These 15 quotes from musicians and composers show just how music can ease tension, bring people together and inspire change.
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1. Leonard Bernstein
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” – Leonard Bernstein Picture: Getty
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2. Aaron Copland
“So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.” – Aaron Copland Picture: Getty
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3. Béla Bártok
“Brotherhood despite all wars and conflicts: I try – to the best of my ability – to serve this idea in my music.” – Béla Bártok Picture: Getty
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4. Hans Christian Andersen
“Where words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Andersen Picture: Getty
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5. Daniel Barenboim
“When playing music, it is possible to achieve a unique sense of peace.” – Daniel Barenboim Picture: Getty
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6. Pablo Casals
“Music – that wonderful language – should be a source of communication among men.” – Pablo Casals Picture: Getty
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7. Paul Hindemith
“Music is meaningless noise unless it touches a receiving mind.” – Paul Hindemith Picture: Getty
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8. Arnold Schoenberg
“Supposing times were normal – normal as they were before 1914 – then the music of our time would be in a different situation.” – Arnold Schoenberg Picture: Getty
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9. Molière
“All the disorders, all the wars which we see in the world, only occur because of the neglect to learn music.” – Molière Picture: Getty
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10. Andrea Bocelli
“Some of us are born with a weakness for music. As a baby, music would stop whatever thought I was having. If I was worried, it would stop me worrying; if I was crying, it would stop me crying. Music was a healing thing for me.” – Andrea Bocelli Picture: Getty
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11. Confucius
“When music and courtesy are better understood and appreciated, there will be no war.” – Confucius Picture: Getty
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12. Zubin Mehta
“Music is the message of peace, and music only brings peace.” – Zubin Mehta Picture: Getty
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13. Benjamin Britten
“It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony.” – Benjamin Britten Picture: Getty
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14. Gustav Mahler
“A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.” – Gustav Mahler Picture: Getty
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15. Martin Luther
“My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.” – Martin Luther Picture: Getty
