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Music religious heat inspires, It wakes the soul, and lifts it high, And wings it with sublime desires, And fits it to bespeak the Deity. AddisonA Song for St. Cecilias Day. St. 4. | 1 |
Music exalts each joy, allays each grief, Expels diseases, softens every pain, Subdues the rage of poison, and the plague. John ArmstrongArt of Preserving Health. Bk. IV. L. 512. | 2 |
That rich celestial music thrilled the air From hosts on hosts of shining ones, who thronged Eastward and westward, making bright the night. Edwin ArnoldLight of Asia. Bk. IV. L. 418. | 3 |
Music tells no truths. BaileyFestus. Sc. A Village Feast. | 4 |
Rugged the breast that music cannot tame. J. C. BampfyldeSonnet. | 5 |
If music and sweet poetry agree. BarnfieldSonnet. | 6 |
Gayly the troubadour Touched his guitar. Thomas Haynes BaylyWelcome Me Home. | 7 |
Im saddest when I sing. Thomas Haynes BaylyYou think I have a merry heart. | 8 |
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. J. G. BrainardMusic. | 9 |
The rustle of the leaves in summers hush When wandering breezes touch them, and the sigh That filters through the forest, or the gush That swells and sinks amid the branches high, Tis all the music of the wind, and we Let fancy float on this æolian breath. J. G. BrainardMusic. | 10 |
Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast, And therefore proper at a sheriffs feast. James BramstonMan of Taste. First line quoted from Prior. | 11 |
And sure there is music even in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument; for there is music wherever there is harmony, order, or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres. Sir Thomas BrowneReligio Medici. Pt. II. Sec. IX. Use of the phrase Music of the Spheres given by Bishop Martin FotherbyAthconastrix. P. 315. (Ed. 1622). Said by Bishop John WilkinsDiscovery of a New World. I. 42. (Ed. 1694). | 12 |
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. E. B. BrowningA Musical Instrument. | 13 |
Her voice, the music of the spheres, So loud, it deafens mortals ears; As wise philosophers have thought, And thats the cause we hear it not. ButlerHudibras. Pt. II. Canto I. L. 617. | 14 |
For discords make the sweetest airs. ButlerHudibras. Pt. III. Canto I. L. 919. | 15 |
Soprano, basso, even the contra-alto Wished him five fathom under the Rialto. ByronBeppo. St. 32. | 16 |
Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes lookd love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell. ByronChilde Harold. Canto III. St. 21. | 17 |
Theres music in the sighing of a reed; Theres music in the gushing of a rill; Theres music in all things, if men had ears: Their earth is but an echo of the spheres. ByronDon Juan. Canto XV. St. 5. | 18 |
And hears thy stormy music in the drum! CampbellPleasures of Hope. Pt. I. | 19 |
Merrily sang the monks in Ely When Cnut, King, rowed thereby; Row, my knights, near the land, And hear we these monkes song. Attributed to King CanuteSong of the Monks of Ely, in SpensHistory of the English People. Historia Eliensis. (1066). Chambers Ency. of English Literature. | 20 |
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Music is well said to be the speech of angels. CarlyleEssays. The Opera. | 21 |
When music, heavenly maid, was young, While yet in early Greece she sung, The Passions oft, to hear her shell, Throngd around her magic cell. CollinsPassions. L. 1. | 22 |
In notes by distance made more sweet. CollinsPassions. L. 60. | 23 |
In hollow murmurs died away. CollinsPassions. L. 68. | 24 |
Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak. Ive read that things inanimate have moved, And, as with living souls, have been informd, By magic numbers and persuasive sound. CongreveThe Mourning Bride. Act I. Sc. 1. | 25 |
And when the music goes te-toot, The monkey acts so funny That we all hurry up and scoot To get some monkey-money. M-double-unk for the monkey, M-double-an for the man; M-double unky, hunky monkey, Hunkey monkey-man. Ever since the world began Children danced and children ran When they heard the monkey-man, The m-double-unky man. Edmund Vance CookeThe Monkey-Man. I rule the House. | 26 |
Water and air He for the Tenor chose, Earth made the Base, the Treble Flame arose, To th active Moon a quick brisk stroke he gave, To Saturns string a touch more soft and grave. The motions strait, and round, and swift, and slow, And short and long, were mixt and woven so, Did in such artful Figures smoothly fall, As made this decent measurd Dance of all. And this is Musick. CowleyDavideis. Bk. I. P. 13. (1668). | 27 |
