Those Who Do Not Dance

An invalid girl asked,

"How do I dance?"

We told her:

let your heart dance.

Then the crippled girl asked,

"How do I sing?"

We told her:

let your heart sing.

A poor dead thistle asked,

"How do I dance?"

We told it,

let your heart fly in the wind.

God asked from on high,

"How do I come down from this blueness?"

We told Him:

come dance with us in the light.

The entire valley is dancing

in a chorus under the sun.

The hearts of those absent

return to ashes.

-- Gabriela Mistral (trans. by Maria Giachetti)

(in Women in Praise of the Sacred,

edited by Jane Hirshfield)

The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.

-- Igor Stravinsky

(in Divine Sparks,

edited by Karen Speerstra)

Music is love in search of a word.

-- Sidney Lanier

(in Music: A Book of Quotations,

edited by Herb Galewitz)

Every work of art has two faces, one directed towards eternity and the other towards its own time. . . . As human beings we do not possess infinite qualities, but as musicians I believe we can extend our finite power to a point where we can create an illusion of infinity. It is only be knowing ourselves that we come to know the things outside ourselves.

-- Daniel Barenboim

(in Notations: Quotation on Music,

edited by Sallye Leventhal)