WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT MUSIC & ART?
- "Without the arts, education is not education but vocational training. Practicing one's profession successfully calls for skills in dealing with people, for being able to comprehend the connection between cause and effect, and for the ability to carry the burdens placed on the individual in a free society. The arts help to prepare the human mind for such needs." -- writer and educator Norman Cousins
- Virtue is the principle of human nature. Music is the flowering of virtue. Poetry expresses ideas; singing modulates sounds; dancing creates attitudes in motion. These three terms have their principle in the heart of men, and musical inspiration synthesizes them.- from The Magic of Tone and the Art of Music by Dane Rudhyar
- "In no other field is the proof of the fundamentals as difficult as it is in music. Science argues with mathematics and logic; poetry possesses the decisive, golden words; other arts have chosen nature as their arbiter, borrowing their forms from her. Music, however, is a poor orphan whose father and mother nobody can name. But, perhaps, it is precisely this mystery of her origin which accounts for the charm of her beauty." - Composer / Pianist Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
- "Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order and leads to all that is good, just, and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate and eternal form." - Plato (427- 347 B.C)
- "Music, like all the other arts, is a reflection of reality. It reflects not as a mirror, but as a river, not a lifeless image, but a quick changing one. It reflects its composer's character and environment and his relationship to society. It doesn't only reflect reality, but transforms it." - Unknown
- "MUSIC is the manifestation of the human spirit, similar to language. Its greatest practitioners have conveyed to mankind things not possible to say in any other language. If we do not want these things to remain dead treasures, we must do our utmost to make the greatest possible number of people understand their idiom." -Composer Zoltan Kodaly
- "Musically, I always allow myself to jump off of cliffs. At least that's what it feels like to me. Whether that's what it actually sounds like might depend on what the listener brings to the songs." - Tori Amos
- "It is only by introducing the young to great literature, drama and music, and to the excitement of great science that we open to them the possibilities that lie within the human spirit - enable them to see visions and dream dreams." Eric Anderson
- “When I open my eyes, I can only sigh, for what I see is contrary to my creed: and I must despise the world for not perceiving that music is a higher revelation than any wisdom or philosophy. It is the wine that inspires new creations, and I am the Bacchus, who presses out this wine for men, and makes them spiritually drunk; when they are sober they bring to shore all kinds of things which they have caught. God is nearer to me than to others. I approach him without fear, I have always known him. Neither am I anxious about my music, which no adverse fate can overtake, and which will free him who understands it from the misery which afflicts others.” - Ludwig Von Beethoven
- "Music is an art form that explores the depth of human emotion, engages the imagination, and promotes creative expression. It has value in and of itself and is an inseparable part of a full and meaningful life". – Unknown
- "The composer must not shut himself up and think about art, he must live with his fellows and make his art an expression of the whole life of the community." - the English neo-classical composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).
- “The people compose the music, we composers merely arrange it.” – Mikhail Glinka, the 19th century composer who is known as “the father of Russian art music”.
- “It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain; of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony.” - Benjamin Britten
- "Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art." – Charlie Parker
- "I cannot end without expressing what music has meant to me. From the beginning of my life to this moment, music has consoled my aching heart in its darkest moments and lifted me up in a cloud of ecstacies when fate and destiny have smiled upon me. When my heart has been so overwhelmed by emotions that words or thoughts become inadequate, it has always been music that came to the rescue, impregnated by love and peace."- Virtuoso Classical guitarist Pepe Romero
more will follow......