Harmonies of the Soul: A Curated Collection of Inspirational Quotes for Choir Enthusiasts

"Choral music is not one of life’s frills. It’s something that goes to the very heart of our humanity, our sense of community, and our souls. You express, when you sing, your soul in song. And when you get together with a group of other singers, it becomes more than the sum of the parts. All of those people are pouring out their hearts and souls in perfect harmony, which is kind of an emblem for what we need in this world, when so much of the world is at odds with itself…that just to express, in symbolic terms, what it’s like when human beings are in harmony. That’s a lesson for our times and for all time. I profoundly believe that. And musical excellence is, of course, at the heart of it. But, even if a choir is not the greatest in the world, the fact that they are meeting together has a social value. It has a communal value. And I always say that a church or a school without a choir is like a body without a soul. We have to have a soul in our lives. And everybody tells me, who has sung in a choir, that they feel better for doing it. That whatever the cares of the day, if they maybe meet after a long day’s school or work, that somehow you leave your troubles at the door. And when you’re sitting there, making music for a couple hours at the end of the day, that’s the only thing that matters at that moment. And you walk away refreshed. You walk away renewed. And that’s a value that goes just beyond the music itself. Of course, as a musician, I put the music at the heart of it, but all of these other values just stand out as a beacon. I think our politicians need to take note…my gosh do they ever! [laughs], and our educators, those who decide education budgets, church budgets, just need to remember it’s not a frill. It’s like a great oak that rises up from the center of the human race and spreads its branches everywhere. That’s what music does for us. And choral music must stand as one of the supreme examples of it."

- John Rutter

"Sing, then. Sing, indeed, with shoulders back, and head up so that song might go to the roof and beyond to the sky. Mass on mass of tone, with a hard edge, and rich with quality, every single note a carpet of colour woven from basso profundo, and basso, and baritone, and alto, and tenor, and soprano, and also mezzo, and contralto, singing and singing, until life and all things living are become a song. O, Voice of Man, organ of most lovely might."

- Richard Llewellyn

"Through your music, you will be able to rise above the physical into the spiritual. You will be watched over and kept, and angels will attend you and be with you."

- James E. Faust

"Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing."

- Psalm 100:2

"The singing of hymns is one of the best ways to learn the doctrine of the restored gospel."

- Dallin H. Oaks

"The singing of our sacred hymns, written by the servants of God, has a powerful effect in converting people to the principles of the gospel, and in promoting peace and spiritual growth."

- Heber J. Grant

"Music is truly the universal language, and when it is excellently expressed how deeply it moves our souls."

- David O. McKay

"Sacred music has a unique capacity to communicate our feelings of love for the Lord."

- Dallin H. Oaks

"The most effective preaching of the gospel is when it is accompanied by beautiful, appropriate music."

- Harold B. Lee

"Inspirational music is an essential part of our church meetings. The hymns invite the Spirit of the Lord, create a feeling of reverence, unify us as members, and provide a way for us to offer praises to the Lord."

- The First Presidency

"Music can act upon our senses to produce or induce feelings of reverence, humility, fervor, assurance, or other feelings attuned to the spirit of worship."

- Spencer W. Kimball

"We are able to feel and learn very quickly through music, through art, through poetry some spiritual things that we would otherwise learn very slowly."

- Boyd K. Packer

"My soul is always lifted up, and my spirit cheered and comforted, when I hear good music. I rejoice in it very much indeed."

- Joseph Fielding Smith

"Listen to and sing the music of heaven."

- William R. Bradford

"Good music, especially sacred music, makes spiritual things more understandable. It is edifying and conductive to understanding. It prepares emotions for response to promptings of the Holy Spirit."

- Richard G. Scott

"A choir is made up of many voices, including yours and mine. If one by one all go silent then all that will be left are the soloists. Don’t let a loud few determine the nature of the sound. It makes for poor harmony and diminishes the song."

- Vera Nazarian

"The first breath a choir, orchestra or band takes together, a breath filled with focus, intention and emotion, a breath unified for no other reason than to make something beautiful together...that is the reason we do what we do."

- Eric Whitacre

"Can anyone doubt that good music is godly or that there can be something of the essence of heaven in great art?"

- Gordon B. Hinckley

"Some of the greatest sermons that have ever been preached were preached by the singing of a song."

- Spencer W. Kimball

"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads."

