Music - christiansquoting.org.uk

music
Reporter: What do you think of Stainer's Crucifixion?
Music critic: Good idea

How do you know when it's time to tune your bagpipes?

Musicians duet better.

Who is he bearing the sense of a man which is not ashamed toende the day without the singing of Psalms, seeing even the littlebirds with solemne devotion of sweet notes do both begin and end thedaie.-- Ambrose, Praise of Musicke

Twentieth century music is like paedophilia. No matter how persuasively and persistently its champions urge their cause, it will never be accepted by the public at large, who will continue to regard it with incomprehension, outrage and repugnance.-- Kingsley Amis

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical bawling and twanging. J. S. Bach

There is nothing to it,. You only have to hit the right notes at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
J S Bach Of the Organ, in K Geiringer, The Bach Family, 1954

An agreeable harmony for the honour of God and the permissible delights of the soul.
J S Bach's definition of music, in Derek Watson, Music Quotations, 1911

Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands - and all you can do is scratch it.
Sir Thomas Beecham to a lady cellist during a rehearsal

When we sing, 'All we like sheep have gone astray', might we, please, have a little more regret and a little less satisfaction? -
Sir Thomas Beecham while rehearsing for a performance of Messiah; Beecham stopped the proceedings and addressed the choir.

'Have you heard any Stockhausen?' Sir Thomas Beecham was asked. 'No,' he replied, 'but I believe I have trodden in some.'

Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would bare my head and kneel at his grave. - Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770 - 1827

If Bach is not in Heaven, I am not going! - William F. Buckley

When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed its point.... Maria Callas

In truth we know by experience that song has great force and vigour to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise God with a more vehement and ardent zeal.- John Calvin (1509-64)

Musicke doth withdraw our mindes from earthly cogitations, lifteth up our spirits into heaven, maketh them light and celestial. --. John Chrysostom

Music hath charm to soothe a savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
William Congreve(1670 &endash; 1729)

If one were asked to name one musician who came closest to composing without human flaw, I suppose general consensus would choose Johann Sebastian Bach. - Aaron Copland, 1900 - 1990

As from the pow'r of sacred lays
The spheres began to move,
And sung the great Creator's praise
To all the bless'd above;
So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And music shall untune the sky.
JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700) A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY, 1687

Mozart's music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.--Albert Einstein (1879-1955) (In Armin Hermann's _Albert Einstein_ [1994])

Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. - Robert Fripp (1946 &endash; )

Bach almost persuades me to be a Christian. -- Roger Fry

Bach is a colossus of Rhodes, beneath whom all musicians pass and will continue to pass. Mozart is the most beautiful, Rossini the most brilliant, but Bach is the most comprehensive: he has said all there is to say. If all the music written since Bach's time should be lost, it could be reconstructed on the foundation which Bach laid.- Charles Gounod

I did think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God himself. - Handel about the composition of the Messiah

I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First, to discourage the composer from writing any more, and secondly, to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven. -- Jascha Heifetz

He did not see any reason why the devil should have all the good tunes.- E. W. Broome quoting Rowland Hill (1744-1833)

Her singing was mutiny on the high Cs. -- Hedda Hopper ((1890-1966)

Far too noisy, my dear Mozart. Far too many notes.-Emperor Joseph II on the première of 'The Marriage of Figaro', 1 May 1786.

Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us. --Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Music makes people kinder, gentler, more staid and reasonable. The devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the word of God.
Martin Luther

Nothing on earth is so well-suited to make the sad merry, the merry sad, to give courage to the despairing, to make the proud humble, to lessen envy and hate, as music. Martin Luther

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. MARTIN LUTHER

Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive. - Jean-Baptiste Moliere (1622 &endash;1673)

Ahh, the soothing o' the Pipes... Whenever I find myself missing its melodious sounds, I just toss the cat in the dryer on low heat... Jordan Montgomery

I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to. Elvis Presley (1935-1977)

When Handel's servant used to bring him his chocolate in the morning, "he often stood silent with astonishment to see his master's tears mixing with he ink as he penned his divine compositions." And Burgh relates that "A friend, calling upon the great musician when in the act of setting those pathetic words, 'He was despised and rejected of men,' found him absolutely sobbing.---William Rockstro, _The Life of George Frederick Handel_, 1883

Is it not strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies? ~W.S., Much Ado About Nothing II,iii (1598)

The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky. - Solomon Short

Glorious the song, when God's the theme. - Cristopher Smart (1722-71)

If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth. Sydney Smith 1771-1845

The Church knew what the Psalmist knew: music praises God. Music is as well, or better, able to praise Him than the building of a church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.... Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

The joy of the heart begets song.--The Talmud