Music

Explore 35 quotes about Music

If music be the food of love, play on.
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.

William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night

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More information about this quote

Topic

Music Excess Love

Speaker

Duke Orsino

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Twelfth Night

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play) Romantic comedy (play)

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile Opening lines

Language

English

Time

1602 1600s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night, Or What You Will. 1602, Middle Temple Hall, London, England, UK, act 1, sc. 1.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Twelfth Night." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 1, sc. 1.

If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.

Charlie Parker

Hear Me Talkin' to Ya

More information about this quote

Topic

Artistic expression Music

Speaker

Charlie Parker

Source

Hear Me Talkin' to Ya

Genre

Biography

Language

English

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parker, Charlie. Quoted in Hear Me Talkin' to Ya. Written by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff. Rinehart & Company, 1955.

I think the main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe. That's what music is to me-it's just another way of saying this is a big, beautiful universe we live in, that's been given to us, and here's an example of just how magnificent and encompassing it is. That’s what I would like to do. I think that’s one of the greatest things you can do in life, and we all try to do it in some way. The musician’s is through his music.

John Coltrane

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of music Music The universe

Speaker

John Coltrane

Source

DownBeat

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Coltrane, John. "John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy Answer the Jazz Critics." Interviewed by Don DeMichael. DownBeat, 12 Apr. 1962.

Current Citation

Coltrane, John. Quoted in Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties, written by Scott Saul. Harvard University Press, 2003.

Which is more musical, a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?

John Cage

More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Author

John Cage

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cage, John. "Communication." Composition as a Process lecture series. 1958, Darmstadt, Germany.

One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain.

Bob Marley

Trenchtown Rock

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Topic

Music as balm Power of music Music

Speaker

Bob Marley

Source

Trenchtown Rock Live! Bob Marley and the Wailers

Medium

Song

Genre

Reggae music

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Marley, Bob. Trenchtown Rock. Performed by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Tuff Gong, 1971.

I cannot write in verse, for I am no poet. I cannot arrange the parts of speech with such art as to produce effects of light and shade, for I am no painter. Even by signs and gestures I cannot express my thoughts and feelings, for I am no dancer. But I can do so by means of sounds, for I am a musician.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

More information about this quote

Topic

Artistic expression Music

Author

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1777 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Letter to Leopold Mozart. 8 Nov. 1777.

Current Citation

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. The Letters of Mozart and His Family, edited by Emily Anderson. Springer, 2016.

Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.

Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

On slave songs.

Read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Slave songs Slavery Liberation Music

Author

Frederick Douglass

Source

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Douglass, Frederick. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies, edited by Henry Louis Gates. Library of America, 1994, ch. 2.

Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one.

Duke Ellington

More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Author

Duke Ellington

Source

Music Is My Mistress

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ellington, Edward Kennedy. Music is My Mistress. Doubleday & Company, 1973.

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.

Charlie Parker

More information about this quote

Topic

Music Creative expression

Speaker

Charlie Parker

Language

English

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parker, Charlie. Quoted in Hear Me Talkin' to Ya. Written by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff. Rinehart & Company, 1955.

Musique and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is.

Samuel Pepys

Read The Diary of Samuel Pepys at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Author

Samuel Pepys

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1666 1660s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Pepys, Samuel. Diary entry. 9 Mar. 1666.

In many a piece of music, it's the pause or the rest that gives the piece its beauty and its shape.

Pico Iyer

The Art of Stillness

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Topic

Music

Author

Pico Iyer

Source

The Art of Stillness

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

2014 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Iyer, Pico. The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere. Simon & Schuster/TED Books, 2014, ch. 5. Originally a TED Talk, 2013.

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.

Louis Armstrong

Quoted in The New York Times

More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Speaker

Louis Armstrong

Source

The New York Times

Medium

Obituary Newspaper

Language

English

Time

20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Armstrong, Louis. Quoted in "Louis Armstrong, Jazz Trumpeter and Singer, Dies." Written by Alvin Krebs. The New York Times, 7 July 1971.

Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?

Michael Torke

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of music Music Therapy

Author

Michael Torke

Source

Observer

Medium

Newspaper

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Torke, Michael. "Sayings of the Week." Observer, 23 Sept. 1990.

Music alone with sudden charms can bind
The wand'ring sense, and calm the troubled mind.

William Congreve

Hymn to Harmony

Read the lyrics to this hymn at umich.edu

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of music Music

Author

William Congreve

Source

Hymn to Harmony

Medium

Hymn Song

Language

English

Time

1703 1700s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Congreve, William. A Hymn to Harmony: Written in Honour of St. Cecilia's day, M DCC I. London: Jacob Tonson, 1703.

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

Martin Mulll

More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Speaker

Martin Mulll

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Mull, Martin. Quoted in Detroit Free Press. 18 Feb. 1979.

Even the most insensitive hit song enthusiast cannot always escape the feeling that the child with a sweet tooth comes to know in the candy store.

Theodor Adorno

More information about this quote

Topic

Popular culture Music Art

Author

Theodor Adorno

Medium

Essay

Language

German

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score

Original Citation

Adorno, Theodor. "Über den Fetischcharakter in der Musik und die Regression des Hörens [On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening]." Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung [Journal of Social Research], 1938.

Current Citation

Adorno, Theodor. "On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening." Modernism: An Anthology of Documents, edited by Vassiliki Kolocotroni, Jane Goldman and Olga Taxidou. University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.

Joseph Addison

Read A Song for St. Cecilia's Day at allpoetry.com

More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Author

Joseph Addison

Source

A Song for St. Cecilia's Day

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1694 1690s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Addison, Joseph. "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, at Oxford." 1694.

It is only that which cannot be expressed otherwise that is worth expressing in music.

Frederick Delius

More information about this quote

Topic

Limits of language Power of music Music

Author

Frederick Delius

Source

At the Cross-Roads The Sackbut

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Delius. "At the Cross-Roads." The Sackbut, Sept. 1920.

This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, "Is there a meaning to music?" My answer to that would be, "Yes." And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be, "No." Therein lies the difficulty.

Aaron Copland

What to Listen for in Music

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More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Author

Aaron Copland

Source

What to Listen for in Music

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Copland, Aaron. What to Listen for in Music. McGraw-Hill, 1939, ch. 2.

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.

William Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice

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More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Speaker

Lorenzo

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

The Merchant of Venice

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1598 1590s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. c. 1598, The Theatre, London, England, UK, act 5, sc. 1.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "The Merchant of Venice." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 5, sc. 1.