Wise Quotations of the Great Music Composers

Book Review of Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers – by Patrick Kavanaugh

  • J.S. BachWhere there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.
  • G.F. HandelIt pleased the Almighty, to whose great Holy Will I submit myself with Christian Submission.
  • HaydnSince God has given me a cheerful heart, He will forgive me for serving Him cheerfully.
  • MozartGod is ever before my eyes. I realize His omnipotence and I fear His anger; but I also recognize His love, His compassion, and His tenderness towards His creatures.
  • BeethovenIn whatsoever manner it be, let me turn to Thee and become fruitful in good works.
  • SchubertIt sometimes seems to me as if I did not belong to this world at all.
  • MendelssohnPray to God that He may create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us.
  • ChopinOh, how good God is!
  • LisztThrough Christ alone, through resigned suffering in God, salvation and rescue come to us.
  • WagnerChristianity’s founder was not wise, but divine . . . To believe in Him meant to emulate Him: to hope for redemption, to strive for union with Him.
  • GounodBesides Goodness and Truth, there was Beauty, which proceeded from the other two as the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.
  • FrankDon’t try to do a great deal, but rather seek to do well.
  • BrucknerSometime I will have to give an account of myself. How would the Father in Heaven judge me if I followed others and not Him?
  • BrahmsIn my study I can lay my hand on my Bible even in the dark.
  • DvorakI study with the birds, flowers, God and myself.
  • ElgarThe Spirit of God is not something less than God, it is God.
  • Ralph Vaughn WilliamsWhy should we not enter into our inheritance in the church as well as the concert room?
  • Charles IvesMost of the forward movements of life in general . . . work of essentially religious-minded men.
  • StravinskyThe more one separates oneself from the canons of the Christian church, the further one distances oneself from the truth.
  • Oliver MessiaenI’m a composer because I love music and a Christian because I believe.

Other Christian Composers:  Vivaldi, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Corelli, Rimsky-Korsakov, Palestrina, Massener and many others.

Source: Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers – Patrick Kavanaugh

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