Music Quotes - Page 123

The cause of freedom, in music as elsewhere, is now very nearly triumphant; but at a time when its adversaries were many and powerful, we can hardly imagine the sacred bridge of liberty kept by a more stalwart trio than Schubert the Armorer, Chopin the Refiner, and Liszt the Thunderer.

When I left South Africa in 1960 I was 20 years old. I wanted to try to get an education, and music education was not available for me in South Africa.

Of course, there are many, many musicians whose music gives me pleasure, but until I make contact with them, musically or personally, I never assume that anything wonderful will happen.

I don't go around, the way many musicians do, with earbuds in my ear listening to my iPod all day and just sticking my head in the music all the time.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

Music must take rank as the highest of the fine arts - as the one which, more than any other, ministers to human welfare.

And the night shall be filled with music, And the cares, that infest the day, Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, and silently steal away.

Music is the language spoken by angels.

Music is perpetual, and only the hearing is intermittent.

I sailed on the North River last night with my flute, and my music was a tinkling stream which meandered with the river, and fell from note to note as a brook from rock to rock. I did not hear the strains after they had issued from the flute, but before they were breathed into it, for the original strain precedes the sound by as much as the echo follows after, and the rest is the perquisite of the rocks and trees and beasts. Unpremeditated music is the true gauge which measures the current of our thoughts, the very undertow of our life's stream.

I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man: wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morningwith a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and Rome, and will destroy England and America.

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

The romantic embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.

The profession of music is lacking in horse sense, not only because the commonplace variety of horse is absent from its operations, but because parts of the horse are noticeably present.

Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian.

I write bars, for the musicians, because they have to be together.

Music is decisions, and I decide for me what are brilliant decisions.

Music is an emotional experience, and that is what imprints itself on the soul.

Being in a different band always brings great musical experiences to be able to draw on.

Often times at a concert, I just close my eyes. Music is very transportive and visual for me like that.

I really feel instrumental music can speak - can contain tremendous amounts of information - but it's speaking to your subconscious.

I knew a lot of my musicians used to take coke. I never saw them. They would hide it from me, so I wasn't really aware of it. Creatively, I don't think it was that great.

Music is essentially useless, as life is; but both have an ideal extension which lends utility to its conditions.

I'd rather be a musician than a rockstar.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.