Hector Berlioz Quote

That is, in fact, the true female voice of the orchestra – a voice at once passionate and chaste, heart-rending, yet soft, which can weep, sigh, and lament, chant, pray, and muse, or burst forth into joyous accents, as none other can do.

Grand Traité d'Instrumentation et d'Orchestration Modernes (1844)