“Music fathoms the sky.”

—  Charles Baudelaire

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Music fathoms the sky." by Charles Baudelaire?
Charles Baudelaire photo
Charles Baudelaire 133
French poet 1821–1867

Related quotes

Machado de Assis photo

“To him the stars seemed like so many musical notes affixed to the sky, just waiting for somebody to unfasten them. Someday the sky would be emptied, but by then the earth would be a constellation of musical scores”

Machado de Assis (1839–1908) Brazilian writer

Source: The Devil's Church and Other Stories

Machado de Assis photo

“To him the stars seemed like so many musical notes affixed to the sky, just waiting for somebody to unfasten them.”

Machado de Assis (1839–1908) Brazilian writer
Henning Mankell photo

“It was a clear, starry night, dead calm. Whenever I see a sky
like that, I wish I could write music”

Henning Mankell book Italian Shoes

Source: Italian Shoes

Kage Baker photo

“The leaf that spreads in the sunlight is the only holiness there is. I haven’t found holiness in the faiths of mortals, nor in their music, nor in their dreams: it’s out in the open field, with the green rows looking at the sky. I don’t know what it is, this holiness: but it’s there, and it looks at the sky.”

Kage Baker book In the Garden of Iden

Source: In the Garden of Iden (1997), Chapter 5 (p. 46)

Susan Cain photo

“Upbeat tunes make us want to dance around our kitchens and invite friends for dinner. But it's sad music that makes us want to touch the sky.”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Bittersweet, Chapter 2 at p. 36

Willa Cather photo

“Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!”

Willa Cather book Death Comes for the Archbishop

Book VII, Ch. 4
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
Context: The sky was as full of motion and change as the desert beneath it was monotonous and still, — and there was so much sky, more than at sea, more than anywhere else in the world. The plain was there, under one's feet, but what one saw when one looked about was that brilliant blue world of stinging air and moving cloud. Even the mountains were mere ant-hills under it. Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!

Víctor Jara photo

“The cultural invasion is like a leafy tree which prevents us from seeing our own sun, sky and stars. Therefore in order to be able to see the sky above our heads, our task is to cut this tree off at the roots. US imperialism understands very well the magic of communication through music and persists in filling our young people with all sorts of commercial tripe. With professional expertise they have taken certain measures: first, the commercialization of the so-called ‘protest music’; second, the creation of ‘idols’ of protest music who obey the same rules and suffer from the same constraints as the other idols of the consumer music industry – they last a little while and then disappear. Meanwhile they are useful in neutralizing the innate spirit of rebellion of young people. The term ‘protest song’ is no longer valid because it is ambiguous and has been misused. I prefer the term ‘revolutionary song’.”

Víctor Jara (1932–1973) Pro teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, and political activist

In 1969 Jara commented about the distinction between the commercialised ‘protest song phenomenon’ imported into Chile and the nature of the New Chilean Song Movement (NCC).
Jara, Joan (1983). Victor: An Unfinished Song. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-02954-1. p. 121

Dorothy Wordsworth photo

“We saw a raven very high above us. It called out, and the dome of the sky seemed to echo the sound. It called again and again as it flew onwards, and the mountains gave back the sound, seeming as if from their centre; a musical bell-like answering to the bird's hoarse voice.”

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771–1855) English author, poet and diarist

July 27, 1800
Cf. Wordsworth's The Excursion, Book 4, lines 1175-87 http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww401.html.
Diaries

“Eliza has the sky in her eyes and I’ve always wanted to touch the goddamn sky.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

Walt Whitman photo

“Over all the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach, studded with the eternal stars.”

Walt Whitman book Drum-Taps

Drum-Taps. Bivouac on a Mountain-side
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Related topics