The music soars within the little lark, And the lark soars.

-Browning, Elizabeth ne¤  e Barrett
  Aurora Leigh, bk.3.

Music says nothing to the reason: it is a kind of closely structured nonsense.

-Wilson
  In the Observer, 23  Jul.

Music is the art of sounds in the movement of time.

-Busoni, Ferruccio Benvenuto
  The Essence of Music.

There was a sound of revelry by night, And Belgium's capital had gathered then Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Foul as their soil, and frigid as their snows. The lamps that shone o'er fair women and brave men; A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, And all went merryas a marriage bell; But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!

-Rochdale
^18  Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 3, stanza 21.

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man less, but nature more.

-Rochdale
^18  Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 4, stanza178.

Rose-cheeked Laura, come, Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty's Silent music, either other Sweetly gracing.

-Campion,Thomas
  Second Book of  Airs,'Rose-Cheeked Laura'.

   Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

-Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)
Quoted in The NewYork Times,16 Nov1967.

The creation of music is just as natural as the air we breathe.I believemusic isreallya freething, and any way you can enjoy it, you should.

-Coleman, Ornette
  Sleeve-note, Something Else!

Many peopleapparentlydon'ttrusttheir reactionstoart or to music unless there is a verbal explanation for it.In music the only thing that matters is whether you feel it or not.

-Coleman, Ornette
  Sleeve-note, Change of the Century.

No voice, but oh! the silence sank Like music on my heart.

-Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
  'The Rime of the  Ancient Mariner', pt.6.

   O pure of heart! thou need'st not ask of me What this strong music in the soul may be! What, and wherein it doth exist, This light, this glory, this fair luminous mist, This beautiful and beauty-making power.

-Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
  'Dejection:  An Ode', stanza 5.

Bells, the poor man's only music.

-Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
  'Frost at Midnight'.

Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

-Congreve,William
  Almeria to Leonora. The Mourning Bride, act1, sc.1.

Music alone with sudden charms can bind The wand'ring sense, and calm the troubled mind.

-Congreve,William
c.1701  'Hymn to Harmony'.

Canned music is like audible wallpaper.

-Cooke, (Alfred) Alistair
QuotedinDavidPickering Brewer's TwentiethCentury Music (1994).

The whole problemcan be statedquitesimply byasking, 'Is there a meaning to music?'Myanswer would be,'Yes'. And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?'My answer to that would be 'No'.

-Copland, Aaron
  What to Listen for in Music.

Somemusic that Idon'ttaketoinmodernorchestral stuff just seems to be trying to do something with an orchestrathat Jimi Hendrixcould dosomuch better with an electric guitar and a fuzzbox.Why create a hideous sound with violas when they were made to sound melodious and agreeable?

-Costello, Elvis real name Declan Patrick McManus
  In The Irish Times, 23 Mar.

  Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.

-Coward, Sir Noe«  l Peirce
  Private Lives, act1.

At eve The moonbeam, sliding softly in between The sleeping leaves, is all the light they wish, Birds warbling all the music.

-Cowper,William
  The Task, bk.1,'The Sofa'.

You that love England, who have an ear for her music, The slow movement of clouds in benediction, Clear arias of light thrilling over her uplands, Over the chords of summer sustained peacefully.

-Day-Lewis, Cecil
  The Magnetic Mountain, pt.4, no.32.