is feeling, then, not soundWallace StevensPeter Quince at the Clavier
Music is spiritual. The music business is notVan Morrison
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of itWilliam ShakespeareTwelfth Night
Without music life would be a mistakeFriedrich NietzscheThe Twilight of the Idols
I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it soundsMark Twain
A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear itThomas Beecham
Music is essentially useless, as life isGeorge SantayanaLittle Essays
Music is a memory bank for finding one's way about the worldBruce ChatwinThe Songlines
Music is the healing force of the universeAlbert Ayler
All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a songLouis Armstrong
The only sensual pleasure without viceDr. Johnson
The English may not like music but they absolutely love the noise it makesThomas Beecham
Classic music is th'kind that we keep thinkin'll turn into a tuneKin HubbardComments of Abe Martin and His Neighbours
There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in betweenThomas Beecham
too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpointThomas Beecham (describing Bach's music)
fiddle: an instrument to tickle human ears by friction of a horse's tail on the entrails of a catAmbrose BierceThe Devil's Dictionary
Some say, that Signor Bononcini,
Compared to Handel's a mere ninny;
Others aver, that to him Handel
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.
Strange! that such high dispute should be
'Twixt Tweedledum and TweedledeeJohn ByromOn the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini
If the music doesn't say it, how can the words say it for the music?John Coltrane
Extraordinary how potent cheap music isNoël CowardPrivate Lives
opera: a play representing life in another world, whose inhabitants have no speechbut song, no motions but gestures and no postures but attitudesAmbrose BierceThe Devil's Dictionary
What passion cannot music raise and quell?John DrydenA Song for St. Cecilia's Day
piano: a parlor utensil for subduing the impenitent visitor. It is operated by depressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the audienceAmbrose BierceThe Devil's Dictionary
an exotic and irrational entertainmentSamuel Johnson (of Italian opera)
Sing 'em muck! It's all they can understand!Dame Nellie Melba (of Australians)
Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance... poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from musicEzra PoundThe ABC of Reading
[Rock music] is still only certain elements in the blues isolated, coarsened and amplified. It may affect audiences more strongly but this is only to say that home-distilledhooch is more affecting than château-bottled claret, or a punch on the nose than a reasoned refutation under nineteen headingsPhilip Larkin
In memory everything seems to happen to musicTennessee WilliamsThe Glass Menagerie
You don't need any brains to listen to musicLuciano Pavarotti