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Music

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• “The actors feel that the music played before the curtain rises will put the audience in the wrong mood. The playwright suggests that the (purposefully lugubrious) music be played at twice-speed. This peps it up somewhat while retaining its essentially dark and gloomy character. The actors listen carefully, and are pleased.”

  Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Music is a fine thing, but metal lasts.” He struck the table with two huge fingers to emphasize his point.... As I left, I thought about what Kilvin had said. It was the first thing he had said to me that I did not agree with wholeheartedly. Metal rusts, I thought, music lasts forever. Time will eventually prove one of us right.”

  Patrick Rothfuss (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Music is not material. Music is Spiritual.”

  Sun Ra (1914–1993) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250

• “People dancing all in the street See the rhythm all in their feet Life is good, wild and sweet. Let the music play on (play on, play on) Feel it in your heart And feel it in your soul Let the music take control.”

  Lionel Richie (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Here's what I'm going to have to say to all of you. If some of you have demons in your head who talk to you in profanity or whatever, don't let your demon shoot down your rock music, don't let your demon keep you off the joy bus. So like I say, Rock music pays off.”

  Wesley Willis (1963–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “McDonald's is a place to rock / It is a restaurant where they buy food to eat / It is a good place to listen to the music / People flock here to get down to the rock music." - Rock 'N Roll McDonald's”

  Wesley Willis (1963–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “And grant that a man read all the books of music that ever were wrote, I shall not allow that music is or can be understood out of them, no more than the taste of meats out of cookish receipt books.”

  Roger North (1651–1734) first seen 1728 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Musicall Grammarian (1728)

• “You know, music was given to us to color our world, and some people like blue, some people like green, some people like the combination of both. It's just a matter of personal taste. I don't think that it matters what you do or what your main interest is. I think music especially should be enjoyed and liked in its entirety by everyone.”

  Ronnie James Dio (1942–2010) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speaking on hard rock and heavy metal fans being interested in classical music, interview by Steve Newton, 1985

• “I brought melody and classicalness and a great amount of musicality to this band. Ozzy began it, and he deserves all the accolades he can get because he helped invent this kind of music. What he did was absolutely right for what it was, but music grew at that point, and I think it grew beyond what Ozzy was capable of giving an audience from a musical standpoint.”

  Ronnie James Dio (1942–2010) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speaking on Black Sabbath, "Black Is Really White" by Andrew Miller, Orlando Weekly (September 13, 2007)

• “I certainly had no feeling for harmony, and Schoenberg thought that that would make it impossible for me to write music. He said, 'You'll come to a wall you won't be able to get through.' I said, 'Well then, I'll beat my head against that wall.' I quite literally began hitting things, and developed a music of percussion that involved noises.”

  John Cage (1912–1992) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quote from an interview in Observer magazine (1982), repeated on several occasions

• “Music directly represents the passion of the soul. If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person.”

  Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Asia is the continent rhythm forgot. At best Asian music is off-brand American pop, like Sonny Bono in a karaoke bar. At worst Asian music sounds as if a truck full of wind chimes collided with a stack of empty oil drums during a birdcall contest.”

  P. J. O'Rourke (1947–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The man who doesn't respond to music, the man without music in his soul is not to be trusted. A man like that is cold and empty, empty to the core.”

  Henry Miller (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “All that stuff about heavy metal and hard rock, I don't subscribe to any of that. It's all just music. I mean, the heavy metal from the Seventies sounds nothing like the stuff from the Eighties, and that sounds nothing like the stuff from the Nineties. Who's to say what is and isn't a certain type of music?”

  Ozzy Osbourne (1948–2025) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Guitar World Issue 37, 2000

• “Rock and roll is a music, and why should a music contribute to ... juvenile delinquency? If people are going to be juvenile delinquents, they're going to be delinquents if they hear ... Mother Goose rhymes.”

  Elvis Presley (1935–1977) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Pop Chronicles, Show 7 – The All American Boy: Enter Elvis and the rock-a-billies. Part 1, interview recorded 1956.

• “The music at a wedding procession always reminds me of the music of soldiers going into battle.”

  Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) said by 1856 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in The Cynic's Lexicon : A Dictionary of Amoral Advice (1984) by Jonathon Green

• “There is sweet music here that softer falls Than petals from blown roses on the grass, Or night-dews on still waters between walls Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass; Music that gentlier on the spirit lies, Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes.”

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Not only was Thebes built by the music of an Orpheus; but without the music of some inspired Orpheus was no city ever built, no work that man glories-in ever done.”

  Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I have found a paper of mine among some others in which I call architecture 'petrified music.' Really there is something in this; the tone of mind produced by architecture approaches the effect of music.”

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Conversations with Eckermann (23 March 1829) - Often quoted as "Architecture is frozen music.

• “Let my children have music! Let them hear live music. Not noise. My children! You do what you want with your own!”

  Charles Mingus (1922–1979) said by 1979 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Except for music, everything is a lie, even solitude, even ecstasy. Music, in fact, is the one and the other, only better.”

  Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs, and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.”

  George Eliot (1819–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Music moves us, and we know not why; We feel the tears, but cannot trace their source. Is it the language of some other state, Born of its memory ? For what can wake The soul's strong instinct of another world, Like music?”

