Some to church repair,
Not for the doctrine, but the music there.

-- Alexander Pope

(in Music:  A Book of Quotations,
edited by Herb Galewitz)

Music hath caught a higher pace than any virtue I know.  It is the arch-reformer; it hastens the sun to its setting; it invites him to its rising; it is the sweetest reproach, a measured satire.

-- Henry David Thoreau
(in Music:  A Book of Quotations,
edited by Herb Galewitz)

Whether the angels play only Bach in praising God I am not quite sure; I am sure, however, that en famille they play Mozart.

-- Karl Barth

(in The Music-Lover's Birthday Book,
edited by Alden Rockwell Murphy)

Bach is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful stars . . . Beethoven embraced the universe with the power of his spirit . . . I do not climb so high.  A long time ago I decided that my universe will be the soul and heart of man.

-- Frederic Chopin

(in The Music-Lover's Birthday Book,
edited by Alden Rockwell Murphy)

Do you know that our soul is composed of harmony?

-- Leonardo da Vinci
(in The Music-Lover's Birthday Book,
edited by Alden Rockwell Murphy)

It is proportion that beautifies everything, this whole universe consists of it, and music is measured by it.

-- Orlando Gibbons
(in The Music-Lover's Birthday Book,
edited by Alden Rockwell Murphy)

Philosophers have said that we love music
because it resembles the sphere-sounds of union.

We have been part of a harmony before,
so these moments of treble and bass
keep our remembering fresh.

Hearing the sound, we gather strength.
Love kindles with melody.  Music feeds a lover
composure, and provides form for the imagination.
Music breathes on personal fire and makes it keener.

-- Rumi
(in A Year with Rumi,
translated by Coleman Barks)

Send us someone who can sing music for the soul,
though we know such longing cannot rise from a lute
or a tambourine, not from the sun,
or Venus, or any star.

-- Rumi
(in Rumi:  The Big Red Book,
translated by Coleman Barks)

But loves plays and is the music played.
Let that musician finish this poem.

-- Rumi
(in Rumi:  The Big Red Book,
translated by Coleman Barks)

Poems are rough notations for the music we are.

-- Rumi
(in Rumi: The Big Red Book,
translated by Coleman Barks)

My life, I resolved, ought to be a perpetual transcending, a progression from stage to stage; I wanted it to pass through one area after the next, leaving each behind, as music moves on from theme to theme, from tempo to tempo, playing each out to the end, completing each and leaving it behind, never tiring, never sleeping, forever wakeful, forever in the present.

-- Hermann Hesse
(in The Glass Bead Game, or, Magister Ludi,
translated by Richard and Clara Winston)

Do not worry about saving these songs.
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it does not matter.

We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.

The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,

and even if the whole world's harp should burn up,
there will still be hidden instruments playing.

-- Rumi
(in Rumi: The Big Red Book,
translated by Coleman Barks)

Moon and evening star
do their slow tambourine dance to praise this universe.

The purpose of every gathering is discovered:
To recognize beauty and to love what is beautiful.

-- Rumi
(in Rumi:  The Big Red Book,
translated by Coleman Barks)

Do you hear what the stringed instrument says about longing?

The same as the stick, I was once a green branch in the wind.

We are all far from home.
Language is our caravan bell.

-- Rumi
(in Rumi:  The Big Red Book,
translated by Coleman Barks)

The poet who praises the splendors and terrors of life in the dance-measures of his verse, the musician who sounds them in a pure, eternal present -- these are bringers of light, increasers of joy and brightness on earth, even if they lead us first through tears and stress.  Perhaps the poet whose verses gladden us was a sad solitary, and the musician a melancholic dreamer; but even so their work shares in the cheerful serenity of the gods and the stars.  What they give us is no longer their darkness, their suffering or fears, but a drop of pure light, eternal cheerfulness.

-- Hermann Hesse
(in The Glass Bead Game, or Magister Ludi,
translated by Richard and Clara Winston)

Now a bird with elegantly colored wings lights in a nearby tree
to sing the mystery of beginning again.
What a fine song that is.

-- Rumi
(in Rumi:  The Big Red Book,
translated by Coleman Barks)

He ought above all to possess the cheerful serenity of music, for after all music is nothing but an act of courage, a serene, smiling, striding forward and dancing through the terrors and flames of the world, the festive offering of a sacrifice.

-- Hermann Hesse
(in The Glass Bead Game, or Magister Ludi, 
translated by Richard and Clara Winston)

We sing the melody to our life's song, but the people who touch us provide the harmony.  And underneath it all, guiding us and supporting us, is the rhythm of our faith.

--Robin Roberts
(from "My Mom, My Inspiration,"
in Guideposts Magazine, August 2012)

We watch a sunlight dust dance,
but nobody knows what music those particles hear.

