Ludwig Nohl

“ They symbolize the ideas and periods of human development. Nay more, the phases and powers of human nature are here disclosed to view. It is the inner history of the world which ever repeats itself and by which mankind is always rejuvenated. The pure and restored genius of the nation arises anew to its real nature. Its lance heals the wound which we have received at the hands of the other—the evil and foreign genius. It is this pure genius which all, even the dead and the dying, hail as King, and do homage to new deeds of blessing. ”

“ Herr Joseph Haydn, the favorite of the nation, whose gentle character is reflected in every one of his pieces. His [65] compositions possess beauty, symmetry, clearness, and a delicate and noble simplicity, which impress themselves upon the listener even before he has become specially attentive. His quartets, trios and other works of this class are like a pure, clear strip of water, ruffled by a southern breeze, quickly agitated and rolling with waves but preserving its depth. The doubling of the melody by octaves originated with him and one can not deny its charm. ”

“ What have they who attempt to solve the problem of human happiness by granting a few privileges, by an unlimited expansion of industry and of egoistic well being—what have they to do with a poet or an artist? Why should they trouble themselves with those who wander about, of no use to the State-machinery of the world, to kindle sacred flames, noble feelings and lofty inspirations, that by their achievements they may satisfy the restless longing for the beautiful and the great which rests more or less securely in the depths of every soul? ”

“ Ninth Symphony, we hear the voices of the powers which through all ages have been the makers of history; of the powers which preserve and renovate the life of humanity; and so the Will, the Intellect, man, after a terrible effort and concentration of self, stands firmly before us, bold and clear-eyed—for Will is the world itself.
But when we see the man Beethoven, we find him divided against himself. ”

“ The music, on the appearance of the stony guest, springs from the same fountain as Faust’s most beautiful and profound monologues. It is the consciousness, the heart-felt knowledge of the permanent duration of human life; and we have seen how life itself led Mozart, the artist and the man, to this heart-felt knowledge and to the feeling of something really eternal in the changes that surround us. ”

“ All the passions which agitate men—vanity, ambition, envy, jealousy, even love itself, are outside the magic circle which incloses his inner world. Withdrawing into this, as into a sanctuary, he contemplates and worships that ideal which it is the object of his life to realize. Here appear to him divine and incomprehensible forms, and colors such as his eyes never beheld on the most beautiful flowers in the brightness of spring. Here he listens to the harmony of the eternal, whose cadence rules the worlds, and in which all the voices of creation join in a marvelous celestial concert. ”

“ After a stay of more than three years abroad, he left Paris, April 7, 1842. “For the first time I saw the Rhine; with tears in my eyes, I, a poor artist, swore to be ever loyal to my German fatherland,” he says. Have we not seen that this “poor artist” with the might of his magic wand has created a world of new life, and what is far more, has aroused the genius of his people, aye, the very soul of mankind, and has led his epoch and his nation to the achievement of new and permanent intellectual results? ”

“ It is a part of our history as it is of our life. Richard Wagner’s “Kaiser March” is the first that corresponds with it as an expression of popular feeling. In its poesy it is a hymn in contrast with that mere Lied, and, notwithstanding its most powerful and soaring style as a composition, it is, like the Marseillaise, a set scene which arouses the national pride of our time in a glittering sort of way; but Haydn’s song, though belonging to the more primitive era of the nation, still remains as the expression of our most genuine national feeling. ”

“ Their tones sound to him like the voice of man’s heart of hearts, the joys and sorrows of which Beethoven has laid bare to us. We feel convinced, when we hear them, that the person who in them speaks to us has, in very deed, something to tell us, something of our own life; because he lived and felt more deeply than we what we all live and feel, and loved and suffered what we all love and suffer, more deeply than any other child of dust. ”