“Hymn tunes are the nearest we've got to English folk music.”
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John Betjeman 30
English poet, writer and broadcaster 1906–1984Related quotes
His comment to his wife On his daily prayers he would sings devotional songs out of tune and metre. Quoted in page=104
“After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
"The Rest is Silence"
Source: Music at Night and Other Essays (1931)
“Who says that English folk have no fairy-tales of their own?”
English Fairy Tales (1890), Preface to English Fairy Tales
“And oft with holy hymns he charm'd their ears, And music more melodious than the spheres.”
Source: The Romantic Generation (1995), Ch. 7 : Chopin: From the Miniature Genre to the Sublime Style
Pop Chronicles, Show 1 - Play A Simple Melody: Pete Seeger on the origins of pop music http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19745/m1/, interview recorded 2.14.1968 http://web.archive.org/web/20110615153027/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/o-s.
“Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilised into time and tune.”
The History of the Worthies of England (1662): Musicians.
“All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.”
Variant: All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.