Irish Music Quotes

I grew up listening to a lot of player-piano music in my house and a lot of old Tin Pan Alley songs and American standards. My dad listened to a lot of traditional Irish music and I grew up doing musical theater. So most of the music I was exposed to as a kid was pre-rock n' roll. ~ John C. Reilly

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that. ~ Van Morrison

I'm a fanatic about Irish music. I love its moody, modal and timeless quality. I'm different from some other composers, because I don't look at this as just a job. I think of music as art. ~ James Horner

Gansey said abruptly. "In we go. Ronan, don't forget to set the directional markers as we go. We're counting on you. Don't just stare at me. Nod like you understand. Good. You know what? Give them to Jane."
"What?" Ronan sounded betrayed.
Blue accepted the markers - round, plastic discs with arrows drawn on them. She hadn't realized how nervous she was until she had them in her hands; it felt good to have something concrete to do.
"I want you to whistle or hum or sing, Ronan, and keep track of time," Gansey said.
"You have got to be shitting me," Ronan replied. "Me."
Gansey peered down the tunnel. "I know you know a lot of the songs all the way through, and can do them the same sped and length every time. Because you had to memorize all of those tunes for the Irish music competitions."
Blue and Adam exchanged a delighted look. The only thing more pleasing than seeing Ronan singled out was seeing him singled out and forced to repeatedly sing an Irish jig.
"Piss up a rope," Ronan said.
Gansey, unoffended, waited.
Ronan shook his head, but then, with a wicked smile, he began to sing, "Squash one, squash two, s-"
"Not that one," both Adam and Gansey said.
"I'm not listening to that for three hours," Adam said.
Gansey pointed at Ronan until he began to breathily whistle a jaunty reel.
And they went in deeper. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

My dad's Irish music was such a huge influence. ~ Dido Armstrong

Blue grass was the outgrowth of Irish music. As a matter of fact a lot the tunes, a lot of the melodies and the jigs ... have different names but are actually the same tunes. ~ Keith Getty

I'm Irish as hell: Kelly on one side, Shanley on the other. My father had been born on a farm in the Irish Midlands. He and his brothers had been shepherds there, cattle and sheep, back in the early 1920s. I grew up surrounded by brogues and Irish music, but stayed away from the old country till I was over 40. I just couldn't own being Irish. ~ John Patrick Shanley

To us, it's vey natural. Initially, it sounded kind of strange to people, because it is different to put traditional Irish music in a pop and rock mode. But they get used to it
it is our sound. ~ Andrea Corr

From his father, Gansey had gotten a head for logic, an affection for research, and a trust fund the size of most state lotteries. From their father, the Lynch brothers had gotten indefatigable egos, a decade of obscure Irish music instrument lessons, and the ability to box like they meant it. Niall Lynch had not been around very much, but when he had been, he had been an excellent teacher. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

When's the last time you walked by a pub in Dublin and heard Irish music? When's the last time you ordered a coffee and heard an Irish accent? ~ Michael Flatley

I grew up mostly with classical, big band, and a lot of Irish music - I really didn't start listening to rock and roll until I was maybe sixteen. ~ Moira Kelly

I have a real issue with radio these days. I just am not into the current music. ~ Carnie Wilson

[My music] is opposite to fashion. ~ Benjamin Clementine

You know the saying? Don't go in if you don't have a skin. ~ Jackie Williams

In our house we repeated the pattern of thousands of other homes. There were a few books and a lot of music. Our food and our furniture were no different from our neighbors'. ~ Emanuel Celler

One of Francie's favorite stores was the one which sold nothing but tea, coffee, and spices. It was an exciting place of rows of lacquered bins and strange, romantic, exotics odors. There were a dozen scarlet coffee bins with adventurous words written across the front in black China ink: Brazil! Argentine! Turkish! Java! Mixed Blend! The tea was in smaller bins: beautiful bins with sloping covers. They read: Oolong! Formosa! Orange Pekoe! Black China! Flowering Almond! Jasmine! Irish Tea! The spices were in miniature bins behind the counter. Their names marches in a row across the shelves: cinnamon
cloves
ginger
all-spice
ball nutmeg
curry
peppercorns
sage
thyme
marjoram. ~ Betty Smith

I made the decision that my contribution needed to be more musical than political. My music was enough, politically. Art matters. Art was enough. My music was enough to say what I had to say. ~ Kathleen Hanna

Since hip hop emerged from the South Bronx in the 1970s, it has become an international, multi-billion-dollar phenomenon. It has grown to encompass more than just rap music. Hip hop has created a culture that incorporates ethnicity, art, politics, fashion, technology and urban life." This debunks the widely accepted argument that the genre is inherently divisive. With so many factors converging to create such an intricate, informative and multi-faceted genre, whose history and impact have bridged barriers between artist and society, it is not too complicated an endeavor to understand that its relevance repudiates its notorious reputation. ~ Carlos Wallace

My music has to do with beauty, and it's intended to, if not lift the spirits, then be a kind of a balm to the spirits. ~ Nick Cave

Eventually you'll take the phrases and rhythm patterns you've copped and begin to put your own mark on them ~ Eddie Van Halen

Everyone goes through the ups and downs of living - fretting about the future, worrying about what happened. Music teaches us how to be in the moment. ~ David Sanborn

I'm not interested in the words or the meaning of the words. I'm interested in disappearing in it completely, to not be aware of yourself at all. That's the way music works for me. It's purely emotional. It goes straight to the heart. There are no explanations. That's just it. ~ Karl Ove Knausgaard

At the beginning of the 20th century, the ambition of the great painters was to make paintings that were like music, which was then considered as the noblest art. ~ Brian Eno

