Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Music
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“Film is such an extraordinary rich medium which can handle so many different modes of operation, combining together in the same place all these extraordinary disciplines which may be executed in their own right -- music, writing, picture making of all kinds, and I often feel that some filmmakers make films with one eye closed and two hands tied behind their backs.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the music of the morns Blown through the Conchimarian horns, Down the dark vistas of the reboantic Norns, To the Genius of Eternity Crying, “Come to me! Come to me!”
Thomas Holley Chivers (1809–1858) said by 1858 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Silence is the speech of love, The music of the spheres above.”
Richard Henry Stoddard (1825–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We made music seated on the grass of Brasilia's super-squares, at home, at college. It was a creative time, more ingenuous, when the people amused more themselves, played more.”
Kátya Chamma (born 1961) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Source: Interview at Recanto das Letras, 2007.
“I often get asked what I would do to improve both elementary and high school. The first step would be to put more of an emphasis on hands-on classes such as art, music, sewing, woodworking, cooking, theater, auto mechanics and welding.”
Temple Grandin (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For one who is having no personal experience, the passionate disquiet of others is at any rate a titillation of the nerves, like seeing a play or listening to music.”
Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Laughter is the greatest music in the world and audiences come to my shows to escape the cares of life. They don't want to be embarrassed or insulted. They want to laugh and so do I - which is probably why it works.”
Ken Dodd (1927–2018) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Manchester Evening News, Dodd's Bolton bonus, Natalie Anglesey. (2008-04-28)
“If I could go through it all again, the slender iron rungs of growing up, I would be as young as any, a child lost in unreality and loud music.”
Robert Lowell (1917–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good ideas are infinitely available. We've just limited our availablitly to them. The music's not in the radio.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 3 December 2009
“I was at a really low point, thinking of going to university and doing a course because the music thing just wasn't happening for me. But I went on the show and...”
Leona Lewis (born 1985) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daily Mail, October 2007
“Every other art,—as poetry, music, painting,—may be practised without the process showing forth the rules according to which it is conducted ;—but in the self-cognizant art of the philosopher, no step can be taken without declaring the grounds upon which it proceeds.”
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) said by 1814 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In America, the first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a free-form expression. It comes from the soul and it is true.”
Don Miller (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But music has its own enchantment and the first few notes of an old tune are all that it requires to transform any site into a place of magic, even if that location is no more than a windowless office cubicle in the old Firehall’s basement.”
Charles de Lint (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Lost Music was his way of talking about the way he believed that old wives' tales and dance tunes and folktales were just the tangled echoes of something that's not quite of this world … something we all knew once, but have forgotten since.”
Charles de Lint (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Listen to them. Children of the night, what music they make.”
Garrett Fort (1900–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Though all the bards of earth were dead, And all their music passed away, What Nature wishes should be said She’ll find the rightful voice to say.”
William Winter (author) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The golden Silence, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“I am a sensitive artist. Nobody understands me because I am so deep. In my work, I make allusions to books that nobody else has read, music that nobody else has heard, and art that nobody else has seen. I can't help it, because I am so much more intelligent and well-rounded than everyone who surrounds me.”
John S. Hall (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gentle spook, if it is a warning you bring, state it true. If action you require, ask outright. If music you must make, play on- but by the wine-stained balls of Bacchus, speak your bloody business quick and clear and then be gone, before Time's iron tongue licks away my mercy bonk with second thoughts!”
Christopher Moore (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sae true's his words, sae smooth's his speech, His breath like caller air, His very foot has music in't As he comes up the stairs: And will I see his face again! And will I hear him speak!”
William Julius Mickle (1734–1788) said by 1788 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not only was I fiddling around at the keyboard but there were all these other children of all backgrounds wanting to play every sort of music bits of classical, jazz, pop, improvisation." The Guardian - 26/05/2000”
Joanna MacGregor (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wasn't part of that hothouse thing. I didn't go to the Yehudi Menuhin school. I grew up with the idea of trying to make music available to people of all abilities." The Guardian - 26/05/2000”
Joanna MacGregor (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can give music variation without changing the notes. When you get close to a piece there will inevitable be tinkering. I sometimes wonder if concert pianists expend so much effort and energy finding new ways to interpret that what they really need is some more direct form of self-expression.”
Joanna MacGregor (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The musicians who interest me most are people like Nitin Sawhney, Talvin Singh, Django Bates. They are not just writing music but performing it, recording it, putting tours together and running their own labels. That is what real musicians are, rather than over-publicised specialists.”
Joanna MacGregor (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A lot of musicians are going to have to retrain. It's nonsense to say that traditional classical music is more complex. Contemporary pieces by Harrison Birtwistle are much harder to play than Mozart or Wagner. I know a lot of people don't want to hear that.”
Joanna MacGregor (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The freedom of improvising over a bass line disappeared from music only in the 19th century, and we're still paying for it. There's a culture among classical musicians of being passive, and it stems from following the notes, rather than one's own instincts.”
Joanna MacGregor (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Her every tone is music's own, Like those of morning birds, And something more than melody Dwells ever in her words.”
Edward Coote Pinkney (1802–1828) said by 1828 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Health, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“The soul of music slumbers in the shell Till waked and kindled by the master's spell; And feeling hearts, touch them but rightly, pour A thousand melodies unheard before!”
Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) said by 1855 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Breathe slumbrous music round me, sweet and slow, To honied phrases set! Into the land of dreams I long to go. Bid me forget!”