With melting airs, or martial, brisk, or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touchd within us, and the heart replies. CowperThe Task. Bk. VI. Winter Walk at Noon. L. 3. | 28 |
The soft complaining flute In dying notes discovers The woes of hopeless lovers, Whose dirge is whisperd by the warbling lute. DrydenA Song for St. Cecilias Day. | 29 |
Music sweeps by me as a messenger Carrying a message that is not for me. George EliotSpanish Gypsy. Bk. III. | 30 |
Tis God gives skill, But not without mens hands: He could not make Antonio Stradivaris violins Without Antonio. George EliotStradivarius. L. 151. | 31 |
The silent organ loudest chants The masters requiem. EmersonDirge. | 32 |
Our prentice, Tom, may now refuse To wipe his scoundrel masters shoes; For now hes free to sing and play Over the hills and far away. FarquharOver the Hills and Far Away. Act II. Sc. 3. | 33 |
But Bellenden we needs must praise, Who as down the stairs she jumps Sings oer the hill and far away, Despising doleful dumps. Distracted Jockeys Lamentation. Pills to Purge Melancholy. | 34 |
Tom he was a pipers son, He learned to play when he was young; But all the tune that he could play Was Over the hills and far away. Distracted Jockeys Lamentation. Pills to Purge Melancholy found in The Nursery Rhymes of England by Halliwell Phillips. | 35 |
When I was young and had no sense I bought a fiddle for eighteen pence, And all the tunes that I could play Was, Over the Hills and Far Away. Old Ballad, in the Pedlars Pack of Ballads and Songs. | 36 |
Blasen ist nicht flöten, ihr müsst die Finger bewegen. To blow is not to play on the flute; you must move the fingers. GoetheSprüche in Prosa. III. | 37 |
Jack Whaley had a cow, And he had nought to feed her; He took his pipe and played a tune, And bid the cow consider. Old Scotch and North of Ireland ballad. Lady Granville uses it in a letter. (1836). | 38 |
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. GrayElegy in a Country Church Yard. St. 10. | 39 |
He stood beside a cottage lone, And listened to a lute, One summers eve, when the breeze was gone, And the nightingale was mute. Thos. HerveyThe Devils Progress. | 40 |
Why should the devil have all the good tunes? Rowland HillSermons. In his biography by E. W. Broome. P. 93. | 41 |
Music was a thing of the soula rose-lipped shell that murmured of the eternal seaa strange bird singing the songs of another shore. J. G. HollandPlain Talks on Familiar Subjects. Art and Life. | 42 |
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born Than ever Triton blew from wreathéd horn. HolmesChambered Nautilus. | 43 |
Cithardus Ridetur chorda qui semper oberrat eadem. The musician who always plays on the same string, is laughed at. HoraceArs Poetica. 355. | 44 |
Play uppe, play uppe, O Boston bells! Ply all your changes, all your swells, Play uppe The Brides of Enderby. Jean IngelowHigh Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire. | 45 |
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Job. XXXVIII. 7. | 46 |
Ere musics golden tongue Flattered to tears this aged man and poor. KeatsThe Eve of St. Agnes. St. 3. | 47 |
The silver, snarling trumpets gan to chide. KeatsThe Eve of St. Agnes. St. 4. | 48 |
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeard, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone. eatsOde on a Grecian Urn. | 49 |
I even think that, sentimentally, I am disposed to harmony. But organically I am incapable of a tune. LambA Chapter on Ears. | 50 |
A velvet flute-note fell down pleasantly, Upon the bosom of that harmony, And sailed and sailed incessantly, As if a petal from a wild-rose blown Had fluttered down upon that pool of tone, And boatwise dropped o the convex side And floated down the glassy tide And clarified and glorified The solemn spaces where the shadows bide. From the warm concave of that fluted note Somewhat, half song, half odour forth did float As if a rose might somehow be a throat. Sidney LanierThe Symphony. | 51 |
Music is in all growing things; And underneath the silky wings Of smallest insects there is stirred A pulse of air that must be heard; Earths silence lives, and throbs, and sings. LathropMusic of Growth. | 52 |
Writ in the climate of heaven, in the language spoken by angels. LongfellowThe Children of the Lords Supper. L. 262. | 53 |
Yea, music is the Prophets art Among the gifts that God hath sent, One of the most magnificent! LongfellowChristus. Pt. III. Second Interlude. St. 5. | 54 |
When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music. LongfellowEvangeline. Pt. I. 1. | 55 |
