Rachmaninoff on music

“What is music? How can one define it?  Music is a calm moonlit night, a rustling of summer foliage.  Music is the distant peal of bells at eventide.  Music is born only of the heart and it appeals to the heart.  It is love.  The sister of music is poetry and the mother – sorrow!”

– Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Cited in: Piggott, Patrick (1978) Rachmaninoff.  London: Faber and Faber, p.56

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