Aaron Copland:
The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes'.
Can you state in so many words what the meaning is? My answer to that would be, 'No'.
Shakespeare:
Is it not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out of men's bodies.
Enrique de Valderrabano:
Among the creatures of the earth, God placed music with the greatest reason and perfection in man, and among
stringed instruments in the Vihuela.
Father Mersenne:
A lute player can do anything he pleases with his instrument. For instance he can demonstrate the geometric
and harmonic means, the squaring of the circle, the proportianate movements of the heavens and the celestial bodies
or of the speeds of falling weights; all these and a thousand other things.
Yehudi Menuhin after a Rolling Stones concert:
If you took an electric drill or a pile driver, tuned it so that it sounded a note, amplified it a hundred
times and then played it over a public square, it would sound to the people forced to live nearby much as this
concert sounded to me.
Sherlock Holmes:
Hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable
ways of our fellowmen.
|
Getting published isn't easy. Francisco Guerau's book of guitar music, Poema Harmonico (Harmonic Poem, published in Spain in 1694) contains the following dedication (English translation from Janis M. Stevenson's master's thesis: A Transcription of Poema Harmonico by Francisco Guerau for Baroque Guitar, San Jose State University, June 1974). TO THE KING AND LORD D. Carlos II May God Save Him
Whoever has a book printed usually selects a great hero to dedicate it to in order to obtain protection and
credits for his work and for his own interest because of affection, obligation, or duty. I concurred, that because
of my gratefulness, and pride in being Chaplain and vassal to your Majesty, I elected the Royal Benevolence for
the protection of this brief work, which demonstrates my little skill. This I put at the royal feet of your Majesty,
trusting that with generous spirit you will not scorn the small gift, but take into account the great esteem and
wishes of he who offers it to you: For he who burns useless and weak straws at the Altar of love, would offer precious
incense if he had great amounts of it.
Don Carlos must have approved (despite the avoidance of "adulation and flattery"), and
Dr. Alonso Portillo y Cardos, the Vicar of Madrid, and his committee also inspected the manuscript and found "...nothing
in it against our Holy Catholic Faith".
|