He is dead, the sweet musician! * * * * He has moved a little nearer To the Master of all music. LongfellowHiawatha. Pt. XV. L. 56. | 56 |
Music is the universal language of mankind. LongfellowOutre-Mer. Ancient Spanish Ballads. | 57 |
Who, through long days of labor, And nights devoid of ease, Still heard in his soul the music Of wonderful melodies. LongfellowThe Day is Done. St. 8. | 58 |
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie. MiltonArcades. L. 68. | 59 |
Who shall silence all the airs and madrigals that whisper softness in chambers? MiltonAreopagitica. | 60 |
Can any mortal mixture of earths mould Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? MiltonComus. L. 244. | 61 |
Ring out ye crystal spheres! Once bless our human ears, If ye have power to touch our senses so; And let your silver chime Move in melodious time; And let the base of Heavens deep organ blow, And with your ninefold harmony, Make up full consort to the angelic symphony. MiltonHymn on the Nativity. St. 13. | 62 |
There let the pealing organ blow, To the full voiced quire below, In service high, and anthems clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all heaven before mine eyes. MiltonIl Penseroso. L. 161. | 63 |
Untwisting all the chains that tie the hidden soul of harmony. MiltonLAllegro. L. 143. | 64 |
As in an organ from one blast of wind To many a row of pipes the soundboard breathes. MiltonParadise Lost. Bk. I. L. 708. | 65 |
And in their motions harmony divine So smoothes her charming tones, that Gods own ear Listens delighted. MiltonParadise Lost. Bk. V. 620. | 66 |
Mettez, pour me jouer, vos flûtes mieux daccord. If you want to play a trick on me, put your flutes more in accord. MolièreLEtourdi. Act I. 4. | 67 |
La musique celeste. The music of the spheres. Montaigne. Bk. I. Ch. XXII. | 68 |
If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover, Have throbbd at our lay, tis thy glory alone; I was but as the wind, passing heedlessly over, And all the wild sweetness I wakd was thy own. MooreDear Harp of My Country. St. 2. | 69 |
This must be music, said he, of the spears, For I am cursed if each note of it doesnt run through one! MooreFudge Family in Paris. Letter V. L. 28. | 70 |
The harp that once through Taras halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Taras walls, As if that soul were fled. MooreHarp That Once. | 71 |
If thou wouldst have me sing and play As once I playd and sung, First take this time-worn lute away, And bring one freshly strung. MooreIf Thou, Wouldst Have Me Sing and Play. | 72 |
And music toodear music! that can touch Beyond all else the soul that loves it much Now heard far off, so far as but to seem Like the faint, exquisite music of a dream. MooreLalla Rookh. The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. | 73 |
Tis believd that this harp which I wake now for thee Was a siren of old who sung under the sea. MooreOrigin of the Harp. | 74 |
She played upon her music-box a fancy air by chance, And straightway all her polka-dots began a lively dance. Peter NewellHer Polka Dots. | 75 |
Apes and ivory, skulls and roses, in junks of old Hong-Kong, Gliding over a sea of dreams to a haunted shore of song. Alfred NoyesApes and Ivory. | 76 |
Theres a barrel-organ carolling across a golden street In the city as the sun sinks low; And the musics not immortal; but the world has made it sweet And fulfilled it with the sunset glow. Alfred NoyesBarrel Organ. | 77 |
Wagners music is better than it sounds. Bill Nye. | 78 |
We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; World-losers and world-forsakers, Of whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems. A. W. E. OShaughnessyMusic Makers. | 79 |
One man with a dream, at pleasure, Shall go forth and conquer a crown And three with a new songs measure Can trample a kingdom down. A. W. E. OShaughnessyMusic Makers. | 80 |
How light the touches are that kiss The music from the chords of life! Coventry PatmoreBy the Sea. | 81 |
He touched his harp, and nations heard, entranced, As some vast river of unfailing source, Rapid, exhaustless, deep, his numbers flowed, And opened new fountains in the human heart. PollokCourse of Time. Bk. IV. L. 674. | 82 |
Music resembles poetry: in each Are nameless graces which no methods teach And which a master-hand alone can reach. PopeEssay on Criticism. L. 143. | 83 |
As some to Church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there. PopeEssay on Criticism. L. 343. | 84 |
What woful stuff this madrigal would be In some starvd hackney sonnetteer, or me! But let a Lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! how the style refines! PopeEssay on Criticism. L. 418. | 85 |
