Free Music Quotes by Famous Musicians

"Without music, life would be a mistake." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those who sang best..." - Henry David Thoreau

"music is worthless unless it can make a complete stranger, break down and cry"
~ Frou Frou 'the dumbing down of love'

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy
~Ludwig Von Beethoven

"To me...music exists to elevate us as far as possible above everyday life." ~Gabriel Faure

"I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs, and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music."
-George Eliot

"There are only two things worth aiming for, good music and a clean conscience." - Paul Hindemith

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." -Red Auerbach

"Music is a defining element of character."
~ Plato

"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninov

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. - Victor Hugo

"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art." - Charlie Parker (American bandleader, saxophonist and composer. Principal stimulus of the modern jazz idiom known as bebop. 1920-1955)

"A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. We provide the music, and you provide the silence." - Leopold Stokowski (British born American conductor known for his influence as a popularizer of classical music. 1882-1977)

"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony." - Benjamin Britten

“Music is an outburst of the soul. - Frederick DeLuis

"Music is the vernacular of the soul"

Music is the hardest kind of art. It doesn't hang up on a wall and wait to be stared at and enjoyed by passersby. It's communication. It's hours and hours being put into a work of art that may only last, in reality, for a few moments...but if done well, and truly appreciated, it lasts in our hearts forever. That's art. Speaking with your heart to the hearts of others. ~Mr. Dan Romano

"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order and lends to all that is good and just and beautiful." ~ Plato

Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me
-ABBA

When words fail, Music speaks. - H.C. Anderson

Bach gave us God's word, Mozart gave us God's laughter, Beethoven gave us God's fire. God gave us music that we might pray without words.

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible, is music"-Aldous Huxley

"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."
-Bob Marley

"Music's what I need to keep my sanity"
- 311

"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music."
-Billy Joel

"Music expresses feelings words cannot"

"The only proof he needed for the existance of God was music." -Kurt Vonnegut

"Music can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable."
Leonard Bernstein

For those about to rock,we salute you. - AC/DC
Rock and roll ain't noise pollution. - AC/DC

Hear my song. People won't you listen now? Sing along.
You don't know what you're missing now.
Any little song that you know
Everything that's small has to grow.
And it has to grow! - Led Zeppelin

"Music is essentially useless - as life is."

"Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!"
~J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

"Music is love in search of a voice." -Leo Tolstoy

"Nothing exists without music, for the universe itself is said to have been framed by a kind of harmony of sounds, and the heaven itself revolves under the tone of that harmony." - Isidore of Seville

Music must never offend the ear, but must please the listener, or, in other words, must never cease to be music." - Mozart

"He who writes and composes without feeling spoils both his words and his music." - Guillaume de Machaut

"Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music."
- PI Tchaikovsky

"True drama can be conceived only as resulting from the collective impulse of all the arts to communicate in the most immediate way with a collective public...Thus especially the art of tone, developed with such singular diversity in instrumental music, will realize in the collective artwork its richest potential...For in its isolation music has formed itself an organ capable of the most immeasurable expression- the orchestra."
- Wagner

"How can one express the indefinable sensations that one experiences while writing an instrumental composition that has no definite subject? It is a purely lyrical process. It is a musical confession of the soul, which unburdens itself through sounds just as a lyric poet expresses himself through poetry...As the poet Heine said, 'Where words leave off, music begins.'" - PI Tchaikovsky

"To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them." - Nadia Boulanger

"Muzak goes in one ear, and out some other opening."
-Anton Kuert, Austrian- born Canadian pianist

"He played like he was in jail - behind a few bars and couldn't find the key" -Anonymous

From Mr Holland's Opus:
Vice Principal Wolters: I care about these kids just as much as you do. And if I'm forced to choose between Mozart and reading and writing and long division, I choose long division.
Glenn Holland: Well, I guess you can cut the arts as much as you want, Gene. Sooner or later, these kids aren't going to have anything to read or write about.

"Where words fail, music speaks." - Hans Christian Anderson

"People who make music together cannot be enemies, at least while the music lasts." - Paul Hindemith

"May music charm me last on earth, and greet me first in heaven."

Tune it or die. -A button

"Look for the music on all things, and life will be a symphony of joy."