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mandragora, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Everyone is linked, all our actions have ramifications, and music is a teacher of this interconnected reality.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mouthpiece of the half-inarticulate, all-suggesting music that is at once the very soul and the inseparable garment of romance.”
Walther von der Vogelweide (1170–1230) said by 1230 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: George Saintsbury The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1923) p. 258.
“Character is the product of daily, hourly actions, and words, and thoughts; daily forgivenesses, unselfishness, kindnesses, sympathies, charities, sacrifices for the good of others, struggles against temptation, submissiveness under trial. Oh, it is these, like the blending colors in a picture, or the blending notes of music, which constitute the man.”
John Ross Macduff (1818–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The opportunity to perform my music for billions of people around the globe will be the greatest highlight of my life, I am honoured to be part of the biggest sports event in the world.”
“From his entrance, in medias rape, Vytas Juozapaitis had a compelling presence as both seductive and dangerous Don Juan. He had a dash, swagger, a sense of humour, and a strong, lustrous voice. He's a good actor too. You believed both in the way he was driven by his carnality and in his self possession. In short, he embodied the music.”
Vytautas Juozapaitis (born 1963) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lloyd Schwartz, "Teatro Lirico's fire breathing Don Giovanni". Boston Phoenix (October, 2003)
“Before you disturb the system in any way, watch how it behaves. If it's a piece of music or a whitewater rapid or a fluctuation in a commodity price, study its beat. If it's a social system, watch it work. Learn its history.”
Donella Meadows (1941–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Listening to music that I hate calms me down.”
Joey Comeau (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Language, he understood, was chiefly important for the beauty of its sounds, by its possession of words resonant, glorious to the ear, by its capacity, when- exquisitely arranged, of suggesting wonderful and indefinable impressions, perhaps more ravishing and farther removed from the domain of strict thought than the impressions excited by music itself.”
Arthur Machen (1863–1947) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Hill of Dreams (London: Martin Secker, [1907] 1923) p. 126
“I remember you said this war was a story of Lightwoods and Herondales and Fairchilds, and it is, and Blackthorns and Carstairs as well, and it's amazing to see them. But when I do, it's as if I see the past that stretches out behind them. I watch Jace Herondale play, and I see the ghosts that rise up in the music. Don't you?”
Cassandra Clare (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nowadays, all students have access to and indeed most own computers and are comfortable with the software used to compose music. There are probably too many musical options for them now and the trick is to limit the number of musical ideas so as to develop structure and continuity in their work.”
Jon Appleton (1939–2022) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Decline of Academic Freedom at Dartmouth College", 20 October 2005.
“Education ent only books and music – it's asking questions, all the time. There are millions of us, all over the country, and no one, not one of us, is asking questions, we're all taking the easiest way out.”
Arnold Wesker (1932–2016) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Roots, Act 3 (1959)
“Sweet maidenhood! that to a silvery chime Of music, and chaste fancies undefiled, And modest grace and mild Comëst, best gift of God to men.”
Lewis Morris (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Something new has been added, a new art of sound. Am I wrong in calling it music?”
Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Liberation of Sound: An Introduction to Electronic Music (Prentice-Hall edition, 1972)
“I was horrified by modern 12-tone music. I said to myself, 'Maybe I can find something different... maybe salvation, liberation, is possible.'”
Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pierre Schaeffer: an Interview with the Pioneer of Musique Concrete (Records Quarterly magazine, vol. 2, n° 1; 1987)
“Sound is the vocabulary of nature... noises are as well articulated as the words in a dictionary... Opposing the world of sound is the world of music.”
Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pierre Schaeffer: an Interview with the Pioneer of Musique Concrete (Records Quarterly magazine, vol. 2, n° 1; 1987)
“People who try to create a musical revolution do not have a chance, but those who turn their back to music can sometimes find it.”
Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Electronic Musician magazine, December 1986
“Tiffani-Amber Thiessen thought we were all on blow....Tori Spelling hung out with us backstage and gave us the lowdown. Brian Austin Green, kept telling us about his music. Ian Ziering was kind of a dick. Maybe he was having a bad day.”
Adam Levine (born 1979) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Voss, Brandon (2007-05-22), "Adam Levine". Advocate. (986):25.
“Just meeting Rubinstein was a thrill for any pianist. He was a real link to tradition in western piano music. He was a friend of Rachmaninoff and he knew Debussy. The man was an inspiration to three generations of pianists.”
Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Emanuel Ax — reported in Joseph McLellan (December 21, 1982) "Concert Pianist Arthur Rubinstein Dies at 95", The Washington Post, p. A1.
“My father, good or bad, mistakes or no, had a direct line from his heart to the music to the people, to the audience. He played with logic and his own inner truth.”
Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John Rubinstein — reported in Kevin Kelly (February 22, 1981) "Rubinstein a Chip Off Rubinstein: John Says His Father's Music Shaped His Approach to Acting", Boston Globe.
“Niggas die everyday, all ova bullshit Dope money, dice games, ordinary hood shit Could this be cuz of Hip Hop music Or did the ones with the good sense not use it?”
“I always wanted to be a comedian and actor, [...] I basically stumbled into the music medium, though. I'm OK, but that's about it. I like to think I'm good enough not to negatively affect the performance.”
Bo Burnham (born 1990) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I speak, then, of a poetry which tends where form tends, where meanings tend. This will be a poetry which is concerned with the crises of our spirit, with the music and the images of these meanings. It will also be a poetry of meeting-places, where the false barriers go down. For they are false. (Chapter One, p 20)”
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source