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Quotes of the Day for 20 December 2003 - Music

There is a lot of truly dreadful music on the radio this time of year, like Elmo and Patsy singing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" or Elvis with "Here Comes Santa Claus". But there is so much more that brings back memories and lifts our mood in these dark days. Here are some quotes on the power of music.

Music, in the best sense, does not require novelty; no, the older it is, and the more we are accustomed to it, the greater its effect.
     - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 - 1832

The memories which come to us through music are not accompanied by any regrets; for a moment music gives us back the pleasures it retraces, and we feel them again rather than recollect them.
     - Madame de Stael

The earth has grown old with its burden of care
But at Christmas it always is young,
The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair
And its soul full of music breaks the air,
When the song of angels is sung.
     - Phillips Brooks

The meaning of song goes deep. Who is there that, in logical words, can express the effect music has on us? A kind of inarticulate, unfathomable speech, which leads us to the edge of the infinite, and lets us for moments gaze into that!
     - Thomas Carlyle, 1795 - 1881

Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.
     - Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 - 1750

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