Light quirks of music, broken and uneven, Make the soul dance upon a jig to Heavn. PopeMoral Essays. Ep. IV. L. 143. | 86 |
By music minds an equal temper know, Nor swell too high, nor sink too low. * * * * * Warriors she fires with animated sounds; Pours balm into the bleeding lovers wounds. PopeOde on St. Cecilias Day. | 87 |
Hark! the numbers soft and clear, Gently steal upon the ear; Now louder, and yet louder rise And fill with spreading sounds the skies. PopeOde on St. Cecilias Day. | 88 |
In a sadly pleasing strain Let the warbling lute complain. PopeOde on St. Cecilias Day. | 89 |
Musics force can tame the furious beast. Prior. | 90 |
Seated one day at the organ, I was weary and ill at ease, And my fingers wandered idly Over the noisy keys.
I do not know what I was playing, Or what I was dreaming then, But I struck one chord of music Like the sound of a great Amen. Adelaide A. ProcterLost Chord. (As set to music, 5th line reads, I know not what I was playing.) | 91 |
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Psalms. CXXXVII. 2. | 92 |
Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges. RabelaisWorks. Bk. IV. Ch. XIX. | 93 |
Musik ist Poesie der Luft. Music is the poetry of the air. Jean Paul Richter. | 94 |
Sie zog tief in sein Herz, wie die Melodie eines Liedes, die aus der Kindheit heraufklingt. It sank deep into his heart, like the melody of a song sounding from out of childhoods days. Jean Paul RichterHesperus. XII. | 95 |
The soul of music slumbers in the shell, Till waked and kindled by the Masters spell; And feeling heartstouch them but lightlypour A thousand melodies unheard before! Saml RogersHuman Life. L. 363. | 96 |
Give me some music; music, moody food Of us that trade in love. Antony and Cleopatra. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 1. | 97 |
I am advised to give her music o mornings; they say it will penetrate. Cymbeline. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 12. | 98 |
And it will discourse most eloquent music. Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 374. (Excellent music in Knights ed.) | 99 |
You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass. Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 379. | 100 |
How irksome is this music to my heart! When such strings jar, what hope of harmony? Henry VI. Pt. II. Sc. 1. L. 56. | 101 |
Orpheus with his lute made trees, And the mountain-tops that freeze, Bow themselves, when he did sing: To his music, plants and flowers Ever sprung; as sun and showers, There had made a lasting spring. Henry VIII. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 3. | 102 |
Everything that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads, and then lay by; In sweet music is such art: Killing care and grief of heart Fall asleep, or, hearing, die. Henry VIII. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 9. | 103 |
The choir, With all the choicest music of the kingdom, Together sung Te Deum. Henry VIII. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 90. | 104 |
One whom the music of his own vain tongue Doth ravish like enchanting harmony. Loves Labours Lost. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 167. | 105 |
Though music oft hath such a charm To make bad good, and good provoke to harm. Measure for Measure. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 14. | 106 |
Let music sound while he doth make his choice; Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, Fading in music. Merchant of Venice. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 43. | 107 |
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness, and the night Becomes the touches of sweet harmony. Merchant of Venice. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 54. | 108 |
Theres not the smallest orb which thou beholdst But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins; Such harmony is in immortal souls; But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. Merchant of Venice. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 57. | 109 |
Therefore the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods; Since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage, But music for the time doth change his nature. Merchant of Venice. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 79. | 110 |
The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils. Merchant of Venice. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 83. | 111 |
Music do I hear? Ha! ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is, When time is broke and no proportion kept! Richard II. Act V. Sc. 5. L. 41. | 112 |
