Music's First Romantic - in his own words...

On the origins of his art:
"From where do I get my ideas? I cannot say with certainty. They come uncalled, directly, indirectly. I could grasp them with my hands: in the open, from Nature, in the forest, in the quiet of the night, in the early morning. Sometimes moods which the poet expresses in words come to me in tones. They ring, storm, and roar until they finally stand before me in notes."


" I MUST write - for what weighs on my heart, I MUST express.... I live only in my music, and I have scarcely begun one thing when I start another.... With whom need I fear to measure my strength?"


"Music is a higher revelation than any wisdom or philosophy. It is the wine that inspires new creations, and I am the Bacchus, who presses out this wine for men, and make them spirtually drunk.... I have no friend, and must live alone, but I know that in my art God is nearer to me than to the others. I approach Him without fear. I have always known Him. Neither am I anxious about my music, which no adverse fate can overtake, and which will free him who understands it from the misery that afflicts others."