This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Mozart is the greatest composer of all. Beethoven created his music, but the music of Mozart is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely found it - that it has always existed as part of the inner beauty of the universe waiting to be revealed.
Pythagoras, aka Pythagoras of Samos or Pythagoras the Samian NULL
The highest goal of music is to connect one
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R. W. Dixon, fully Richard Watson Dixon
For deep the cave of human consciousness; The thoughts, like light, upon its depths may press, Seeking and finding wonders numberless; But never may they altogether pierce The hollow gloom so sensitive and fierce Of the deep bosom: far the light may reach, There is a depth unreached; in clearest speech There is an echo from an unknown place: And in the dim, unknown, untrodden space Our life is hidden; were we all self-known, No longer should we live; a wonder shown Is wonderful no more; and being flies For ever from its own self-scrutinies. Here is the very effort of the soul To keep itself unmingled, safe, and whole In changes and the flitting feints of sense: Here essence holds a calm and sure defence; It is a guarded shrine and sacred grove, A fountain hidden where no foot may rove, A further depth within a sounded sea; A mirror ’tis from hour to hour left free By things reflected: and because ’tis so, Therefore the outer world and all its show Is as the music of the upper wave To the deep Ocean in his sunken cave; A part of its own self, yet but its play, Which doth the sunbeam and the cloud convey To central deeps, where in awful shade The stormless heart receives the things conveyed, Knowing the cloud by darkness, and the light By splendours dying through the infinite.
Effort | Gloom | Heart | Life | Life | Light | Music | Sacred | Wonder | World |
R. H. Stoddard, fully Richard Henry Stoddard
Let me silent be; For silence is the speech of love, The music of the spheres above. Men can be great when great occasions call: In little duties women find their spheres, The narrow cares that cluster round the hearth. Not that the heavens the little can make great, But many a man has lived an age too late.
Pythagoras, aka Pythagoras of Samos or Pythagoras the Samian NULL
There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres.
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These days I think the composers of music influence me more than any photographers or visual creators. I see something exciting or lovely and think to myself: 'If Papa Haydn or Wolfgang Amadeus or the red-headed Vivaldi were here with a camera, they'd snap a picture of what's in front of me.' So I take the picture for them.
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav or Breslov, aka Reb Nachman Breslover or Nachman from Uman NULL
It is a great thing to hear music from a holy person playing on an instrument for the sake of heaven. Because through this, false fantasies are dismissed, the spirit of depression is dispelled, and the person merits happiness. Through this the memory is preserved, that is, the memory of the world to come, and a person is able to understand the hints that Hashem is constantly hinting to him every day. Furthermore, through this a person can reach the level of the spirit of prophecy and divine inspiration, and he will be able to pour out his heart like water before Hashem.
Depression | Heart | Memory | Music | Prophecy | Spirit | Will | World | Understand |
Rainer Maria Rilke, full name René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke
MUSIC: Take me by the hand; it's so easy for you, Angel, for you are the road even while being immobile. You see, I'm scared no one here will look for me again; I couldn't make use of whatever was given, so they abandoned me. At first the solitude charmed me like a prelude, but so much music wounded me.
Ralph Ellison, fully Ralph Waldo Ellison
In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live.
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Ravi Shankar, born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, aka Pandit
There are only two kinds of music; good and bad. Music appreciation is very personal depending on the person's age, experience, knowledge and background.
Appreciation | Good | Knowledge | Music | Appreciation |
Rebecca West, pen name of Mrs. Cicily Maxwell Andrews, born Fairfield, aka Dame Rebecca West
Great music is in a sense serene; it is certain of the values it asserts.
Ravi Shankar, born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, aka Pandit
How does one put the spiritual significance of music on paper? Music transcends all languages and barriers and is the most beautiful communicative skill one can have. Music makes us all experience different emotions or the Navarasa as we call it. Different types of music, whether it is vocal or instrumental, Eastern or Western, Classical or Pop or folk from any part of the world can all be spiritual if it has the power to stir the soul of a person and transcend time for the moment. It makes one get goose-bumps in the body and mind and equates the highest mental orgasm and the release of grateful tears!
Body | Emotions | Experience | Mind | Music | Power | Skill | Soul | Time | World |
Ravi Shankar, born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, aka Pandit
My secret ambition was always to provide music for animation films: something with an Indian theme, either a fairy tale or mythological tale or on the Krishna theme. I still have a very deep desire, but these sorts of chances don't always come.
Ravi Shankar, born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, aka Pandit
Pop changes week to week, month to month. But great music is like literature.
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There is something very wonderful about music. Words are wonderful enough; but music is even more wonderful. It speaks not to our thoughts as words do; it speaks through our hearts and spirits, to the very core and root of our souls. Music soothes us, stirs us up, it puts noble feelings in us, it can make us cringe; and it can melt us to tears; and yet we have no idea how. It is a language by itself, just as perfect in its ways as speech, as words, just as divine, just as blessed.
Rebecca West, pen name of Mrs. Cicily Maxwell Andrews, born Fairfield, aka Dame Rebecca West
You must always believe that life is as extraordinary as music says it is.
The object of music is a Sound. The end; to delight, and move various Affections in us.