QuoteProject
The oldest, truest, most beautiful organ of music, the origin to which alone our music owes its being, is the human voice.
Richard Wagner
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The human voice is the fundamental source of music, connecting us deeply to the essence of musical expression.

Richard Wagner emphasizes the profound importance of the human voice in the realm of music, suggesting that it is not only the oldest instrument but also the most authentic and beautiful. He implies that all forms of music stem from the voice, highlighting its unique role in art and expression, and suggesting that the emotional and spiritual qualities of music are inherently tied to our ability to vocalize and communicate.

Themes

MusicHuman VoiceExpressionArtCreativity

In practice

Example use cases

In a presentation about the importance of art, this quote can highlight the uniqueness of human expression.

More from Richard Wagner

We must learn to die, and to die in the fullest sense of the word. The fear of the end is the source of all lovelessness
Richard WagnerRead
Here, everything is tragic through and through, and the will, that fain would shape a world according to its wish, at last can reach no greater satisfaction than the breaking of itself in dignified annulment.
Richard WagnerRead
I can't distract myself enough here, for sketches to a new opera are constantly buzzing around in my head, to the extent that I need all my strength to wrest myself from them.
Richard WagnerRead
Everything lives and lasts by the inner necessity of its being, by its own nature's need.
Richard WagnerRead
One might say that where Religion becomes artificial, it is reserved for Art to save the spirit of religion.
Richard WagnerRead
I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven, and likewise their disciples and apostles; - I believe in the Holy Spirit and the truth of the one, indivisible Art; - I believe that this Art proceeds from God, and lives within the hearts of all illumined men.
Richard WagnerRead

Similar quotes

No doubt the artist is the child of his time; but woe to him if he is also its disciple, or even its favorite.
Friedrich SchillerRead
I've spent most of my life embracing violence in wars and revolutions. Even a famine is a form of violence. Because I photograph people in peril, people in pain, people being executed in front of me, I find it very difficult to get my head around the art narrative of photography.
Don MccullinRead
Art remains the one way possible of speaking truth.
Robert BrowningRead
You have to really have the will to hang onto the first note as it is being played, and then really stay with it and take the flight, as it were, you know, for the duration of the piece.
Daniel BarenboimRead
Film is an emotional medium; it's not a logical medium. It's not an intellectual medium, so every decision you make as a filmmaker and an actor has to be emotional in some way, even in the rejection of logic.
Paul HaggisRead
Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations.
Orson WellesRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.