Christmas

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

"It's so dreadful to be poor!" sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

"We've got Father and Mother, and each other," said Beth contentedly from her corner."

- from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott


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Music

“Elemental music is never just music. It’s bound up with movement, dance and speech, and so it is a form of music in which one must participate, in which one is involved not as a listener but as a co-performer.” - Carl Orff

“Music enhances the education of our children by helping them to make connections and broadening the depth with which they think and feel. If we are to hope for a society of culturally literate people, music must be a vital part of our children’s education.” - Yo-Yo Ma

“When you play, never mind who listens.” - Robert Schumann

“To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.” - Ludwig van Beethoven

“With music, one’s whole future life is brightened. This is such a treasure in life that it helps us over many troubles and difficulties. Music is nourishment, a comforting elixir. Music multiplies all that is beautiful and of value in life.” - Zoltan Kodaly

"If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart." - Shinichi Suzuki

“Music is the shorthand of emotion.” - Leo Tolstoy

“Beethoven tells you what it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe.” - Douglas Adams

“Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.” - Maria Augusta von Trapp

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Math and Music

"Mathematics and music share many traits, not least of which being their reliance on a good system of notation."

- Eli Maor, The Pythagorean Theorem

Ernst Bacon on Music Performance

"How you begin a piece is everything.  It is in the first bar that you establish your art with the listener.  Some there are who arrive at their tempo and tone level only after some desultory bars have passed.  Such vacillation proves to be costly.  There remains more to recover than has been lost; like reestablishing a good name after a misdeed."

- Notes on the Piano by Ernst Bacon, page 14

Ernst Bacon on Music

"Music is full of secrets.  They may be shared by many, yet sparingly told."

- Notes on the Piano by Ernst Bacon, page 3

C. S. Lewis on Teaching

"It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire." ~ C. S. Lewis

in his introduction to Athanasius: On the Incarnation

Another quote from Tricia Tunstall

As stated previously, I've been reading Note by Note by Tricia Tunstall. Below is her exploration into the challenges of learning piano.

"As a student moves beyond the beginning stages, the issue of technique begins to loom large: developing proper hand a finger position, acquiring strength and independence of fingers, cultivating muscle control. An instrumentalist is an athlete. There is no way around the need for intense physical training; without it, the ability to play a Beethoven sonata is about as unlikely as the ability to pole-vault. But while pole-vaulters and soccer players and gymnasts usually practice together, a piano student practices his technical exercises alone, and it can feel like drudgery." (page 90)

Quote from Note by Note

I am currently reading Note by Note by Tricia Tunstall.

The following quote stood out to me:
"Piano lessons are not only about music but also about trust and confidence, chaos and order, spontaneity and discipline and patience, sometimes even about love . . . and once again, and always, about music: its beauty, its power, its capacity to convey profound emotions beyond the reach of words." (pg. 4)