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It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive characteristic.

— James Weldon Johnson

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Music

More quotes by James Weldon Johnson

Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.

The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.

Young man—Young man—Your arm’s too short to box with God.

God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.

And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.

God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)

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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.

Lucy Green

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: James Weldon Johnson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.