Music the fiercest grief can charm,
And fate's severest rage disarm:
Music can soften pain to ease,
And make despair and madness please;
Our joys below it can improve,
And antedate the bliss above.

-- Alexander Pope
(in The Music Lover's Literary Companion,
compiled by Joan and Dannie Abse)

. . . I urge young musicians: 'Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. You must cherish this gift. Do not demean or waste what you have been given. Work -- work constantly and nourish it.'

Of course, the gift to be cherished most of all is that of life itself. One's work should be a salute to life.

-- Pablo Casals

(in The Music Lover's Literary Companion,

compiled by Joan and Dannie Abse)

For the Trumpet of God is a blessed intelligence and so are all the instruments of Heaven.

For God the father Almighty plays upon the Harp of stupendous magnitude and melody.

For innumerable Angels fly out at every touch and his tune is a work of creation.

For at that time malignity ceases and the devils themselves are at peace.

For this time is perceptible to man by a remarkable stillness and serenity of soul.

-- Christopher Smart

(from The Religious Poetry,

edited by Marcus Walsh)

The Artist should love life and show us that it is beautiful; without him, we might doubt it."

-- Gabriel Faure'