Quotessence
Home / Topics / Musical Instruments Quotes

Musical Instruments Quotes

Browse 104 quotes about Musical Instruments.

Related topics

PlayIfsMadeDifferentPeopleSound

Musical Instruments Quotes

“When Magnus looked at Imasu, he saw Imasu had dropped his head into his hands. "Er," Magnus said. "Are you quite all right?" "I was simply overcome," Imasu said in a faint voice. Magnus preened slightly. "Ah. Well." "By how awful that was," Imasu said. Magnus blinked. "Pardon?" "I can't live a lie any longer!" Imasu burst out. "I have tried to be encouraging. Dignitaries of the town have been sent to me, asking me to plead with you to stop. My own sainted mother begged me, with tears in her eyes - " "It isn't as bad as all that - " "Yes, it is!" It was like a dam of musical critique had broken. Imasu turned on him with eyes that flashed instead of shining. "It is worse than you can possibly imagine! When you play, all of my mother's flowers lose the will to live and expire on the instant. The quinoa has no flavor now. The llamas are migrating because of your music, and llamas are not a migratory animal. The children now believe there is a sickly monster, half horse and half large mournful chicken, that lives in the lake and calls out to the world to grant it the sweet release of death. The townspeople believe that you and I are performing arcane magic rituals - " "Well, that one was rather a good guess," Magnus remarked. " - using the skull of an elephant, an improbably large mushroom, and one of your very peculiar hats!" "Or not," said Magnus. "Furthermore, my hats are extraordinary." "I will not argue with that." Imasu scrubbed a hand through his thick black hair, which curled and clung to his fingers like inky vines. "Look, I know that I was wrong. I saw a handsome man, thought that it would not hurt to talk a little about music and strike up a common interest, but I don't deserve this. You are going to get stoned in the town square, and if I have to listen to you play again, I will drown myself in the lake." "Oh," said Magnus, and he began to grin. "I wouldn't. I hear there is a dreadful monster living in that lake." Imasu seemed to still be brooding about Magnus's charango playing, a subject that Magnus had lost all interest in. "I believe the world will end with a noise like the noise you make!" "Interesting," said Magnus, and he threw his charango out the window. "Magnus!" "I believe that music and I have gone as far as we can go together," Magnus said. "A true artiste knows when to surrender." "I can't believe you did that!" Magnus waved a hand airily. "I know, it is heartbreaking, but sometimes one must shut one's ears to the pleas of the muse." "I just meant that those are expensive and I heard a crunch.”

TearsMelodyUnbearableMagnus BaneMusical InstrumentsAwfulnessEar SplittingImasu MoralesNon Talented
Book:The Bane Chronicles
Create image

“I used to take musical instruments home from elementary school. There were some music teachers there - we all learned instruments. A lot of us got started in public schools. Charlie Parker and Bud Powell, for example. But now there are no more music teachers in public elementary schools. It's like (Senator) Moynihan said, 'benign neglect.' Just let it rot and fester.”

SaidHomeSchoolUsedTeacherExampleInstrumentsMusicalNeglectSenatorsPublic SchoolCharlieBudBenignElementary SchoolMusical InstrumentsMusic Teacher
Author:Max Roach
Create image

“Roger Bacon, a disciple of the Arabs, also insisted on the primary necessity of Mathematics, without which no other science can be known; yet by Mathematics it is clear that he meant something very different from what we mean, including under that head even dancing, singing, gesticulation, and performance on musical instruments.”

MeanDifferentKnownClearSingingPerformancesMathematicsInstrumentsDancingMusicalIncludingPrimariesDiscipleRogerMusical Instruments
Book:The History of Philosophy from Thales to Comte
Create image

“The neuro-biology of playing a musical instrument is completely scientific, but it’s also an absolute miracle, that you’re taking basically a calcium bucket filled with salt-water that’s run by a weak electrical signal, and you’re using it to move your flesh around in order to manipulate an instrument which disturbs air molecules between you and the listener, and then the listener’s ears picks up those disturbed air molecules which generates a weak electrical signal to their calcium bucket full of salt water, and they feel a feeling. That’s miraculous, and that’s where I live.”