I love making records; I love making music; I love writing songs. ~ Barry Gibb

The last time I heard real screaming in the theatre was when I went to see a movie I did years ago, called 'Wait Until Dark.' Now, my mother was the least emotional person on the planet, but when I got killed in the movie, she stood up and screamed, 'That's my son!' At Radio City Music Hall in New York! ~ Alan Arkin

I want the people who listen to my music to feel the feeling that I feel, to cry the cry that I cry - justice. I want them to feel in their hearts the need for justice. ~ Ziggy Marley

I may quit the music business someday, but never the music. ~ Dan Fogelberg

But let me have silence always, in the centre of the shouting - that is essential! Let me have silence so that no pin may drop and not be heard, and not a whisper escape us for all our spouting, nor the needle's scratching upon this gramophone of a circular cosmic spot. Hear me! Mark me! Learn me! Throw the mind's ear open - shut up the mind's eye - all will be music! ~ Wyndham Lewis

LL Cool J is a huge presence. He is a music mogul. He brings that experience and that life into the room. ~ Barrett Foa

Music can reach those places where words alone can't go. ~ Arianna Huffington

With music that I write, I like to have in there something you can relate to, a way to share the experience. ~ Mike Romano

Certainly my only interest is not in Celtic music. ~ Nobuo Uematsu

I prefer Offenbach to Bach often. ~ Thomas Beecham

I believe that interpretation should be like a transparent glass, a window for the composer's music. ~ Vladimir Ashkenazy

Thank God For Writing, As Now I Can Work Until My Last Breath! ~ Latif Mercado

I was greatly influenced by musique concrete when I was, like, 10. I was completely mesmerized by the idea that you could make music out of sounds. So that's been a constant influence on all my work. ~ Walter Murch

I was raised in a very humble environment, and I was always taught to be humble to the things that are happening in my life because they're blessings. They're blessings in every way. Whether you're able to help someone get through a tough time in their life through your music or through comedy, or whatever it is, you're just a channel. ~ Justin Timberlake

I'm thought of as this pissy, complaining, freaked-out schizophrenic who wants to kill himself all the time. ~ Kurt Cobain

I'm everything I'm made of. So a part of me is made of classical music. I'm grateful for it. ~ Ledisi

If you ever see shitty ass rock dudes in shitty ass rock bands asking you to show them your tist for backstage passes, I want you to spit right in their fucking faces and yell 'FUCK YOU! ~ Gerard Way

I always wanted to do music that influences and inspires each generation. ~ Michael Jackson

He appeared to enjoy beyond everything the sound of his own voice. I couldn't wonder at that, for it was mellow and full and gave great importance to every word he uttered. He listened to himself with obvious satisfaction and sometimes gently beat time to his own music with his head or rounded a sentence with his hand. ~ Charles Dickens

Here's what I'm going to have to say to all of you. If some of you have demons in your head who talk to you in profanity or whatever, don't let your demon shoot down your rock music, don't let your demon keep you off the joy bus. So like I say, Rock music pays off. ~ Wesley Willis

I've had a wonderful life with music. ~ Lionel Ferbos

I am sorry. I can not invite you home for Christmas because I am Irish and my family is mad ~ Anne Enright

Chords reel and the mind reels,
and for all I know
The minds of the Gods reel as well
For if the Gods have minds
They must be attuned to music and to harmony.
Harmony is but the pulse of Chaos
And to such pulsation
Even stones resound. ~ Tobeimean Peter

Mum is a photographer, and Dad does world music and plays almost every instrument except for drums. ~ Lykke Li

Folk music is a bunch of fat people. ~ Bob Dylan

Tonight I will suck the marrow from your bones!" it said. "I will dry them and work them most cunningly into instruments of music! Whenever I play upon them, your spirit will writhe in bodiless agony!"
"You burn prettily," I said. ~ Roger Zelazny

I used to think that music was like lace upon a garment, nice to have but not necessary. I have come to believe that music is absolutely essential to our community life. ~ George Eastman

The Day is Done

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

O soul, be patient: thou shalt find A little matter mend all this; Some strain of music to thy mind, Some praise for skill not spent amiss. ~ Robert Bridges

One of the biggest challenges in the past for me in working on the networks was that audiences have grown accustomed to television being something that keeps you company-background music, something that you have on while you're flipping through a magazine, cooking dinner, talking on the phone, putting the kids to bed. ~ Aaron Sorkin

What a shitty way to go through life, hiding your love for music so that people don't think the wrong things about you. ~ Ahmir Questlove Thompson

Smells, like music, hold memories. She breathed deep, and bottled it up for posterity. ~ Arundhati Roy

Growing up in a multicultural family, I never really felt that I was different - even though I was from most of the kids in my school. Especially with music, I try to just approach it as an equal. ~ Priscilla Ahn

All my people are from Ireland. I was born in Manchester, but I am Irish. ~ Tyson Fury

I know my sound, and I have to be true to who I am as an artist, even though I want be real cool, and make really cool music. ~ Brooke Fraser

Oments of transport, and of comfort, and of a bracing vastness of possibility. That was all there for me sometimes when I plunged my mind into the Bible's puzzles; and it was always there in the music of church. I wouldn't have said it this way then. But I would feel all the cells in my body as I sang hymns that connected my little life with the grandeur of the cosmos, the Christian drama across space and time. This was my earliest experience of breath and body, mind and spirit soaring together, alive to both mystery and reality, in kinship with others both familiar and unknown. That's one way I'd define the feeling of faith now. ~ Krista Tippett

Well, listen, anger doesn't get anything done, so you have to find out: How do you make it work? That's why I was always maniacal about transforming every problem into a puzzle which I can solve. I can solve a puzzle - a problem just stresses me out. ~ Quincy Jones