Thoughts on music

„Music unlocks to man an unknown realm; a world that has nothing in common with the outermost world of senses that surrounds him, and in which he leaves behind all feelings determinable by concepts in order to surrender to the unspeakable.“                                                                                         (Review of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, 1809)

„Each of the wonderful sounds in Don Juan mysteriously devours itself into the whole like rays reflected in a focus.“                                                                                                                                                          (To a Don Giovanni performance, 1815)

„How when the poet’s spirit in the ecstasy of receiving stimulated the musician and he thought the melodies, so that, as it were, the tuned string resonated within him? […] As when often a third spiritual principle in nature winds a ribbon around both, and word and sound like a messenger of love would bring over from one to the other, as the butterflies carry the fertilizing dust from flower to flower?                                                                                                                                                                                (A hunch from the realm of tones, 1816)