- Doctrine and Covenants 25:12

"Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: sing forth the honor of his name: make his praise glorious."

- Psalm 66:1–2

"Through the miracle of sacred music, the Spirit of the Lord descended upon us, and we were made ready for gospel instruction and worship."

- Dallin H. Oaks

"We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer."

- J. Reuben Clark Jr.

"Music is an effective way to worship our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ."

- Dallin H. Oaks

"Inspiring music may fill the soul with heavenly thoughts, move one to righteous action, or speak peace to the soul."

- Ezra Taft Benson

"Some of the greatest sermons are preached by the singing of hymns. Hymns move us to repentance and good works, build testimony and faith, comfort the weary, console the mourning, and inspire us to endure to the end."

- The First Presidency

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."

- Colossians 3:16

"The singing of hymns is one of the best ways to put ourselves in tune with the Spirit of the Lord."

- Dallin H. Oaks

"Music can set an atmosphere of worship which invites [the] spirit of revelation, of testimony."

- Boyd K. Packer

"If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving."

- Doctrine and Covenants 136:28

"We are in a position, as musicians, to touch the souls of those who listen."

- Spencer W. Kimball

"Music is given of God to further his purposes. Sweet melodies mellow the souls of men and help prepare them for the gospel."

- Bruce R. McConkie

"Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyone's very heart. There was no sense of performance or judgment, only that the music was breath and food."

- Anne Lamott

"Our doctrine is memorized when we memorize our hymns."

- Hugh Pinnock

"I have found that my tiny church, St. Andrew Presbyterian, has given me a shape to work against--a darning egg--for the last thirty years, what with all these holes. We have a choir of eight people who open their mouths, and a huge sound comes out, a mix of joy, pain, faith and conversational exposition. Spirit rises and falls in the voices, the choir's and ours. The singing is full-throated and clear, like the sound your finger makes when you run it around the rim of a crystal glass. It is like African singing where people call from various spots and create one sound. Twenty minutes after the first cave children started kicking around the first improvised balls, people started singing. Half an hour later, they found harmonies. Even with a couple of exceptional singers in the choir, you hear a solid spirit of song, rather than how individuals personally embellish it. The rising and falling is like all of us leaning forward together, then leaning backward on our heels, then coming forward together again. Spirit flows, and the sounds keep stirring that spirit, as the breezes from the high open windows above us keep stirring the air. Sometimes the pianist hits a few false notes, or the soloist warbles, and some of us sing along enthusiastically in the wrong key and the old people's voices dim. But we all keep singing, a mix of magnificence and plainsong that is beautiful, and the hymn plays on."

- Anne Lamott

"I am comforted by the assurance that there will be beautiful music in heaven, and for that I am most grateful."

- Spencer W. Kimball

"Those who choose, conduct, present, and accompany the music may influence the spirit of reverence in our meetings more than a speaker does."

- Boyd K. Packer

"It really matters what you listen to. . . . Select music that will strengthen your spirit."

- Russell M. Nelson

"There is an unlimited supply of good music in the world. Thus our biggest challenge is to choose wisely what we listen to and what we watch."

- M. Russell Ballard

"Choir actually changed my life and taught me how to dedicate myself to a collective and settle for nothing less than excellence."

- Lindy West

"Then all the winds of Heaven ran to join hands and bend a shoulder, to bring down to me the sound of a noble hymn that was heavy with the perfume of Time That Has Gone. The glittering multitudes were singing most mightily, and my heart was in blood to hear a Voice that I knew. The Men of the Valley were marching again. My Fathers were singing up there. Loud, triumphant, the anthem rose, and I knew, in some deep place within, that in the royal music was a prayer to lift up my spirit, to be of good cheer, to keep the faith, that Death was only an end to the things that are made of clay, and to fight, without heed of wounds, all that brings death to the Spirit, with Glory to the Eternal Father, forever, Amen."

- Richard Llewellyn

"The choir is silent when the audience isn't listening."

- Anthony T. Hincks

"The first time I sang in the church choir; two hundred people changed their religion."

- Fred Allen

"Go to church to learn about forgiveness; come back to become a forgiver! Go to church and learn about kindness; come back to become a kind person! If things go like that, you will be a true image of Christ after going to church only 10 times on 10 Sundays!"

- Israelmore Ayivor

"I was fired ignominiously from the Junior School Choir for being so off tune that the choir mistress declared she couldn't even bear to have me mime."

- Sara Sheridan