A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side. (Anne Morrow Lindbergh, U.S. writer and aviator, 1906-2001Corporations: The power of all corporations ought to be limited . . . . The growing wealth accumulated by them never fails to be a source of abuses.

— James Madison, Father of the U.S. Constitution and the fourth president of the United States, 1751-1836

A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side.

— Anne Morrow Lindbergh, U.S. writer and aviator, 1906-2001

Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere.

— Pablo Casals, Spanish cellist, conductor, and composer, 1876-1973

A symphony is a stage play with the parts written for instruments instead of for actors.

— Colin Wilson, English writer, philosopher and novelist, 1931-2013

Classical music isn’t the kind that we keep thinking will turn into a tune.

— Frank McKinney, U..S. Olympic swimmer and prominent executive in the American banking industry, 1938-1992

Jazz came to America 300 years ago in chains.

— Paul Whiteman, bandleader, composer, and orchestral director, often referred to as the King of Jazz, 1890-1967

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.

— Ornette Coleman, U.S. jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, composer, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, 1930-2015

Jazz will endure just as long as people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

— John Philip Sousa, U..S. music conductor, composer of military marches and known best for the ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’, 1854-1932

Music is almost a miracle, for it stands halfway between thought and phenomenon, between spirit and matter.

— Heinrich Heine, German poet, journalist, and literary critic, 1797-1856

Music is the art of thinking with sounds.

— Jules Combarieu, French musicologist and music critic, 1859-1916

Music touches places beyond our touching.

— Keith Bosley, British poet and translator, 1937-2018

The devil does not stay where music is.

— Martin Luther, German professor of theology, composer, priest, and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation, 1483-1546

Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour.

— Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, 1792-1868

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

— Aldous Huxley, English novelist and philosopher, 1894-1963

Who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once.

— Robert Browning, English poet and playwright, 1812-1889

How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers.

— Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, 1792-1868

Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian.

— H.L. Mencken, German-American journalist and social critic, 1880-1956

A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

— Benny Green, hard bop jazz pianist, Born 1963

I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the varieties of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.

— Igor Stravinsky, Russian-born composer, pianist, and conductor who is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, 1882-1971

The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes – ah, that is where the art resides!

— Arthur Schnabel, Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and pedagogue who was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, 1882-1951

Chamber music – a conversation among friends.

— Catherine Drinker Bowen, U.S. writer and recipient of the National Book Award, 1897-1973

Music is the universal language of mankind.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, U.S. poet and educator, 1807-1882

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean thing.

— John Erskine, U.S. educator, author, and musician, 1879-1951
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