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I'd never heard anything like it before. It was like banshee music. This absolutely otherworldly voice, singing about a book, and as a bookish kid, I was always fascinated by anything, any music that seems to be about or inspired by books.”

  Neil Gaiman (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best…”

  Frank Zappa (1940–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Music is the only religion that delivers the goods. All music is good. It fulfills a social function. It's like wallpaper to your lifestyle. It defines what you are.”

  Frank Zappa (1940–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body. Always an orchestra, and just as music traverses walls, so sensuality traverses the body and reaches up to ecstasy.”

  Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Diary Of Anais Nin, Volume Two (1934-1939)

• “Most people have music in the center of their lives. I believe my work sheds light on how music affects us and why it is so influential." from http://web.archive.org/20030225083736/www.ucla.edu/spotlight/archive/html_2001_2002/fac0502_mcclalry.html”

  Susan McClary (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In all my years of defending inner-city clients I have never introduced music before as a mitigating circumstance in a murder case. But I do believe it applies in this case. Without the music riling him up, I do not think that this incident would have occurred.”

  Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “No matter what these people say about me, my music does not glorify any image, my music is spiritual if you listen to it. It's all about emotion, it's all about life.”

  Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Music can imply the infinite if enough things depart from the norm far enough. Strange "abnormal" events can lead to the feeling that anything can happen, and you have a music with no boundaries.”

  Morton Feldman (1926–1987) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in Remembrance by Tom Johnson (September 1987)

• “To understand what music has to be, you have to live for music. Who's ready to do that?”

  Morton Feldman (1926–1987) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in a 1976 interview, published in Desert Plants by Walter Zimmermann.

• “Sound is all our dreams of music. Noise is music's dreams of us.”

  Morton Feldman (1926–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Sound Noise Varese Boulez, in Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, edited by Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner. A&C Black, 2004. p. 16.

• “There is nothing wrong with meditating just to meditate, in the same way that you listen to music just for the music. If you go to concerts to "get culture" or to improve your mind, you will sit there as deaf as a doorpost.”

  Alan Watts (1915–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It's so amazing when people tell me that … electronic music has not got soul. And they blame the computers. They got the finger pointed at the computers like, "There's no soul here." … You can't blame the computer. If there's not soul in the music, it's because nobody put it there. And it's not the tool's fault.”

  Björk (born 1965) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The South Bank Show, series 21, episode 4: "Björk" (9 November 1997)

• “Naturally, since I am not concerned with normative allegations, I cannot be concerned here with the invocation of the overtone series as a 'natural' phenomenon, and that application of equivocation which then would label as 'un-natural' (in the sense, it would appear, of morally perverse) music which is not 'founded' on it. Now, what music, in what sense, ever had been founded on it?”

  Milton Babbitt (1916–2011) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in Maus, Fred Everett (2004). "Sexual and Musical Categories", The Pleasure of Modernist Music, p. 158. .

• “There are definitely people I respect and I love their music, but there was never really an artist that I said, "I want to be just like them, I love the way their career is going. I love their music." It wasn't really like that. I wanted to be like myself.”

  Hilary Duff (born 1987) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “...in serial music, the series itself is seldom audible... What I'm interested in is a compositional process and a sounding music that are one in the same thing.”

  Steve Reich (born 1936) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In: Steve Reich, ‎Paul Hillier (2002) Writings on Music, 1965-2000, p. 35

• “Music is everything that one listens to with the intention of listening to music.”

  Luciano Berio (1925–2003) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Two Interviews (1985),

• “These facts make the creator of music a being like the gods, and make music itself the supreme mystery of human knowledge.”

  Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Mythologiques I: Le cru et le cuit (1964)

• “The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music; they should be taught to love it instead.”

  Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Much of the music is a Merzbild, put together from whatever came to hand. I mean, for example...the Alberti-bass horn solo accompanying the Messenger. I also mean the fusion of such widely divergent types of music as the Folies Bergeres tune at No. 40 ('The girls enter, kicking') and the Wagnerian 7th-chords at Nos. 58 and 74.”

  Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?”

  Donald Trump (born 1946) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Trump sways and bops to music for 39 minutes in bizarre town hall episode The Washington Post (October 14, 2024)

• “This fact, the surfacing of structure in an undeliberate action, is too big to take on here, but it was enough to convince me that the structuralists—the advocates of planning music before you hear or care what the plan gives you—were right: do not rely on unplanned music; it comes out as though it were planned, but planned by someone you cross the street to avoid.”

  Robert Ashley (1930–2014) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: liner notes to Automatic Writing (1996), referring to both automatic writing and the piece Automatic Writing.

• “Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.”

  Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence.”

  Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The emphasis of study upon a particular aspect of music is in itself ideological because it contains implications about the music's value.”

  Lucy Green (born 1957) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: from (1999). Ideology. Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture. Malden, Massachusetts. .

• “Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.”

  Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in The Unlawful Concert : An Account of the Presidio Mutiny Case (1970) by Fred Gardner.

• “Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock.”

  Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in M.E.A.T (1991-09).

• “Rhythm and blues used to be called race music. … This music was going on for years, but nobody paid any attention to it.”

  Ray Charles (1930–2004) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Pop Chronicles: Show 55 - Crammer: A lively cram course on the history of rock and some other things, interview recorded 3.8.1968.

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