"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul."
— Johann Sebastian Bach
The Aim And Final End Of
The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.
About this quote
This declaration appears as the epigraph to Bach's Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book), a collection of chorale preludes he composed around 1717 while at the court of Weimar and completed in part at Köthen. Bach inscribed the collection "To the honour of the Most High God alone, and for the instruction of my neighbour" — a formulation he used in various forms throughout his life. It reflects his Lutheran theology: music was not self-expression but an act of worship.
Source
Epigraph to the Little Organ Book (Orgelbüchlein, 1717)