Reflections on music

"A person does not hear sound only through the ears;
he hears sound through every pore of his body.
It permeates the entire being,
and according to its particular influence either slows
or quickens the rhythm of the blood circulation;
it either wakens or soothes the nervous system.
It arouses a person to greater passions
or it calms him by bringing him peace.
According to the sound and its influence
a certain effect is produced.
Sound becomes visible in the form of radiance.
This shows that the same energy which goes into the form of sound
before being visible is absorbed by the physical body.
In that way the physical body recuperates
and becomes charged with new magnetism."
~ from 'Mysticism of Sound' by Hazrat Inayat Khan ~

"I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights;
and you have yours.
But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love,
belong to all of us, in all times and in all places.
Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions
in their universality."
~ H. A. Overstreet (1894-1985) ~

"Music washes away from the soul
the dust of everyday life."
~ Berthold Auerbach (1812-1882) ~

"Just as certain selections of music
will nourish the physical body and your emotional layer,
so other musical works will bring greater health to your mind."
~ from 'The Healing Energies of Music' by Hal A. Lingerman ~

"... everyone was using tiny brushes and doing watercolors,
while Jimi Hendrix was painting galactic scenes in Cinemascope.
We are working in a field of mystical resonance, sound and vibration...
that's what makes people cry, laugh
and feel their hair stand up ... "
~ Carlos Santana ~

"Music expresses that which cannot be said
and on which it is impossible to be silent."
~Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885) ~

"Music gives a soul to the universe,
wings to the mind,
flight to the imagination,
and life to everything."
~ Plato ~

"After silence,
that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible
is music."
~ Aldous Huxley ~

"The truest expression of a people
is in its dance and music."
~ Agnes de Mile (1905-93) ~

"There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres."
~ Lord (George Gordon Noel) Byron
English poet, 1788 - 1824 ~

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels;
in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man
is felt to be so divine.
It brings us near to the infinite."
~ Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881) ~