“Shh. Listen to the sounds that surround you. Notice the pitches, the volume, the timbre, the many lines of counterpoint. As light taught Monet to paint, the earth may be teaching you music.”
How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger (1981)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "Shh. Listen to the sounds that surround you. Notice the pitches, the volume, the timbre, the many lines of counterpoint…" by Pete Seeger?
Pete Seeger 38
American folk singer 1919–2014Related quotes
Alan Watts
(1915–1973) British philosopher, writer and speaker
Source: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), p. 95
Basshunter
(1984) Swedish singer, record producer and DJ
BBC interview (25 July 2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/entertainment/newsid_7522000/7522129.stm
“Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light.”
Claude Debussy
(1862–1918) French composer
As quoted in Greatness : Who Makes History and Why by Dean Keith Simonton, p. 110
Denise Levertov
(1923–1997) Poet
A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)
Context: Then as he sang
it was no longer sounds only that made the music:
he spoke, and as no tree listens I listened, and language
came into my roots
out of the earth,
into my bark
out of the air,
into the pores of my greenest shoots
gently as dew
and there was no word he sang but I knew its meaning.
“The earth has its music for those who will listen.”
Often misattributed to Shakespeare, because the words remind us of “If music be the food of love play on”. Statement is also commonly associated with Santayana, but no source or attribution can be found in his works or correspondence.
Variant: The earth has music for those who listen.
Source: Book Fireside Fancies, Poem The Magic of Sound. 1955.
Context: I've heard the soft whisper of wind in the pine trees,
The silvery ripple of brooklets at play;
I've heard the low voice of a sweet singing mother
As she sang to her child at the end of the day.
I've heard the faint rustle of sails in the sunset
And blue waves caressing the wild, rockbound shore;
The whistle of trains as they cross the green prairie
And mountains re-echo the cataract’s roar.
The notes of the organs in ancient cathedrals,
Where hearts of the faithful are lifted in song;
I've heard the gay laughter as children were playing,
The chatter and buzz of a large, happy throng.
The earth has its music for those who will listen;
Its bright variations forever abound.
With all of the wonders that God has bequeathed us,
There's nothing that thrills like the magic of sound.
