. . . 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)