Update
The Oxford Biblical Studies Online and Oxford Islamic Studies Online have retired. Content you previously purchased on Oxford Biblical Studies Online or Oxford Islamic Studies Online has now moved to Oxford Reference, Oxford Handbooks Online, Oxford Scholarship Online, or What Everyone Needs to Know®. For information on how to continue to view articles visit the subscriber services page.
Dismiss
Show Summary Details

Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD REFERENCE (www.oxfordreference.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 28 January 2023

Musicians 

  1. Everything will pass, and the world will perish but the Ninth Symphony will remain.
    of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
    Michael Bakunin 1814–76 Russian revolutionary and anarchist: Edmund Wilson To The Finland Station (1940)
  2. It may be that when the angels go about their task of praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together en famille, they play Mozart.
    Karl Barth 1886–1968 Swiss Protestant theologian: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1956)
  3. Too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.
    of Johann Sebastian Bach
    Thomas Beecham 1879–1961 English conductor: in Guardian 8 March 1971
  4. The immortal god of harmony.
    of Johann Sebastian Bach
    Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827 German composer: letter to the publishers Breitkopf und Härtel, 22 April 1801
  5. It will be generally admitted that Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man.
    E. M. Forster 1879–1970 English novelist: Howards End (1910) ch. 5
  6. Too beautiful for our ears, and much too many notes, dear Mozart.
    of The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782)
    Joseph II 1741–90 Austrian monarch, Holy Roman Emperor: attributed; Franz Xaver Niemetschek Life of Mozart (1798)
  7. Something touched me deep inside
    The day the music died.
     
    on the death of Buddy Holly
    Don McLean 1945–  American songwriter: ‘American Pie’ (1972 song)
  8. Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour.
    Gioacchino Rossini 1792–1868 Italian composer: to Emile Naumann, April 1867, in E. Naumann Italienische Tondichter (1883) vol. 4
  9. Ravel refuses the Legion of Honour, but all his music accepts it.
    Erik Satie 1866–1925 French composer: Jean Cocteau Le Discours d'Oxford (1956)
  10. Children are given Mozart because of the small quantity of the notes; grown-ups avoid Mozart because of the great quality of the notes.
    Artur Schnabel 1882–1951 Austrian-born pianist: My Life and Music (1961)