Musicality Quotes

“That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough. Let the other young ladies have time to exhibit.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“She sang, as requested. There was much about love in the ballad: faithful love that refused to abandon its object; love that disaster could not shake; love that, in calamity, waxed fonder, in poverty clung closer. The words were set to a fine old air -- in themselves they were simple and sweet: perhaps, when read, they wanted force; when well sung, they wanted nothing. Shirley sang them well: she breathed into the feeling, softness, she poured round the passion, force: her voice was fine that evening; its expression dramatic: she impressed all, and charmed one.

On leaving the instrument, she went to the fire, and sat down on a seat -- semi-stool, semi-cushion: the ladies were round her -- none of them spoke. The Misses Sympson and the Misses Nunnely looked upon her, as quiet poultry might look on an egret, an ibis, or any other strange fowl. What made her sing so? They never sang so. Was it proper to sing with such expression, with such originality -- so unlike a school girl? Decidedly not: it was strange, it was unusual. What was strange must be wrong; what was unusual must be improper. Shirley was judged.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“And I love Jane Austen's use of language too--the way she takes her time to develop a phrase and gives it room to grow, so that these clever, complex statements form slowly and then bloom in my mind. Beethoven does the same thing with his cadence and phrasing and structure. It's a fact: Jane Austen is musical. And so's Yeats. And Wordsworth. All the great writers are musical.”
― Andrew Clements, Things Hoped For

“The art of not playing in tempo--one has to learn it. And the art of not playing what is written on the printed paper.”
― Pablo Casals

“If you steal from one person is Theft, and if you steal from Lots of people is Research”
― Guthrie Govan

“Music is a language that speaks to people emotions.”
― The Unknown

“Music is what our soul sounds like when it sings.”
― Xila Toro

“یہ زخم سارے بے دوا
یہ چاک سارے بے رفو
کسی پہ راکھ چاند کی
کسی پہ اوس کا لہو
یہ ہے بھی یا نہیں، بتا
یہ ہے، کہ محض جال ہے
مرے تمہارے عنکبوتِ وہم کا بُنا ہوا
جو ہے تو اس کا کیا کریں
نہیں ہے تو بھی کیا کریں
بتا ، بتا ،
بتا ، بتا”
― Faiz Ahmad Faiz

“I needed another basis for musical structure. This I found in sound's duration parameter, sound's only parameter which is present even when no sound is intended.”
― John Cage, M: Writings '67–'72

“I have just awoken, having dreamed of music. The final chord fades away within me while I try to focus on individuals amid the living, breathing mass packed into this vast waiting room, in this mixture of sleep and weariness.”
― Andreï Makine

“La terrasse bruisse d'un va-et-vient de tons montants, descendants, neutres qui font comme des exclamations et des glissades d'eau au milieu du chant des oiseaux.”
― Nicole Brossard, La Capture du sombre

“You cannot taste a song
but you can feel the tune relishing your heart
where strings of music belong.”
― Munia Khan

“...for every Aretha, there's a chorus of cat-stranglers.”
― Bill Eisele

“I am sad, like the hot dust on the streets
And the music of fresh fallen leaves
Caught in a sliding summer breeze.”
― Scott Hastie

“Ballet shoes... I cannot play with them like they're toys.
But when the music is playing they get deep on my toes.”
― Ana Claudia Antunes, The DAO (Dancing As One) Workbook Illustrated

“Music allows us a little more insight into the ways of the heart.”
― Andrew Pacholyk, Lead Us To A Place: Your Spiritual Journey Through Life's Seasons

“Music isn’t about perfection.”
― H.C. Roberts, Harp and the Lyre: Extraction