"I would wish with all my heart that this divine and most excellent gift, music, be praised and commended to everyone. … To man alone, above all other creatures, has speech joined to voice been given, so that he might know that he ought to praise God with both word and music."
— Martin Luther
Source: Preface to Georg Rhau's Symphoniae iucundae (1538), translated from the Latin (WA 50:368–374)