Melody Quotes - Page 34

• What? You don't think he's cute?" "I didn't really notice." "How can you not notice when a guy is cute?" Melody stared at her in disbelief.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Cute, Thinking, Guy

  Nicholas Sparks (2013). “Safe Haven”, p.9, Hachette UK

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• Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashipn the theme of Iluvatar to a great music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of Iluvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Echoes, Voice, Dwelling

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• To lose somebody is to lose not only their person but all those modes and manifestations into which their person has flowed outwards; so that in losing a beloved one may find so many things, pictures, poems, melodies, places lost too: Dante, Avignon, a song of Shakespeare's, the Cornish sea.

  Iris Murdoch

  Song, Sea, May

  Iris Murdoch (1976). “A Severed Head”, p.57, Penguin

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• He dreamed of amassing musicians from all over the world in Woodstock and they would sit in a field in a circle and play and play. It didn't matter what key or tempo or what melody, they would keep on playing through their discordance until they found a common language.

  Patti Smith

  Keys, Play, Circles

  Patti Smith (2010). “Just Kids”, p.169, A&C Black

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• The melody rolled over her, as cool and sweet as water, as hopeful and lovely as sunrise.

  Cassandra Clare

  Sweet, Water, Hopeful

  Cassandra Clare (2014). “Clockwork Princess”, p.184, Simon and Schuster

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• Every heart has its own melody.

  Cassandra Clare

  Heart, James Carstairs

  Cassandra Clare (2014). “Clockwork Princess”, p.187, Simon and Schuster

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• He made a sound of frustation, caught at her hand, brought it to his chest, and pressed it flat over his heart. The steady beat hammered against her palm. "Every heart has its own melody," he said. "You know mine.

  Cassandra Clare

  Heart, Hands, Sound

  Cassandra Clare (2014). “Clockwork Princess”, p.187, Simon and Schuster

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• Yoga is like music: the rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life.

  B.K.S. Iyengar

  Inspiring, Yoga, Symphony

  B.K.S. Iyengar (2006). “Astadala Yogamala (Collected Works), Volume 6”, p.129, Allied Publishers

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• Music is the one art we all have inside. We may not be able to play an instrument, but we can sing along or clap or tap our feet. Have you ever seen a baby bouncing up and down in the crib in time to some music? When you think of it, some of that baby's first messages from his or her parents may have been lullabies, or at least the music of their speaking voices. All of us have had the experience of hearing a tune from childhood and having that melody evoke a memory or a feeling. The music we hear early on tends to stay with us all our lives.

  Fred Rogers

  Baby, Art, Memories

  Fred Rogers (2004). “The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember”, Large Print Press

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• ...the laws of physics, carefully constructed after thousands of years of experimentation, are nothing but the laws of harmony one can write down for strings and membranes. The laws of chemistry are the melodies that one can play on these strings. the universe is a symphony of strings. And the "Mind of God," which Einstein wrote eloquently about, is cosmic music resonating throughout hyperspace.

  Michio Kaku

  Writing, Years, Law

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• Behind the violence of the birthing of galaxies and stars and planets came a quiet and tender melody, a gentle love song. All the raging of creation, the continuing hydrogen explosions on the countless suns, the heaving of planetary bodies, all was enfolded in a patient, waiting love.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Song, Stars, Waiting

  Madeleine L'Engle (2010). “Many Waters”, p.289, Macmillan

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• I have a 'Play The Melody' philosophy. It means don't over arrange, don't make life difficult. Just play the melody-and do it the simplest way possible.

  Jackie Gleason

  Inspirational, Philosophy, Mean

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• It appears to me that the subject of music, from Machaut to Boulez, has always been its construction. Melodies of 12-tone rows just don't happen. They must be constructed....To demonstrate any formal idea in music, whether structure or stricture, is a matter of construction, in which the methodology is the controlling metaphor of the composition...Only by 'unfixing' the elements traditionally used to construct a piece of music could the sounds exist in themselves--not as symbols, or memories which were memories of other music to begin with.

  Morton Feldman

  Music, Memories, Ideas

  "Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music" by Richard Kostelanetz, Joseph Darby, 1996.

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• Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
  Made still a blundering kind of melody;
  Spurr'd boldly on, and dash'd through thick and thin,
  Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in;
  Free from all meaning whether good or bad,
  And in one word, heroically mad.

  John Dryden

  Knowing, Mad, Poetry

  John Dryden (1873). “Poetical Works: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations”, p.69

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• Loud is the summer's busy song
  The smallest breeze can find a tongue,
  While insects of each tiny size
  Grow teasing with their melodies,
  Till noon burns with its blistering breath
  Around, and day lies still as death.

  John Clare

  Summer, Song, Lying

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• I like to write about the way things used to be and paint pictures of my memories with beautiful words and melodies.

  Lana Del Rey

  Beautiful, Memories, Writing

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• Pythagoras based musical education in the first place on certain melodies and rhythm that exercised a healing, a purifying influence on the human actions and passions, restoring 'Pristine Harmony' of the souls' faculties. He applied the same means to the curing of diseases of both body and mind.

  Porphyry

  Inspiration, Mean, Healing

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• I've just really been into melody and lyrics and songwriting. Writing a rap, to me, is easy. I could write a rap like that. But writing songs and melodies and s**t that's hopefully going to stick around for 30, 40 years is f**king hard...If you have good songs and you're talented, people will eventually come to your shows, people will buy your music.

  Kid Rock

  Song, Kings, Rap

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• You can't write a song out of thin air. You have to feel and know what you are writing about. ... Talent is only a starting point. You've got to keep working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there. ... Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it. ... The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. ... After you get what you want you don't want it. ... Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies. ... The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote, the melody lingers on.

  Irving Berlin

  Song, Hate, Writing

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• Some may find them merely diverting melodies. Others may find them incitements to Red revolution. And who will say if either or both is wrong? Not I.

  Pete Seeger

  May, Red, Revolution

  Pete Seeger (2013). “The Pete Seeger Reader”, p.42, Oxford University Press

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• My partner sometimes liked to go into the studio and improvise voice things just for fun. When I returned from England I transcribed one of her melodies, and had some of the hospice participants sing it, because they said they liked to sing. Their singing is very raw, but I'm going to use it for the final work.

  Meredith Monk

  Fun, Voice, Singing

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• The point about melody and beat and lyric is that they exist to engage you in a very particular way. They want to occupy your attention.

  Brian Eno

  Attention, Want, Way

  "Brian Eno: Success ruins artists". Interview with David Mitchell, www.salon.com. October 1, 2011.

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• Most of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don't fit in a very interesting way.

  Brian Eno

  Interesting, Trying, Hitting

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• I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last. Some people start with the lyrics first because they know what they want to talk about and they just write a whole bunch of lyrical ideas, but for me the music tells me what to talk about.

  John Legend

  Writing, Ideas, People

  Seventeen Interview, www.seventeen.com. November 23, 2006.

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• Do I start with the lyrics? No. Quite honestly, it's the opposite. I generally get the melody first - I kinda fiddle around on the guitar and work out a melody. The lyrics are there to flesh out the tone of the music. I've tried before to do things the other way around, but it never seems to work. Obviously, I spend a lot of time on my lyrics, I take them very seriously, but they're kinda secondary. Well, equal, maybe. I think sometimes that if you write a poem, it should remain as just a poem, just... words.

  Iron & Wine

  Writing, Thinking, Guitar

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