Sigur Ros

I was watching Sigur Ros’s video Svefn G Englar 2 days ago and it starts with quotes on music by various people for the first 2 minutes. Sigur Ros (it means Victory Rose) is an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical, experimental, and minimalist elements. The band is known for its ethereal sound and lead singer Jónsi’s falsetto voice. I’m now currently listening to their albums Takk and Von Brigai, my favourite tracks are Hoppipolla and Hufupukar. Do give them a listen; they’re similar yet so different from the likes of Explosions in the Sky.

I watched the video, pausing ever so often to get those quotes and here they are.

Without music, life would be a mistake
-Nietzche

Music was invented to confirm human loneliness
-Lawrence Durrell

Music is the shorthand of emotion
-Leo Tolstoy

Music expresses that which cannot be said
on which it is impossible to be silent
-Victor Hogo

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe,
wings to the mind, flight to the imagination,
and charm and gaeity, to life and everything.
-Plato

A painter paints pictures on canvas,
But musicians paints their pictures on silence.
-Leopoio Stokowski

See deep enough, and you see musically;
the heart of nature being everywhere music.
-Thomas Carlyle

In the end, I think of music
as saving grace for all humanity.
-Henry Miller

Music is well said to be the speech of angels;
in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to men is felt
to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite.
-Thomas Carlyle

Those quotes did make me ponder on the impact music has on our lives.