Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, I hear them all at once. What a delight this is! All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing, lively dream. My subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised and define, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statute, at a glance. Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music. I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness. As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling! And I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness. |