Wilt thou have music? hark! Apollo plays And twenty caged nightingales do sing. Taming of the Shrew. Induction. Sc. 2. L. 37. | 113 |
Preposterous ass, that never read so far To know the cause why music was ordaind! Was it not to refresh the mind of man, After his studies or his usual pain? Taming of the Shrew. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 9. | 114 |
This music crept by me upon the waters, Allaying both their fury and my passion With its sweet air. Tempest. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 391. | 115 |
Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark, what discord follows! Troilus and Cressida. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 109. | 116 |
If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came oer my ear like the sweet sound That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour. Twelfth Night. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 1. | 117 |
Song like a rose should be; Each rhyme a petal sweet; For fragrance, melody, That when her lips repeat The words, her heart may know What secret makes them so. Love, only Love. Frank Dempster ShermanSong, in Lyrics for a Lute. | 118 |
Musick! soft charm of heavn and earth, Whence didst thou borrow thy auspicious birth? Or art thou of eternal date, Sire to thyself, thyself as old as Fate. Edmund SmithOde in Praise of Musick. | 119 |
See to their desks Apollos sons repair, Swift rides the rosin oer the horses hair! In unison their various tones to tune, Murmurs the hautboy, growls the hoarse bassoon; In soft vibration sighs the whispering lute, Tang goes the harpsichord, too-too the flute, Brays the loud trumpet, squeaks the fiddle sharp, Winds the French-horn, and twangs the tingling harp; Till, like great Jove, the leader, figuring in, Attunes to order the chaotic din. Horace and James SmithRejected Addresses. The Theatre. L. 20. | 120 |
So dischord ofte in musick makes the sweeter lay. SpenserFaerie Queene. Bk. III. Canto II. St. 15. | 121 |
Music revives the recollections it would appease. Madame de StaëlCorinne. Bk. IX. Ch. II. | 122 |
The gauger walked with willing foot, And aye the gauger played the flute; And what should Master Gauger play But Over the Hills and Far Away. Robt. Louis StevensonUnderwoods. A Song of the Road. | 123 |
How her fingers went when they moved by note Through measures fine, as she marched them oer The yielding plank of the ivory floor. Benj. F. TaylorSongs of Yesterday. How the Brook Went to Mill. St. 3. | 124 |
It is the little rift within the lute That by and by will make the music mute, And ever widening slowly silence all. TennysonIdylls of the King. Merlin and Vivien. L. 393. | 125 |
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies. TennysonThe Lotos Eaters. Choric Song. St. 1. | 126 |
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies Than tird eyelids upon tird eyes. TennysonThe Lotos Eaters. Choric Song. St. 1. | 127 |
I cant sing. As a singist I am not a success. I am saddest when I sing. So are those who hear me. They are sadder even than I am. Artemus WardLecture. | 128 |
Strange! that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long. WattsHymns and Spiritual Songs. Bk. II. 19. | 129 |
And with a secret pain, And smiles that seem akin to tears, We hear the wild refrain. WhittierAt Port Royal. | 130 |
Im the sweetest sound in orchestra heard Yet in orchestra never have been. Dr. WilberforceRiddle. First lines. | 131 |
Her ivory hands on the ivory keys Strayed in a fitful fantasy, Like the silver gleam when the poplar trees Rustle their pale leaves listlessly Or the drifting foam of a restless sea When the waves show their teeth in the flying breeze. Oscar WildeIn the Gold Room. A Harmony. | 132 |
What fairy-like music steals over the sea, Entrancing our senses with charmed melody? Mrs. M. C. WilsonWhat Fairy-like Music. | 133 |
Where music dwells Lingering, and wandering on as loth to die: Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof That they were born for immortality. WordsworthEcclesiastical Sonnets. Pt. III. 63. Inside of Kings Chapel, Cambridge. | 134 |
Bright gem instinct with music, vocal spark. WordsworthA Morning Exercise. | 135 |
Soft is the music that would charm forever: The flower of sweetest smell is shy and lowly. WordsworthNot Love, Not War. | 136 |
Sweetest melodies Are those that are by distance made more sweet. WordsworthPersonal Talk. St. 2. | 137 |
The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more. WordsworthThe Solitary Reaper. | 138 |
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