Eternal Power of earth and air!

Unseen, yet seen in all around,

Remote, but dwelling everywhere,

Though silent, heard in every sound.

-- Ann Bronte

(in The Things That Matter,

edited by Julia Neuberger)

Music is a mysterious form of mathematics whose elements partake of the Infinite. It is responsible for the movements of water, the pattern of curves traced by the wavering breeze; nothing is more musical than a sunset. For anyone capable of seeing it emotionally, it is the finest lesson of development contained in this book, too seldom referred to by musicians -- I mean the book of Nature.

-- Claude Debussy

Whoever wants to live and enjoy his life today must not be like you and me. Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours . . .

-- Hermann Hesse

(Steppenwolf,

translated by Basil Creighton,

revised by Joseph Mileck and Horst Frenz)

Remember the lips

where the wind-breath originated,

and let your note be clear.

Don't try to end it.

Be your note.

I'll show you how it's enough.

Go up on the roof at night

in this city of the soul.

Let everyone climb on their roofs

and sing their notes!

Sing loud!

-- Rumi

(The Essential Rumi,

translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)