Friday, December 24, 2010

Those Who Do Not Dance

An invalid girl asked,
"How do I dance?"
We told her:
let your heart dance.

Then the crippled girl asked,
"How do I sing?"
We told her:
let your heart sing.

A poor dead thistle asked,
"How do I dance?"
We told it,
let your heart fly in the wind.

God asked from on high,
"How do I come down from this blueness?"
We told Him:
come dance with us in the light.

The entire valley is dancing
in a chorus under the sun.
The hearts of those absent
return to ashes.

-- Gabriela Mistral (trans. by Maria Giachetti)
(in Women in Praise of the Sacred,
edited by Jane Hirshfield)

Saturday, December 18, 2010


The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.

-- Igor Stravinsky
(in Divine Sparks,
edited by Karen Speerstra)

Saturday, December 11, 2010


Music is love in search of a word.

-- Sidney Lanier
(in Music: A Book of Quotations,
edited by Herb Galewitz)

Saturday, December 4, 2010


Every work of art has two faces, one directed towards eternity and the other towards its own time. . . . As human beings we do not possess infinite qualities, but as musicians I believe we can extend our finite power to a point where we can create an illusion of infinity. It is only be knowing ourselves that we come to know the things outside ourselves.

-- Daniel Barenboim
(in Notations: Quotation on Music,
edited by Sallye Leventhal)