I am music

Author's note to my readers: I suggest you allot some extra time to listen to the incredible music linked in this post! 

I am music...

I tell the story of love,1 the story of sorrow,2 the story that saves3 and the story that destroys4…. I am the smoke5 which palls over the field of battle where men die with me on their lips. I am close to the marriage altar,6 and when the grave opens7 I stand nearby. I call the wanderer home,8 I rescue the soul9 from the depths; I open the lips of lovers10 and through me the dead whisper to the living.11 One I serve as I serve all, and the leaders I make my slaves as easily as I subject their slaves. I speak through the birds of the air, the insects of the field, the crash of waters on rock-ribbed shores,12 the sighing of the wind in the trees and I am even heard by the soul that knows me in the clatter of the wheels on city streets.13 

I am music

Anonymous.  Quoted in Music Lovers Quotations, edited by Helen Exley.

I will add that in music, we mortals taste a faint tincture of the divine presence and joy of the Lord.  Thank God for music!  EW

Pieces referenced in this post

1. Tchaikovsky, "Love Theme," Romeo and Juliet (2:06)

2. Barber, Adagio for Strings (8:50)

3. Holst, "Jupiter," The Planets (7:45)

4. Williams, "Imperial March," Star Wars (3:49)

5. Holst, "Mars," The Planets (6:57)

6. Grieg, "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" (5:57)

7. Bach, "Et resurrexit," Mass in B Minor (3:41)
   

8. Schönberg and Boubil, "Bring Him Home," Les Miserables (4:03)
   

9. Brahms, "How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place," Requiem (5:27)
   

10. Schönberg and Boubil, "In My Life," Les Miserables (4:17)
    

11. Schönberg and Boubil, "Epilogue and Finale," Les Miserables (8:43)
    

12. Haydn, "The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God," The Creation (3:41)
    

13. Gershwin, An American in Paris (18:24)