"Music has a power of forming the
character, and should therefore be introduced into the education of the
young."
--Aristotle
Politics, VIII. v.9 (before 322 B.C.)
"The exercise of singing is
delightful to nature, and good to preserve the health of man, It doth
strengthen all parts of the breast, and doth open the pipes."
--Willaim Byrd
Psalms, Sonnets and Songs, preface (1588)
"Music is Love in search of a word."
--Sidney Lanier
The Symphony. In.368 (1875)
"We must teach music in schools; a
schoolmaster ought to have skill in music, or I would not regard him,
neither should we ordain young men as preachers, unless they have well
exercised in music."
--Martin Luther
Table Talk, 340 (1566)
"Musick, the Mosaique of the Air."
--Andrew Marvell (1621-78)
Musicks Empire, In.17
"Without music life would be a
mistake."
--Friedrich Nietzsche
The Twilight of the Idols (1889)
"Musical training is a more potent
instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into
the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting
grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful."
--Plato
Republic, III (c.375-368 B.C.)
"What will a Child learn sooner than
a song?"
--Alexander Pope
Imitations of Horace.II.i.205 (1737)
"Music is the moonlight in the
gloomy night of life."
--Jean Paul Richter
Titan, cxxv (1803)
"Music is "Ordered Sound"."
--Harold Samuel
The Mystery of Music, ed. Walter E. Koons (1977)
"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
in New York Times Magazine, Sept. 27, 1964
A great pianist was once asked by an
admirer, "How do you handle the notes as well as you do?"
The artist replied, "The notes I handle no better than many pianists, but
the pauses between the notes--ah, that is where the art resides!"
--Arthur Schnabel, 1958
"We need to be the best musicians we
can be-not teachers who happen to be teaching music but musicians who
specialize in the art of Teaching."
--Leonard Bernstein
"Why Do we Teach Music?
Not because we expect you to major in music. Not because we expect you to
play and sing all your life. Not so you can relax.
But... So you will be human. So you will recognize beauty. So you will be
sensitive. So you will have something to cling to. So you will have more
love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good, in short, more life. Of
what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to
live?
That is why we teach."
--unknown
If you have a favorite music quotation
and would like to see it added to this page, email the quotation with full
citation of source to
Becky Thompson.