MUSIC

Related Subjects: Art, Ballad, Dancing, Discord, Harmony, Jazz, Melody, Singing, Song

1. If we could have devised an arrangement for providing everybody with music in their homes, perfect in quality, unlimited in quantity, suited to every mood, and beginning and ceasing at will, we should have considered the limit of human felicity already attained.—EDWARD BELLAMY, Looking Backward
   

2. We are all but fellow-travellers
   Along Life's weary way;
   I f any man can play the pipes,
   In God's name, let him play.—JOHN BENNETT
   

3. It is not hard to compose but it is wonderfully hard to let the superfluous notes fall under the table.—BRAHMS, Schaufller: The Unknown Brahms
   

4. There is music even in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument; for there is music wherever there is harmony, order, or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres.—SIR THOMAS BROWNE, Religio Medici
   

5. The first string that the musician usually touches is the bass, when he intends to put all in tune. God also plays upon this string first, when he sets the soul in tune for himself.—BUNYAN, Pilgrim's Progress
   

6. O Music, sphere-descended maid,
   Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!—WILLIAM COLLINS, The Passions
   

7. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
   To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.—CONGREVE, The Mourning Bride
   

8. Music the beautiful disturber of the air,
   Drew near,
   Saying: Come with me into my country of air
   Out of the querulous and uncivil clay;
   Fling down its aching members into a chair,
   And come away.—GEORGE DILLON, The Constant One
   

9. Let me go where'er I will,
   I hear a sky-born music still.—EMERSON
   

10. Some cry up Haydn, some Mozart,
    Just as the whim bites. For my part,
    I do not care a farthing candle
    For either of them, nor for Handel.—CHARLES LAMB, Free Thoughts on Several Eminent Composers
    

11. When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.—LONGFELLOW, Evangeline
    

12. And the night shall be filled with music,
    And the cares that infest the day,
    Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
    And as silently steal away.—LONGFELLOW, The Day is Done
    

13. Music is the universal language of mankind,—poetry their universal pastime and delight.—LONGFELLOW, Outre-Mer
    

14. Music my rampart, and my only one.—EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, On Hearing a Symphony of Beethoven
    

15. Without music life would be a mistake.—NIETZSCHE, The Twilight of the Idols
    

16. The music's not immortal, but the world has made it sweet.—ALFRED NOYES, The Barrel-Organ

17. Piano playing is more difficult than statesmanship. It is harder to awake emotions in ivory keys than it is in human beings.—PADEREWSKI
    

18. All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music.—WALTER PATER, The Renaissance
    

19. Musick and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is.—SAMUEL PEPYS, Diary
    

20. Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.—PLATO, The Republic
    

21. Music resembles poetry; in each
    Are nameless graces which no methods teach,
    And which a master-hand alone can reach.—POPE, Essay on Criticism
    

22. As in politics, so in music, revolutionary changes penetrate into all homes, great and small. In music the new influence is perceptible even where its sensual ties with life are strongest, that is, in the dance.—ROBERT SCHUMANN
    

23. The man that hath no music in himself,
    Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
    Is fit for Treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
    The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
    And his affections dark as Erebus.
    Let no such man be trusted.—SHAKESPEARE, The Merchant of Venice
    

24. I am never merry when I hear sweet music.—SHAKESPEARE, The Merchant of Venice
    

25. And the vile squealing of the wry-necked fife.—SHAKESPEARE, The Merchant of Venice
    

26. How sour sweet music is
    When time is broke and no proportion kept!
    So is it in the music of men's lives.—SHAKESPEARE, Richard II
    

27. This music mads me!—SHAKESPEARE, Richard II
    

28. If music be the food of love, play on;
    Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
    The appetite may sicken, and so die.
    That strain again! it had a dying fall:
    O! it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
    That breathes upon a bank of violets,
    Stealing and giving odour!—SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night
    

29. Music, when soft voices die,
    Vibrates in the memory.—SHELLEY, Music, When Soft Voices Die
    

30. Music must take rank as the highest of the fine arts—as the one which, more than any other, ministers to human welfare.—HERBERT SPENCER, Essays on Education
    

31. It is the little rift within the lute,
    That by and by will make the music mute,
    And ever widening slowly silence all.—TENNYSON, Idylls of the King
    

32. There is sweet music here that softer falls
    Than petals from blown roses on the grass.—TENNYSON, The Lotos-Eaters

33. Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
    Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes;
    Music that brings sweet sleep down
    from the blissful skies.—TENNYSON, The Lotos-Eaters
    

34. The god of music dwelleth out of doors.—EDITH M. THOMAS, Music
    

35. All music is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.—WALT WHITMAN, A Song for Occupations
    

36. The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies,
    It wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I possess'd them.—WALT WHITMAN, Song of Myself
    

37. Over the piano was printed a notice: "Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best."—OSCAR WILDE, Impressions of America
    

38. The music in my heart I bore
    Long after it was heard no more.—WORDSWORTH, The Solitary Reaper
    

39. The still, sad music of humanity.—WORDSWORTH