FeelsFeelingsRunningMovingOrderWaterAirPicksWeakEarsMiracleAbsolutesInstrumentsFilledMusicalFleshBiologySaltListenersSignalsManipulateMiraculousDisturbedMoleculesElectricalBucketsMusical InstrumentsCalciumSalt Water
Author:Bob Brozman
Create image

“I think of music a lot when I paint. The theme of it to a degree is music. So instead of literally putting in music or literally putting in a musical instrument, I use only a hint of the instrument, but the brocaded pattern is like a line of Bach because of its order and the leaves going up are like passages from Vivaldi, and the emphasis on drapery is where the sound comes.”

ThinkingUseOrderSoundLinesDegreesInstrumentsPaintMusicalPatternsThemePassagesEmphasisHintsMusical InstrumentsVivaldi
Author:Nelson Shanks
Create image

“Heartbreak is our indication of sincerity: in a love relationship, in a work, in trying to learn a musical instrument, in the attempt to shape a better more generous self. Heartbreak is the beautifully helpless side of love and affection and is just as much an essence and emblem of care as the spiritual athlete's quick but abstract ability to let go... But heartbreak may be the very essence of being human, of being on the journey from here to there, and of coming to care deeply for what we find along the way.”

WayTryingHumansMaySelfCareSpiritualSidesAbilityJourneyShapesLetting GoEssenceInstrumentsMusicalAthleteAffectionGenerousAbstractSincerityHelplessBeing HumanIndicationLove RelationshipEmblemsMusical InstrumentsLove And Affection
Author:David Whyte
Create image

“My mother wanted me to learn how to read music. She'd given fiddles to my two older brothers, but they'd rebelled. I came along and my father said, "Oh, let Peter enjoy himself." What she did was leave musical instruments all around the house. Whistles, marimbas, squeeze boxes, a piano and organ. By age six or seven, I could bang out a simple tune on almost anything. I developed a good ear, so I didn't learn to read music until I taught myself at age eighteen, 'cause I was hearing so many good songs I couldn't possibly remember them all.”

SaidTwoAgeWantedRememberMotherSongFatherHouseGivenCausesEnjoySimpleTaughtBrotherSixEarsInstrumentsSevenMusicalBoxesHearingPianoTunesPeterOrgansBangsEighteenFiddleOlder BrotherMusical Instruments
Author:Pete Seeger
Create image

“My father was able to play a number of musical instruments and I fell in love with classical music in my teens and I allowed it to influence me. I like to think I took and still do from classical music and various techniques, I have made classical albums and recorded seven different pieces of Bach on different albums and its all music too me.”

ThinkingMadeStillsDifferentPlayAbleFatherNumbersPiecesInfluenceInstrumentsSevenMusicalAlbumsVariousTechniqueTeensClassical MusicMusical Instruments
Author:Steve Hackett
Create image

“For a long time religion made me feel guilty for being involved in music. Growing up, the religion I grew up in, the Church of Christ, encouraged a capella, but didn't allow musical instruments, so even though my parents allowed me to play trumpet in the band, and I was pretty good at it, it had this baggage.”

FeelsLongMadePlayParentChristChurchGrowing UpGrowingGrewInvolvedBandGrew UpLong TimeInstrumentsMusicalGuiltyTrumpetsBaggageMusical InstrumentsChurch Of Christ
Author:Gary Panter
Create image

“I had grown up among engineers, and I could remember the engineers of the twenties very well indeed: their open, shining intellects, their free and gentle humor, their agility and breadth of thought, the ease with which they shifted from one engineering field to another, and, for that matter, from technology to social concerns and art. Then, too, they personified good manners and delicacy of taste; well-bred speech that flowed evenly and was free of uncultured words; one of them might play a musical instrument, another dabble in painting; and their faces always bore a spiritual imprint.”

WellsArtMatterPlayMightRememberFacesSpiritualSocialTechnologyFieldsPaintingTasteSpeechConcernTwentiesInstrumentsShiningMusicalIntellectMannersEaseGentleGood ManEngineeringEngineersBoresDelicacyGood MannersBreadthAgilityMusical Instruments
Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Create image

“In most musical instruments the resonator is made of wood while the actual sound generator is of animal origin. In cultures where music is still used as a magical force, the making of an instrument always involves the sacrifice of a living being. That being's soul then becomes part of the instrument and in the tones that come forth, the 'singing dead,' who are ever present with us, make themselves heard.”

MadeStillsSoulUsedCultureForceSoundAnimalHeardSacrificeMusic IsSingingInstrumentsMusicalWoodsToneMusical InstrumentsGenerator
Author:Joscelyn Godwin
Create image