"My music is best understood by children and animals."
~Stravinsky

"Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend."
~Beethoven

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid"
-Frank Zappa

"If music be the food of love, play on." -William Shakespeare

"What Music expresses is eternal, infinite, and ideal; she expresses not the passion, love, desire, of this or that individual in this or that condition, but Passion, Love, Desire itself, and in such infinitely varied phases as lie in her unique possession and are foreign and unknown to any other tongue...So...Here's to Victory, gained by our higher sense over the worthlessness of the vulgar! To Love, which crowns our courage...To the day, to the night!...And three cheers for Music..."
- Richard Wagner

The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would be, 'No.'

-Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990)

"No music no life"

"Music is the laughter of the soul"

"Music after all is the background score to our lives, not merely surviving in our memory banks long after so many of our seemingly stronger memories have faultered, but serving to remind us of who we were at a given moment of our lives, where we were, what we dreamed of, what we feared, and of course who we loved."

The most fun happens in music when you're not doing it, when the music plays itself. Why is this night different than all other nights? Why is music different from anything else in life? When we let things flow, joy happens."
-Eddie Daniels

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski

"music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand" - Stevie Wonder

"My music is the spiritual expression of what I am----My faith, my knowledge, my being........When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups....I want to speak to their souls."
-John Coltrane

"Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them."
-Louis Armstrong

"One likes to believe in the freedom of music."
-Neil Peart

"Music is the universal language of mankind." - H.B. Longfellow

The art of music is so deep and profound that to approach it very seriously only is not enough. One must approach music with a serious rigor, and, at the same time, with a great, affectionate joy. ~Nadia Boulanger

music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the holes and curl my back to loneliness. (maya angelou)

As a great democratic society, we have a special responsibility to the arts. For art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color. What freedom alone can bring is the liberation of the human mind and a spirit which finds its greatest flowering in the free society. I see of little more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than the full recognition of the place of the artist.
- John F. Kennedy

It is a funny thing, but when I am making music, all the answers I seek for in life seem to be there, in the music. Or rather, I should say, when I am making music, there are no questions and no need for answers. ~Gustav Mahler

My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.
- Martin Luther

"The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking "Is there a meaning to music?" My answer would be, "Yes", And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be "No."
~ Aaron Copland

"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more devotedly, more passionately, more beautifully than ever before."

"All music comes from God."
-- Johnny Cash

"Music is nothing separate from me. It is me... You'd have to remove the music surgically. "
-- Ray Charles

I don't know anything about music. In my line you
don't have to.
-- Elvis Presley (1935-1977)

It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you
have to do is touch the right key at the right
time and the instrument will play itself.
-- J.S. Bach

"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."
-- Ludwig van Beethoven

Music expresses that which cannot be put into
words and that which cannot remain silent.
-- Victor Hugo

You are the music while the music lasts.
-- T. S. Eliot

"Music is therapeutic, it can tame a tiger and soothe a burning soul!" - George Netterville

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

Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory. ~Oscar Wilde

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
~Berthold Auerbach

Music is love in search of a word. ~Sidney Lanier

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life. ~Jean Paul Richter

Music is the shorthand of emotion. ~Leo Tolstoy

Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead. ~Benjamin Disraeli

Music is what feelings sound like. ~unknown

Music is the poetry of the air. ~Richter

I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality. ~H.A. Overstreet

Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Music is the universal language of mankind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow *Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. ~Victor Hugo

Music is an outburst of the soul. ~Frederick Delius

Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words. ~Robert G. Ingersoll

When words leave off, music begins. ~Heinrich Heine

Music is the medicine of the breaking heart. ~Leigh Hunt

Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies. ~Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

When played properly, a bari sax should sound like a cello... a cello of death. - Gary Lewis

"The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved by concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; the motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted." -Shakespeare, from "The Merchant of Venice"

"There is no music in Hell." -Douglas Callister

"band prepares you for life'' richard saucedo

"No Music, No Life. Know Music, Know Life."

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels" - Thomas Carlyle

"Music is the art... which most completely realizes the artistic idea and is the condition to which all the other arts are constantly aspiring." - Oscar Wilde

"I can't tell you, but I can play it for you."
Epiphone Guitar Co

“Paint pictures with sound. First, find your white—the deepest, roundest sound you can play on the guitar. Then, find your black—which is the most extreme tonal difference from white you can play. Now, just pick the note where you’ve got white, pick it where you’ve got black, and then find all those colors in between. Get those colors down, and you’ll be able to express almost any emotion on the guitar.? —Les Paul

"Do you think I give a damn about your and your pathetic violin?" - Ludwig Von Beethoven

You can take away music, but pretty soon children will have nothing to read or write about. ~Mr. Holland's Opus

"Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free"
-Geddy Lee- in Rush's The Spirit of Radio

"Trying to explain music is like trying to dance architecture" - Thelonious Monk.

