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He who makes songs without feeling
Spoils both his words and his music.

— Guillaume de Machaut

Qui de sentement ne fait,
Son dit et son chant contrefait.

Original text (French)

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Music

More quotes by Guillaume de Machaut

My end is my beginning, and my beginning my end.

And Music is an art which likes people to laugh and sing and dance. It cares nothing for melancholy, nor for a man who sorrows over what is of no importance, but ignores, instead, such folk. It brings joy everywhere it's present; it comforts the disconsolate, and just hearing it makes people rejoice.

All Guillaume de Machaut quotes →

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The emphasis of study upon a particular aspect of music is in itself ideological because it contains implications about the music's value.

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Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Thomas Carlyle Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)

Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.

Eduard Hanslick

Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges.

François Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Guillaume de Machaut (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.