Each of us has a secret companion musician to dance to.
Unique rhythmic play, a motion in the street
that we alone know and hear.

-- Rumi
(in Rumi: The Big Red Book,
translated by Coleman Barks)

     We must not be led by the mind, but by a spontaneity in the heart-center, the soul, which is always starting out, beginning again.  It cannot be said with words.  Music and song do better.

-- Coleman Barks
(in Rumi:  The Big Red Book)

     It was as if by becoming a musician and Music Master he had chosen music as one of the ways toward man's highest goal, inner freedom, purity, perfection, and as though ever since making that choice he had done nothing but let himself be more and more permeated, transformed, purified by music . . . so that he was now only a symbol, or rather a manifestation, a personification of music.

-- Hermann Hesse
(from The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi),
translated by Richard and Clara Winston)

What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,
many jugs being poured into a huge basin.
All religions, all this singing, one song.

-- Rumi
(in A Year with Rumi,
translated by Coleman Barks)

The rotation of the universe and the motion of the planets could neither begin nor continue without music . . . for everything is ordered by God according to the laws of harmony.

-- Plutarch
(in Notations:  Quotations on Music,
edited by Sallye Leventhal)

Music is a moral law.  It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness and life to everything.  Fine music is the essence of order and leads to all that is just and good, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate and eternal form.

-- Plato
(in Notations:  Quotations on Music,
edited by Sallye Leventhal)

Music is spiritual.  The music business is not.

-- Van Morrison
(in Notations:  Quotations on Music,
edited by Sallye Leventhal)

Wouldst thou know if a people be well governed, or if its laws be good or bad, examine the music it practices.

-- Confucius
(in Notations:  Quotations on Music,
edited by Sallye Leventhal)

Yet there is one thing the world with all its rottenness cannot take from us, and that is the deep and abiding joy and consolation perpetuate in great music.  Here the spirit may find home and relief when all else fails.

-- Eric Fenby
(in Notations: Quotations on Music,
edited by Sallye Leventhal)

I do not know what I was playing,
     Or what I was dreaming then;
But I stuck one chord of music,
     Like the sound of a great Amen.

-- Adelaide Anne Procter
(in Music:  A Book of Quotations,
edited by Herb Galewitz)

The problem with listening, of course, is that we don't.

-- Philip Glass
(in Divine Sparks:  Collected Wisdom of the Heart,
edited by Karen Speerstra)

Love thrilled the chord of love in my soul's lute,
And changed me all to love from head to foot.

-- Unattributed Sufi poet
(in The Mystics of Islam,
by Reynold A. Nicholson)

Music is the divine influence which stirs the heart to seek God:  those who listen to it spiritually attain unto God, and those who listen to it sensually fall into unbelief.

-- Dhu 'l-Nun the Egyptian
(in The Mystics of Islam, by Reynold A. Nicholson)

The song of the spheres in their revolutions
Is what men sing with lute and voice.
As we all are members of Adam,
We have heard these melodies in Paradise.
Though earth and water have cast their veil upon us,
We retain faint reminiscences of these heavenly songs;
But while we are thus shrouded by gross earthly veils,
How can the tones of the dancing spheres reach us?

-- Rumi
(In The Mystics of Islam,
edited by Reynold A. Nicholson)

I do think that a lot off artists seem to be in touch with mystical forces, and that they draw on some kind of vision and divine inspiration.  However, I think there is a romantic idea about the artist who dashes things off in a great blaze of enlightenment.  In fact, there probably was such a blaze, at some point in the process, if the artist was inspired, but the realization often takes a tremendous amount of skill, and practice, and hard work.

-- J. Carter Brown
(in Inspired Lives:  Exploring the Role of Faith and Spirituality in the Lives of Extraordinary People, edited by Joanna Laufer & Kenneth S. Lewis)

Music and art are mysteries.  One wonders how inspiration can come through vessels that are human and imperfect.

-- Rabbi Alexander Schindler
(in Inspired Lives:  Exploring the Role of Faith and Spirituality in the Lives of Extraordinary People, edited by Joanna Laufer and Kenneth S. Lewis)

Breath is at the heart of singing, for it is the singer's breath, voice, and spirit that produce the song.  Those who chant or sing spiritual songs tell of entering into a deeper level of worship, understanding, freedom, and joy when they sing, which deepens their faith. . . . . And just as breath is not only inside us but comes out of us as well, the breath of God that inspires us can come forth and move others.  We have all felt joy and freedom and spirit come bursting out of a singer's song.  We respond not just to notes or melody, but to the passion in both, to the life that is in the music.

-- Joanna Laufer and Kenneth S. Lewis
(Inspired Lives:  Exploring the Role of Faith and Spirituality in the Lives of Extraordinary People)

For what else are the servants of God than His singers, whose duty it is to lift up the hearts of men and move them to spiritual joy?

