"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception." (When asked about his theory of relativity)
-- Albert Einstein
See my paintings and sculptures at Saatchiart.com. In the search box, choose Artist and enter Charles Zigmund.
"It was not a fortuitous meeting of cordial atoms that made the world. If order and beauty are reflected in the constitution of the universe, then there is a God."
LvB
"You should not only find me greater
as an artist, but as a human being
better, more perfect; and when our
Fatherland has become more prosperous
then my art shall show itself for
the good of the poor people".
"Goethe's poems exert a great power over me,
not only because of their contents but also
because of their rhythms;
I am stimulated to compose by this language
which builds itself up to higher orders as
if through spiritual agencies, and bears in
itself the secret of harmonies"
"Schiller's poems are difficult to set to music. The composer must be able to rise
far above the poet.
Who can do that in the case of Schiller?
In this respect, Goethe is much easier"
***************************************
(1809, after Beethoven had made his experiences with the "Hymn to Joy" and "Egmont")
"God sees into my innermost heart
and knows that as a man I perform
most conscientiously and on all
occasions the duties which humanity,
God and Nature enjoin upon me"
"Take a hundred century-old oak tree, and
write his name with them, in giant letters,
on a plain. Or carve his likeness in colossal proportions like Saint Borromaeus on Lake Maggiore, that he may gaze above the
mountains, as he did when living; and when
the Rhine ships pass, and foreigners ask the
name of that giant form, every child may answer - It is Beethoven, and they will think it is the name of a great German Emperor"
"Take a hundred century-old oak tree, and
write his name with them, in giant letters,
on a plain. Or carve his likeness in colossal proportions like Saint Borromaeus on Lake Maggiore, that he may gaze above the
mountains, as he did when living; and when
the Rhine ships pass, and foreigners ask the
name of that giant form, every child may answer - It is Beethoven, and they will think it is the name of a great German Emperor"
**********************
~ Robert Schumann ~
Interesting idea of Schumann's - an anticipation of Mount Rushmore!
Aldous Huxley, on Beethoven's 'String Quartet Op.132'.
"Slowly, slowly, the melody unfolded
itself. The archaic Lydian harmonies
hung on the air. It was an unimpassioned
music, transparent, pure and crystalline,
like a tropical sea, an Alpine lake.
Water on water, calm sliding over calm;
the according of level horizons and waveless
expanses, a counterpoint of serenities.
And everything clear and bright; no mists,
no vague twilights. It was the calm of
still and rapturous contemplation, not of
drowsiness or sleep. It was the serenity of a convalescent who wakes from fever and
finds himself born again into a realm of
beauty. But the fever was 'the fever called
living' and the rebirth was not into this
world; the beauty was unearthly, convalescent serenity was the peace of God.
The interweaving of Lydian melodies was heaven."
~ Aldous Huxley ~
[This message has been edited by lysander (edited July 03, 2003).]
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