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Curt Sachs Quotes

Musicologist

Curt Sachs was a prominent German musicologist, born on June 29, 1881, and died on February 5, 1959. He is known for his research in music history and music theory, particularly in the fields of musical aesthetics and philosophy. Sachs's works have had a profound impact on subsequent music scholars.

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All Dance Dancing Dancer Culture Form Movement Art Body Can Do Chance

Famous Curt Sachs Quotes

“In dance, even the weakest can do wonders.”

Can Do Wonder Dance

Author:Curt Sachs

“The dance is the mother of the arts. Music and poetry exist in time; painting and architecture in space. But the dance lives at once in time and space.”

“The dance is the mother of the arts, The dance breaks down the distinction of body & soul.”

Art Soul Body Mother Break Dancing Dance Distinction Breaking Down

Author:Curt Sachs

“The dance lives in all mankind as a necessary motor-rhythmic expression of excess energy and the joy of living.”

Joy Energy Mankind Expression Dancing Dance Excess Motor Joy Of Living Dance Life

Author:Curt Sachs

“The peoples influenced by the animal dance have a variety of movements and dance with enthusiasm; those who do not know the animal dance have few movements and show little zest for dancing.”

Knows Littles Shows Animal Movement Dancing Dance Enthusiasm Variety Zest

Author:Curt Sachs

“Rhythmic motion has become the carrier and creator of almost every ecstatic mood of any significance in human life.”

Humans Dancing Dance Creator Mood Human Life Significance Ecstatic Carrier

Author:Curt Sachs

“In Europe we have the "loss of self" motif clearly illustrated in the whirl dances of the Russians sects of the Molokani in Armenia....All the countries that bordered the Meditteranean in ancient times, and the less remote sections of Asia as well, appear to have had whirl dances.”

Wells Self Country Loss Europe Dancing Dance Ancient Sections Asia Sects Ancient Times Motifs Armenia

Author:Curt Sachs

“It removes the limitations of his body, extinguishes his consciousness, and pours the divine spirit into him. The whirl dance is the purest form of dance devotion.”

Body Form Spirit Consciousness Divine Dancing Dance Devotion Limitation Remove

Author:Curt Sachs

“Every dance is and gives ecstasy.”

Giving Dancing Dance Ecstasy

Author:Curt Sachs

“The adult who puts his arm around his companion in the ballroom, and the child in the roadway, skipping in a round dance - they forget themselve, they dissolve the weight of earthly contact and the rigidity of daily existence. The soul slips into a twilight stage.”

Children Soul Forget Existence Stage Arms Adults Weight Dancing Dance Rounds Contact Companion Slips Twilight Rigidity Ballroom

Author:Curt Sachs

“The superhuman power which exhiliration and hypnosis bring to a dancer is shown especially clearly in his almost inconceivable staying powers in a state of high tension. "In the dance even the weakest can do wonders."”

States Can Do Wonder Dancing Dance Tension Dancer Staying Superhuman Hypnosis Staying Power Superhuman Powers

Author:Curt Sachs

“A person can be danced. In all continents the dancers carry little children on their shoulders.”

Children Littles Persons Dancing Dance Shoulders Dancer Continents

Author:Curt Sachs

“If you ask an Auin Bushman what realty happens at the puberty ceremonials, he will tell you, "We dance." In the initiation customs of all peoples the dances play an especially important part. The dance is the center of wedding festivities.”

Ifs Important Play Happens Asks Dancing Dance Customs Puberty Initiation Festivities Bushmen

Author:Curt Sachs

“In the earliest cultures any tie between the dancers is slight. In a higher level the choral dancers almost always touch one another and thus force themselves into the same stride and the same movement. The closer the contact, the stronger is the social character of the choral.”

Character Culture Force Social Levels Movement Higher Stronger Dancing Dance Contact Ties Dancer Stride Higher Level

Author:Curt Sachs

“The oldest form of the Choral Dance is the circle. Even the chimpanzees dance in a circle, and people of every continent still do it.”

People Stills Form Dancing Dance Circles Continents Chimpanzees

Author:Curt Sachs

“Although the circle dance is known throughout the entire world, the front dance is limited to the cultures of which the rectangular hut is a part.”

World Culture Known Fronts Dancing Dance Circles Huts

Author:Curt Sachs

“Wherever there are four walls, consciousness of direction is far keener.”

Consciousness Four Wall Dancing Dance Four Walls

Author:Curt Sachs

“The dance in which the men form one row, the women another, and dance with and opposite each other in a form of love play, is widely diffused and may be confidentally assigned to a Protoneolithic culture level.”

Men May Play Form Culture Levels He Man Opposites Dancing Dance Forms Of Love

Author:Curt Sachs

“The only information we have about the early history of the dance comes to us from the rock paintings created by primitive man tens of thousands of years ago in what is now France.”

Men Years Rocks Information Painting Years Ago Dancing Dance France Primitive Primitive Man

Author:Curt Sachs

“Whatever the nature of dance, it needs no onlooker, not even a single witness.”

Needs Dancing Dance Witness

Author:Curt Sachs

“The English dance unites the guests of an evening by the spell of rhythmical movement into a chance casual community.”

Community Chance Movement Dancing Dance Evening Spells Guests Casual

Author:Curt Sachs

“A choral dance: an attempt to impose upon a chance gathering of a few dozen guests a communal feeling.”

Feelings Chance Dancing Dance Dozen Guests Gathering

Author:Curt Sachs

“Only the tango has continued to enjoy undiminished favor for more than twenty years in spite of polishing and refinement. To be sure, it is no pure Negro dance and owes its best qualities to the unusual dance talents of the Spaniards.”

Years Enjoy Quality Talent Pure Twenties Dancing Dance Favors Spite Unusual Refinement Tango Spaniards

Author:Curt Sachs

“Music as a whole, in its overwhelming wealth and endlessness, is inaccessible unless we free ourselves from the limitations of our own restricted training.”

Whole Wealth Training Limitation Overwhelming Inaccessible

Book:The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, East and West

Source: The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, East and West

About the Author

Born: June 29, 1881
Died: February 5, 1959
Known for: Musicologist
Quotes: 24

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Dance Dancing Dancer Culture Form Movement Art Body Can Do Chance

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People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

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