JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

     "To the Highest God alone be glory”

(Leaver, 1985, 29)

 

     “God is a God of order.”

(Terry, 1967, 113)

 

     “God prescribes, carves out, calculates and arranges everything for us, and thus explains His will how He wants to be respected by us; therefore, in matters of religion we should presume and do nothing without His revealed word.”

(Ibid. 114)

 

     “I can only bear my cross in patience and commend my undutiful boy to God’s mercy, never doubting that He will hear my sorrow-stricken prayer and in His good time bring my son to understand that the path of conversion leads to Him.”

(Ibid. 245)

 

     “God, who sees all things.”

(Ibid. 246)

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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

 

     “God is immaterial; as He is invisible. He can, therefore, have no form. But from what we are able to perceive in His works we conclude that  He is eternal, almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent. The Mighty One, He alone is free from all desire or passion. There is no greater than He . . . His mind is self-existent. He, the Almighty, is present in every part of space. His omniscience is self-inspired, and His conception includes every other. Of His all-embracing attributes the greatest is omniscience. For there is no threefold kind of being--it is independent of everything--O God! Thou art the true, eternal, blessed, unchangeable light of all time and space. Thy wisdom apprehends thousands and still thousands of laws, and yet Thou ever actest of Thy free will, and to Thy honor. Thou wast before all that we worship. To Thee is due praise and adoration. Thou alone art the true . . . Thou, the best of all laws, the image of all wisdom, present throughout the whole world. Thou sustaineth all things.”

(Kalisher, 1926, 393-394)

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CRISTOPH GLUCK

 

“I commend my soul to the infinite mercy of God.”

(Hedwig, 1962)

 

“I thank God that I am healthy again.”

(Ibid. 206)

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GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL

      “He was a man of blameless morals, and throughout his life manifested a deep sense of religion. In conversation he would frequently declare the pleasure he felt in setting the scriptures to music: and how much the contemplating the many sublime passages in the Psalms had contributed to his edification.”

(Manson-Myers, 1971, 79-80)

 

“Ye servants of th’ eternal King

     His pow’r and glory sing;

And speak of all His righteous ways

     With wonder and with praise.”

(Burrows, 1994, 320)

 

“Oh first created beam! And Thou great word!

Let there be light! And light was over all.”

(Ibid. 321)

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FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN

 

     “I thank my Creator daily for His boon.”

(Robbins, 1959, 120)

 

     “The Almighty is my support.”

(Ibid. 120)

 

     “May God grant me good health; I’ve enjoyed it up to now, and I hope that through my good conduct the Almighty will continue to grant it to me.”

(Ibid. 120)

 

     “May the Almighty grant me just enough strength, before my end, to enable me to express in music the emotion which this undeserved act of spiritual grace has awakened in me.”

(Ibid. 241)

 

     “Never before was I so devout as when I composed ‘The Creation.’ I knelt down each day to pray to God to give me the strength for my work.”

(Butterworth, 1977, 122)

 

     “I expect my dismissal, whereby I hope that God will give me the strength to make up for the loss.”

(Landon, 1981, 128)

 

     “ The Emperor Franz asked him . . . which product of his art he preferred, ‘The Creation’ or ‘The Seasons.’ ‘The Creation,’ replied Haydn. ‘And why?’ In ‘The Creation,’ angels speak and tell God, but in ‘The Seasons’ only Simon talks.”

(Ibid. 187)

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FRANZ LISZT

 

     “Everything is transitory except the word of God, which is eternal--and the word of God reveals itself in the creation of genius.”

(Walker, 1989, 544)

 

     “Yes ‘Jesus Christ on the cross,’ a yearning longing after the cross, --this was ever my true inner calling; I have felt it in my innermost heart ever since my seventeenth year . . . In spite of the transgressions and errors which I have committed, and for which I feel sincere repentance and contrition, the holy light of the Cross has never entirely withdrawn from me. At times indeed the refulgence of this Divine light has overflowed my entire soul. I thank God for this, and shall die with my soul fixed upon the Cross, our redemption and our highest bliss.”

(La Mara, 1968, 439)

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GUSTAV MAHLER

 

"I am from God and will return to God.

God will give me a candle to light me to the bliss

Of eternal life."

(Gartenberg, 1978, 266)

 

"I am from God and wish to return

To God."

(Ibid. 272)

 

"Come Thou, Infinite Creator,

Let Thy Spirit visit us

Inflame our senses with Thy light

With Thy love fill our heart."

(Ibid. 321)

 

“All of creation adorns itself continually for God. Everyone has only one duty, to be as beautiful as possible in every way in the eyes of God and man. Ugliness is an insult to God.”

(Mahler, 190)

 

“My earnest desire . . . to set up my God in the place of the idols of clay.”

(Ibid. 190)

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PIETRO MASCAGNI

     “We Christians know that the sweet and tender man, that alone and isolated preached goodness to humanity, was Jesus; We know that Jesus belongs to the Divinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; but He came on earth for His Divine mission in the likeness of mortal man, and men that heard His law of love felt new sentiments in their inspired heart . . . He creates, divinely creates.”

(Morini, 1964, 180)

 

     “Jesus was Divinity; this indicates that genius is a divine gift, because only Divinity can create that which does not exist. Therefore, Jesus, having come to the earth as a man, to teach man.  His new law for the good of humanity, remains Divine, but can be considered a man of genius for the creation and the preaching of His law divinely human.”

(Ibid. 175)

 

     “Art, to be truly art, needs the Divine gift of creation.”

(Ibid. 175)

 

     “I have absolute faith in God;”

(Ibid. 180)

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GIACOMO PUCCINI

     “May it be as God decrees and the humble subscriber desires.”

(Adani, 1971, 196)

 

    “So far, God be thanked, I have had my full share of success.”

(Ibid. 111)

 

     “I was born so many years ago . . . and Almighty God touched me with His little finger and said: ‘write only for the theatre . . . And I have obeyed the supreme command.”

(Ibid. 179)

 

    “I don’t say full steam ahead, but have got started again, and God grant me good going.”

(Ibid. 296)

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HENRY PURCELL

 

     “My soul I surrender up to Almighty God, my Creator, in the merits of Jesus Christ my Redeemer.”

(Zimmerman, 1967, 368)

 

     “It is not fit nor decent that such as should sing the praises

of God Almighty should be trained or employed in lascivious or profane exercises.”

(Ibid.  30)

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SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

     “The group of songs (Opus 21) contains one which might be described as the composer’s own confession. It is very moving and would serve as a fitting motto for his life and work.”

 

                     No prophet I, no warrior bold

                     No learned mantle wearing

                     But as I go my harp I hold

                     The grace of God declaring.

                     (Von Rieseman, 1970, 225)

 

     “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.”

(Martyn, 1990, 257)

 

     “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.”

(Ibid. 220)

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IGOR STRAVINSKY

 

     “My artistic goal is to make an object . . . I create the object because God makes me create it, just as He created me.”

(Stravinsky, 1978, 552)

 

     “The more one separates himself from the canons of the Christian church, the further one distances oneself from the truth. These canons are true for musical compositions as they are for the life of an individual.”

(Ibid. 295)

 

     “And so, when I can enjoy a peaceful and undisturbed period for composition to the full, when the work has progressed so far that my heart can be at rest, or even, better still, when, with God’s help, it (The opera Eugene Onegin), is completely finished.”

(Stravinsky, 1962, 497)

 

     “If God wills that I finish this opera (The Queen of Spades),

It will be Schick.”

(Ibid. 436)