When Pablo Casals reached 95, a young reporter threw him a question: “Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?” And Mr. Casals answered, “Because I think I’m making progress.”
When I think of God, my heart is so filled with joy that the notes fly off as from a spindle.
The first and most solid conclusion which (for me) emerges is that both musical parties, the High Brows and the Low, assume far to easily the spiritual value of the music they want. Neither the greatest excellence of a trained performance from the choir, nor the...
We must beware of the naive idea that our music can “please” God as it would please a cultivated human hearer. That is like thinking, under the old law, that He really needed the blood of bulls and goats… For all our offerings, whether of music or martyrdom, are like...
When the song of the angels is stilled,When the star in the sky is gone,When the kings and princes are home,When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner,...
It is a monumental accomplishment for 200 voices to sing one note in tune—let alone 80 minutes of 4 to 7-part harmony. And it takes everybody caring every second.
You never know where your idea is going to go but you’ve got a guarantee that it won’t go anywhere unless you share it. Put it out there. Sing the song. Write the book. Start the business. There’s a whole world waiting for your idea.
Choral music is not one of life’s frills. It’s something that goes to the very heart of our humanity, our sense of community, and our souls.
Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it.
There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.