Yesterday, the Silver Birch Press blog included a post with praise for J.S. Bach from notables past and present. Thought we’d start our day with some more quotes about this musical master.
“Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?” MICHAEL TORKE, American composer (b. 1961)
“Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance…poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music…Bach and Mozart are never too far from physical movement.” EZRA POUND, American expatriate poet and critic (1885-1972)
“[Bach was] the immortal god of harmony.” LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, German composer and musician (1770-1827)
“I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach. I really can’t think of any other music which is so all-encompassing, which moves me so deeply and so consistently, and which, to use a rather imprecise word, is valuable beyond all of its skill and brilliance for something more meaningful than that — its humanity.” GLENN GOULD, Canadian pianist (1932-1982)
Listen to the wondrous Glenn Gould play Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 at youtube.com.
Illustration: J.S. Bach’s monogram, as found on a postcard from the good folks at zazzle.com.
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