All the sounds of the earth are like music.

All the sounds of the earth are like music.

I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to read more

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.

Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.

Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.

May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.

May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

God is its author, and not man; he laid
The key-note of all harmonies; he planned
All read more

God is its author, and not man; he laid
The key-note of all harmonies; he planned
All perfect combinations, and he made
Us so that we could hear and understand.

When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to read more

When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.

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

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

Yet half the beast is the great god Pan,
To laugh, as he sits by the river,
read more

Yet half the beast is the great god Pan,
To laugh, as he sits by the river,
Making a poet out of a man.
The true gods sigh for the cost and the pain--
For the reed that grows never more again
As a reed with the reeds of the river.