-- St. Francis of Assisi
(in The Essential Wisdom of the Saints,
edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi)

In the fallen state of consciousness, each human being functions in disregard of the Song of Life that is going on in others.  There is no harmony, no direction, no arrangement.  You are like the random notes of an orchestra before the conductor unifies the instruments in symphony.  The Grand Conductor is calling everyone to attention . . .

-- Ken Carey
(in Divine Sparks:  Collected Wisdom of the Heart,
edited by Karen Speerstra)

Music is God's best gift to man, the only art of heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to heaven.

-- Walter Savage Landor

(in Music: A Book of Quotations,

edited by Herb Galewitz)

Inspiration seeks the artist as the artist seeks inspiration.

-- Jane Roberts

(in Divine Sparks: Collected Wisdom of the Heart,

edited by Karen Speerstra)

Praise is the recognized form of making noise in the presence of superiors . . . it tends to become music . . . ascends like incense . . . it lifts the heart.

-- Walter Burkert

(in Divine Sparks: Collected Wisdom of the Heart,

edited by Karen Speerstra)

A lot depends on my commitment to listening and my intention to stay coherent with this note. It is only when my life is tuned to my note that I can lay life's mysterious and holy music without tainting it with my own discordance, my own bitterness, resentment, agendas, and fears.

-- Rachel Naomi Remen

(in Divine Sparks: Collected Wisdom of the Heart,

edited by Karen Speerstra)

The Latin word cantare is generally translated as "to sing." Its original meaning, however, was "to work magic."

-Joachim Berendt

(in Divine Sparks: Collected Wisdom of the Heart,

edited by Karen Speerstra)

No one knows what music is. It is performed, listened to, composed, and talked about; but its essential reality is as little understood as that of its first cousin, electricity. We know that it detaches the understanding, enabling thoughts to turn inward upon themselves and clarify; we know that it releases the human spirit into some solitude of meditation where the creative process can freely act; we know that it can soothe pain, relieve anxiety, comfort distress, exhilarate health, confirm courage, inspire clear and bold thinking, ennoble the will, refine taste, uplift the heart, stimulate intellect, and do many another interesting and beautiful thing. And yet, when all is said and done, no one knows what music is. Perhaps the explanation is that music is the very stuff of creation itself.

-- Lucien Price

(in Music Lovers Quotations,

edited by Helen Exley)

Speech is man's most confused and egocentric expression, his most orderly and magnanimous utterance is music.

-- Ned Rorem

(in Notations: Quotations on Music,

edited by Sallye Leventhal)

. . . through musical sounds we can waken what is dormant, through sweet harmonies calm what is turbulent, and through the blending of various elements quell the discord and temper the different parts of the soul.

-- Marsilio Ficino and Thomas Moore

(in Divine Sparks, edited by Karen Speerstra)

All music is what awakes from you

when you are reminded by the instruments,

It is not the violins and the cornets,

it is not the oboe nor the beating drums,

nor the score of the baritone singer singing

his sweet romanza,

nor that of the men's chorus,

nor that of the women's chorus.

It is nearer and farther than they.

-- Walt Whitman

(in Music: A Book of Quotations,

edited by Herb Galewitz)

. . . a true seeker must be completely empty like a lute

to make the sweet music of Lord, Lord.

When the emptiness starts to get filled with something,

the one who plays the lute puts it down

and picks up another.

There is nothing more subtle and delightful

than to make that music.

Stay empty and held

between those fingers, where where

gets drunk with nowhere.

-- Rumi

(The Essential Rumi,

translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)

A craftsman pulled a reed from the reedbed,

cut holes in it, and called it a human being.

Since then, it's been wailing a tender agony

of parting, never mentioning the skill

that gave it life as a flute.

-- Rumi

(The Essential Rumi,

translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)

We rarely hear the inward music,

but we're all dancing to it nevertheless,

directed by the one who teaches us,

the pure joy of the sun,

our music master.

-- Rumi

(in The Essential Rumi,

translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)

Who is the luckiest in this whole orchestra? The reed.

Its mouth touches your lips to learn music.

All reeds, sugarcane especially, think only

of this chance. They sway in the canebrakes,

free in the many ways they dance.

Without you the instruments would die.

One sits close beside you. Another takes a long kiss.

The tambourine begs, Touch my skin so I can be myself.

Let me feel you enter each limb bone by bone,

that what died last night can be whole today.

-- Rumi

(in The Essential Rumi,

translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty

and frightened. Don't open the door to the study

and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

-- Rumi

(in The Essential Rumi,

translated by Coleman Barks and John Moyne)

Art presents itself as a way of life, not unlike religion, science, and socialism. It differs from these other modes of understanding only in that it is not a product of its time and appears, as it were, as the worldview of the ultimate goal.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

(in Letters on Life,

translated by Ulrich Baer)