Music Creates Order Out of Chaos | Yehudi Menuhin, 1916-1999
“Music is a therapy. It is a communication far more powerful than words,
far more immediate, far more efficient.”
“To play great music, you must keep your eyes on a distant star.”
“Music lives and breathes to tell us who we are and what we face.
It is a path between ourselves and the infinite.”
“Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent,
melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility
upon the incongruous.”
“It is music that welds spiritual and sensual, that can convey ecstasy free of guilt, faith
without dogma, love as homage, and a person at home with nature and the infinite.”
“I can only think of music as something inherent in every human being – a birthright.
Music coordinates mind, body and spirit.”
“We are full of rhythms . . . our pulse, our gestures, our digestive tracts,
the lunar and seasonal cycles.”
Yehudi Menuhin
Lucien Aigner, Yehudi Menuhin, 1940
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“If I wanted to play the violin, I had to work. Because anything that one wants to do really, and
one loves doing, one must do everyday. It should be as easy to the artist and as natural as flying
is to a bird. And you can’t imagine a bird saying well, I’m tired today, I’m not going to fly!”
“The violinist is that peculiarly human phenomenon distilled to a rare potency—half tiger, half poet.”
“To be an outstanding musician, you have to be very attentive to the smallest detail and willing to
have infinite patience in the pursuit of your ideal. You require absolute control and professionalism.”
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin – “Ave Maria”/”Flight of the Bumble Bee” (1943)
Stage Door Canteen, 1943 Dir. Frank Borzage