"I . . . stared at the phone. It was hard for me to believe that Igor Stravinsky had a telephone number, just like the rest of us. God didn't have a phone number. Why should Stravinsky? Nevertheless, my trembling hand reached out and dialed his number, which, I noted with astonishment, had the same number of digits as those of ordinary mortals." -Arnold Steinhardt, Indivisible by Four

You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow. ~Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket

If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.

"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing." -Louis Armstrong

“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.?-Charlie Parker.

“Tap your foot (in response to a question from on 60 Minutes regarding what his music was all about.)-Count Basie

“Women and rhythm-section first!?-Jaco Pastorius

“Man, if you have to ask what it is, you’ll never know.?-Louis Armstrong

“I don’t need words — it’s all in the phrasing.?-Louis Armstrong

“Never play anything the same way twice.?-Louis Armstrong

“I don’t care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing.?-Miles Davis

“Coltrane, you cant play everything at once!?-Miles Davis

“Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.?-Miles Davis

“A beat is a moment in the life a groove.?-Wynton Marsalis

“(in reference to Kenny G’s overdubbing of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World") ‘When Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man (Louis Armstrong) who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great Louis’ tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible’?-Pat Methany

“And if I ever DO see [Kenny G] anywhere, at any function — he WILL get a piece of my mind, and maybe a guitar wrapped around his head.?-Pat Methany

"When u march....pretend you have a penny between your cheeks...and I dont mean your face...."-Frank Hoskins

"I can't listen to Wagner that much. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland." - Woody Allen

"making music makes life better"

"Music reminds us that we're never too old to cry."

"Chopin is my dawg!" - Alicia Keys

"Music's the medicine of the mind" - John A. Logan

"Without music, life is a journey through a desert" - Pat Conroy

"I've outdone anyone you can name — Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500" - James Brown

"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music." - Billy Joel

“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. - Charlie Parker

“For me, music and life are all about style.
“Do not fear mistakes. There are none. - all by Miles Davis
“I'll play it first and tell you what it is later.

"If you sound great in the practice room, you're practicing the wrong thing."

“Never ever practice. Always perform.” –Mr. Dave Martin

“If you’re on a team, you’re on the team, but you’re in the band. And in band, there is no bench.” –Mr. Dave Martin

“In that song each section is like a gem hanging from a Christmas tree.” –Molly Einhorn (referring to Christmas Festival)

“Look, Miss Worcester Mass, my name’s Cohan, I’ve written half-a-hundred shows and put on half-a-hundred more and if I say five minutes it could be anything up to an hour-and-a-half.” –George M! (George)

“If you think you’re too cool for band. You’re wrong.” –Abby Hansen

Music is the silence between the notes.

Music is what feelings sound like.

School curricula that ignore the arts produce "highly educated Barbarians,"
-Playwright Edward Albee

"No one can take away the one thing i depend on... enjoying the music!" ~ Eric Johnson

"Only love and music are forever" - Phantom of the Opera

“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” — Frederic Chopin

"As long as there is a song in your heart, there will always be hopes and dreams." - Patrick N. Nagovan

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels." ~Thomas Carlyle

"Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing." ~Lord Erskine

"Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven." ~Amiel

"The musician who always plays on the same string is laughed at." ~Horace

Jazz will endure as long as people hear it through their feet instead of their brains." ~John Philip Sousa

"Thank you for the music
the songs I'm singin'.
Thanks for all the joy they're bringin'.
Who can live without it?
I ask in all honesty,
what would life be?
Without a song or a dance
what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
for giving it to me." ~ABBA

"The chief trouble with jazz is that there is not enough of it..." ~Don Herold

"Without Music, we could completely destroy the structure of the space time continuom"
Dr. Emmett Brown

"Music is okay with me." -Jack Swart

"That's what music is: entertainment. The more you put yourself into it, the more of you comes out in it." - Kurt Cobain


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