Johann Sebastian Bach: Quotes about music

Bei einer andächtigen Musik ist allezeit Gott mit seiner Gnaden Gegenwart.
Annotation in a copy of the Calov Bible, cited from John Butt (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Bach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 256; translation from ibid., p. 46

Variant: The final aim and reason of all music is nothing other than the glorification of God and the refreshment of the spirit.

Variant: There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.

Quoted in Ludwig Prautzsch Bibel und Symbol in den Werken Bachs, p. 7 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xaG9peANY9kC&pg=PA7&dq=teuflisches+%22Finis+und+Endursache+anders+nicht,+als+nur+zu+Gottes+Ehre+%22;translation from Albert Schweitzer (trans. Ernest Newman) J. S. Bach (New York: Dover, 1966), vol. 1, p. 167
Variant: Like all music, the figured bass should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul; where this is not kept in mind there is no true music, but only an infernal clamour and ranting.