A Unique Collection of Musical Quotes

I have found most quotations to be little golden nuggets of wisdom which challenge my mind and make me think. I seem to have a thirst for knowledge. Some quotes are humorus and who doesn't like a chuckle now and then? Laughing is a healthy thing to do.

My father would collect quotations and past them into scrapbooks. I discovered them when he passed away and was both surprised and delighted to find these treasures. It taught me something about him that I didn't know. I was proud of him for seeking truth and light through his collection of quotes.

It is my hope that you, the reader, will find something of value in the musical quotations I have selected. At the very least, may you discover a quote to shed some light, inspire, energize or just make you think.

 I was obliged to work hard.  Whoever is equally industrious will succeed just as well. (1802)

This can only be the devil or Bach himself! (A village organist, on finding Bach playing on his organ, quoted in Geiringer, The Bach Family). (1954)

If Bach continues to play in this way, the organ will be ruined in two years, or most of the congregation will be deaf. (Member of the Amstadt Council, in 1705 - The Bach Family.) (1954)

It is as though eternal harmony were conversing with itself, as it may have happened in God's own bosom shortly before He created the world. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, on hearing Bach's organ works.)   

The immortal god of harmony. (Ludwig van Beethoven) (1801)

Bach almost persuades me to be a Christian. (Roger Fry) (1940)

Too much counterpoint - and what is worse, Protestant counterpoint. (Sir Thomas Beecham)

I carry my thoughts about me for a long time, before I write them down. Meanwhile my memory is so tenacious that I am sure never to forget, not even in years, a theme that has once occurred to me. I change many things, discard and try again until I am satisfied. Then, however, there begins in my head the development in every direction and, insomuch as I know exactly what I want, the fundamental idea never deserts me - it arises before me, grows - I see and hear the picture in all it's extent and dimensions stand before my mind like a cast, and there remains for me nothing but the labour of writing it down, which is quickly accomplished when I have the time, for I somethines take up other work, but never to the confusion of one with the other. (Ludwig van Beethoven, Letter to Louis Schlosser, 1823.)

Music, in truth, is the mediator between intellectual and sensuous life. (Ludwig van Beethoven, quoted by Bettina von Arnim, Letter to Goethe, 1810)

Strange, I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes. (Ludwig van Beethoven, words on his deathbed.)

I must confess that I live a miserable life...I live entirely in my music. (Ludwig van Beethoven, 1801.)

(On hearing his own Variations in C Minor) - That nonsense by me? Oh Beethoven, what an ass you were!

I shall hear in heaven. (Last words)

(Of the sixteen-year-old-Beethoven) Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world something to talk about. (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 1787)

 He emancipated music from the bonds of a formal age, while remaining the true voice of the eighteenth century. (Sir Thomas Beecham)

(Of the Magic Flute) - The opera...is the only one in existence that might conceivably been composed by God. (Neville Cardus)

I pay not attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame...I simply follow my own feelings. (1781)

I tell you before God, as an honest man, that your son is the greates composer I know, either personally or by repute. (Joseph Hayden, in a letter to Leopold Mozart, 1785.)

O, Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, how infinetly many inspiring suggestions of a finer , better life you left in our souls! (Franz Schubert, Diary, 1816)

Feed the musician, and he's out of tune. (George Crabbe, The Newspaper (1785)

(Asked why he charged high fees) - I do it on behalf of my brother composers, Schubert and Mozart, who died in poverty. (Igor Stravinsky - 1966)

(On his reaction to adverse criticism) - I cried all the way to the bank. (Liberace, Autobiography - 1973)

I long ago decided there wasn't any sense in making money. The US government simply takes it away to build more things to drop bombs out of...So the only thing to do is to sing for free. (Pete Seeger, quoted in Palmer, All You Need is Love - 1976)

I shall consider it my patriotic duty to keep Elvis in the ninety per cent tax bracket. (Colonel Tom Parker, Presley's manager - 1976)

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 After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible
is music.
-Aldous Huxley