Melody Quotes - Page 29

• Todd and Tim [Tobias] write the music, and I come up with the melodies and lyrics. I call it the Ohio Rock Factory. Tim and Todd run the northern plant in Cleveland, and I've got the southern plant down here in Dayton. No tours permitted.

  Robert Pollard

  Running, Writing, Rocks

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• Two voices are there: one is of the deep; It learns the storm-cloud's thunderous melody, Now roars, now murmurs with the changing sea, Now bird-like pipes, now closes soft in sleep: And one is of an old half-witted sheep Which bleats articulate monotony, And indicates that two and one are three, That grass is green, lakes damp, and mountains steep And, Wordsworth, both are thine.

  William Wordsworth

  Sleep, Two, Voice

  William Wordsworth (1954). “The prelude: with a selection from the shorter poems, the sonnets, The recluse, and The excursion, and three essays on the art of poetry”, Harcourt College Pub

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• When the uniqueness of a place sings to us like a melody, then we will know, at last, what it means to be home

  Paul Gruchow

  Home, Mean, Lasts

  Paul Gruchow (1988). “The Necessity of Empty Places”

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• Dry your eyes O dry your eyes, For I was taught in Paradise To ease my breast of melodies.

  John Keats

  Eye, Ease, Dry

  'Shed no tear - O shed no tear' (written 1819)

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• Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone. Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

  John Keats

  Song, Sweet, Kissing

  'Ode on a Grecian Urn' (1820) st. 2

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• I still feel like if I can get a song to work with, say, a basic beat, a rhythm, some chord changes, and a melody, a vocal melody - if it works with that, then I feel it's written and there's something there.

  David Byrne

  Song, Beats, Chords

  Interview with Chris Dahlen, pitchfork.com. July 17, 2006.

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• I don't meditate in any formal way, but I often lie in bed or find myself in nature and enter into that state of quiet where I get images, feelings, or melodies.

  Julian Lennon

  Lying, Feelings, Bed

  "Mindful Music: The Creation of ‘Everything Changes’ With Julian Lennon". Interview with Ronald Alexander, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 8, 2013.

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• Melody is the essence of music. I compare a good melodist to a fine racer, and counterpointists to hack post-horses; therefore be advised, let well alone and remember the old Italian proverb: Chi sa più, meno sa— Who knows most, knows least.

  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  Music, Horse, Italian

  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1961). “Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke: in Verbindung mit den Mozartstädten, Augsburg, Salzburg und Wien”

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• Good melody is never out of fashion

  Robert Bridges

  Fashion

  Robert Bridges (1927). “Collected Essays, Papers, Etc”, Georg Olms Verlag

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• Nature hav no music; nor would ther be for theeany better melody in the April woods at dawnthan what an old stone-deaf labourer, lying awakeo'night in his comfortless attic, might perchancebe aware of, when the rats run amok in his thatch?

  Robert Bridges

  Running, Lying, Night

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• By denying people's sense of visual beauty in painting and sculpture , melody in music , meter and rhyme in poetry , plot and narrative and character in fiction , the elite arts wrote off the vast majority of their audience . They purposely excluded people who approach art in part for pleasure and edification in favour of social one-upmanship and an ever-narrowing, in-crowd elite.

  Steven Pinker

  Art, Character, People

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• I have an urban background, but I need melody, I need a song, so I try to mix and match and keep it fluid.

  Negash Ali

  Song, Trying, Needs

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Melody is disarming. It's anarchic!

  Mika

  Disarming

  "Mika meets Dita Von Teese: 'I've had to work hard to stay like this'". Interview with Paul Lester, www.theguardian.com. October 11, 2012.

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• There was a f**king review in f**king Melody Maker [of the first BOSSANOVA single, 'Velouria'] - 'Sounds like someone's been taking singing lessons'. Like, motherf**king A! I am the singer. Who do sing SONGS. It's like I never sang before; like I was - I don't know - reading PROSE on my previous records and now I sing. EXCUUUUUUSE me for singing

  Black Francis

  Song, Kings, Reading

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• My purpose is to create music not for snobs, but for all people, music which is beautiful and healing. To attempt what old Chinese painters called 'spirit resonance' in melody and sound.

  Alan Hovhaness

  Beautiful, Healing, People

  "Alan Hovhaness Biographical Summary" by Marco Shirodkar, www.hovhaness.com.

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• Our bodies like rhythm and our brains like melody and harmony.

  Daniel Levitin

  Brain, Body, Harmony

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• One nightingale in an interfluous wood Satiate the hungry dark with melody.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Dark, Woods, Hungry

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (1874). “The Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.226

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• I could always hold a melody, but I was never like, I'm going to be a singer. So I'm able to use that when I write. I'm actually playing the beat with my voice. Instead of thinking about coming up with melodies, it's like filling in the instruments. So sometimes it's better to have beats with less melodies in them, because then I can play more with my vocals.

  Kid Ink

  Writing, Thinking, Play

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• When we listen to improvisational jazz, or solo classical violinists, the way they phrase and inflect melodies feels vocal, like they’re talking to us. When I was figuring out how to perform solo, I wanted to move back and forth between bass riffs, melody, and harmony, so I often used sounds instead of — or alongside — the words of a song. I found that if I sang a line using the consonants, vowels, shadings, and inflection we recognize as human language sounds, people responded as if I were talking to them.

  Bobby McFerrin

  Song, Moving, Talking

  "Sing Your Prayers: An Interview With Bobby McFerrin". Omega Institute Interview, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 11, 2012.

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• I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of fear. My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail.

  Paul Robeson

  Song, Voice, Inspire

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• No one can explain how the notes of a Mozart melody, or the folds of a piece of Titian's drapery, produce their essential effects. If you do not feel it, no one can by reasoning make you feel it.

  John Ruskin

  Pieces, Essentials, Produce

  John Ruskin (1860). “Modern Painters ...: pt. 6. Of leaf beauty. pt. 7. Of cloud beauty. pt. 8-9. Of ideas of relation”, p.169

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• Streetlife serenader never sang on stages, needs no orchestration, melody comes easy, need no vast arrangement to do their harmonizing.

  Billy Joel

  Needs, Easy, Stage

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• I tried to stick with what I knew best, which is writing rock n' roll songs and melodies. I am as passionate as I was when I was 20.

  Gary Cherone

  Song, Writing, Rocks

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• Sometimes melody and sometimes lyrics. It depends on the tempo and feel of the song. Slower pieces usually begin with melody and faster ones with lyrics. I write for the song and it leads me to my conclusion.

  Ronnie James Dio

  Song, Writing, Pieces

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• You hear the beginning of a melody, you should kind of know it's going to lead down this path. It should start feeling like a friend, like familiar.

  Danny Elfman

  Feelings, Path, Kind

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