Composers From Germany

"I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging of course."

"Die Leute beklagen sich gewöhnlich, die Musik sei so vieldeutig; es sei so zweifelhaft, was sie sich dabei zu denken hätten, und die Worte verstände doch ein Jeder. Mir geht es aber gerade umgekehrt. Und nicht blos mit ganzen Reden, auch mit einzelnen Worten, auch die scheinen mir so vieldeutig, so unbestimmt, so mißverständlich im Vergleich zu einer rechten Musik, die einem die Seele erfüllt mit tausend besseren Dingen als Worten. Das, was mir eine Musik ausspricht, die ich liebe, sind mir nicht zu unbestimmte Gedanken, um sie in Worte zu fassen, sondern zu bestimmte."

"Ich überhaupt vielseitigkeit nicht recht mag, oder eigentlich nicht recht daran glaube. Was eigenthümlich, und schön, und groß sein soll, das muß einseitig sein."

"A prophet such as we could use again today, strong, zealous, angry and gloomy in opposition to the leaders, the masses, indeed the whole world. (Letter to his pastor Julius Schubring, 1846, regarding Mendelssohn's choral work 'Elijah' published that year)"

"Und sind Sie mit mir einer Meinung, daß es die erste Bedingung zu einem Künstler sei, daß er Respekt vor dem Großen habe, und sich davor beuge, und es anerkenne, und nicht die großen Flammen auszupusten versuche, damit das kleine Talglicht ein wenig heller leuchte?"

"The greatest of the Minnesinger, all of whom he surpasses both in the range and in the humanity of his poetry."

"He is equally great whether his theme be religion, patriotism, or love. As a political poet he is one of the greatest of all time."

"He was known to his countrymen as the Nightingale, but his own sweet-sounding name of Bird's-meadow (Vogelweide) suggests even more directly the pure, true, flute-like strain which he poured into Europe’s choir of voices."

"Dich heizet vater maniger vil, swer mîn ze bruoder niht enwil."

"Mir ist verspert der sælden tor dâ stên ich als ein weise vor mich hilfet niht swaz ich dar an geklopfe."

"Owê war sint verswunden alliu mîniu jâr ist mir mîn leben getroumet oder ist ez wâr."

"Wer kan den hêrren von dem knehte gescheiden, swâ er ir gebeine blôzez fünde, het er ir joch lebender künde?"

"The mouthpiece of the half-inarticulate, all-suggesting music that is at once the very soul and the inseparable garment of romance."

"Under der linden an der heide, dâ unser zweier bette was, dâ mugt ir vinden schône beide gebrochen bluomen unde gras."

"For five hundred years after Walther's death – until Goethe – no German lyric poet was his equal."

""Sît willekomen herre wirt" dem gruoze muoz ich swîgen, "sît willekomen herre gast", sô muoz ich sprechen oder nîgen. wirt unde heim sint zwêne unschamelîche namen, gast unde herberge muoz man sich dicke schamen."

"Liebe machet schoene wîp: desn mac diu schoene niht getuon, sin machet niemer lieben lîp."

"Diu welt ist ûzen schoene wîz grüen unde rôt und innân swarzer varwe vinster sam der tôt."

"Jâ leider desn mac niht gesîn, daz guot und weltlich êre und gotes hulde mêre zesamene in ein herze komen."

"Die daz rehte singen stoerent, der ist ungelîche mêre danne die ez gerne hoerent."

"Daz si da heizent minne, Deis niewan senede leit."

"Swer guotes wîbes minne hât, der schamt sich aller missetât."

"He has no equal in medieval German lyric poetry and perhaps not even in European lyric poetry of the Middle Ages."

"Every Englishman believes that Handel now occupies an important position in heaven. If so, le bon Dieu must feel toward him very much as Louis Treize felt toward Richelieu."

"Handel paralysed music in England for generations and they have not yet quite got over him."

"Handel is one of the giants of musical history. His is happy, confident, melodic music imbued with the grace of the Italian vocal school, an easy fluency in German contrapuntal writing and the English choral tradition inherited from Purcell."

"His hallelujahs open the heavens. He utters the word "Wonderful," as if all their trumpets spoke together. And then, when he comes to earth, to make love amidst nymphs and shepherds (for the beauties of all religions found room within his breast), his strains drop milk and honey, and his love is the youthfulness of the Golden Age."

"Händel ist der Größte und Fähigste aller Komponisten; von ihm kann ich immer noch lernen."

"Handel is so great and so simple that no one but a professional musician is unable to understand him."

"Er ist der Meister von uns allen!"

"You have taken far too much trouble over your opera. Here in England that is mere waste of time. What the English like is something that they can beat time to, something that hits them straight on the drum of the ear."

"Händel ist der unerreichte Meister aller Meister. Gehen Sie und lernen Sie von ihm, wie gewaltige Wirkungen mit einfachen Mitteln zu erreichen ist."

"I did think I did see all heaven before me, and the great God himself."

"Whether I was in my body or out of my body I know not. God knows it!"

"I should be sorry if I only entertained them, I wish to make them better."

"Händel ist der größte Komponist, der je lebte. Ich würde meine Kopfbedeckung abnehmen und auf seinem Grab knien."

"Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play; they will find that what they have mastered is child's play."

"Experience first, then intellectualize."

"Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand."

"I am often asked why I nearly always select old material, fairy tales and legends for my stage works. I do not look upon them as old, but rather as valid material. The time element disappears, and only the spiritual power remains. My entire interest is in the expression of spiritual realities. I write for the theater in order to convey a spiritual attitude."

"Elemental Music is never just music. It's bound up with movement, dance and speech, and so it is a form of music in which one must participate, in which one is involved not as a listener but as a co-performer. It is pre-rational, has no over-all form, no architectonics, involves no set sequences, ostinati or minor rondo-forms. Elemental Music is earthy, natural, physical, capable of being learnt and experienced by anybody, child's play. ... Elemental Music, word and movement, play, every-thing that awakens and develops the powers of the soul builds up the humus of the soul, the humus without which we face spiritual soil-erosion. ... we face spiritual soil-erosion when man estranges himself from the elemental and loses his balance."

"The subject matter covered in Carmina stays pretty basic: love, lust, the pleasures of drinking and the heightened moods evoked by springtime. These primitive and persistently relevant themes are nicely camouflaged by the Latin and old German texts, so the listener can actually feign ignorance while listening to virtually X-rated lyrics. (Veni Veni Venias! Come, come come now!) The music itself toggles between huge forces and a single voice, juxtaposing majesty and intimacy with ease..."

"He did have much more than a straightforward musical experience in mind. He subtitled his exuberant hour-long oratorio "Cantiones profanae, cantoribus et choris cantandae, comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis," or "Secular songs for singers and choruses accompanied by instruments and magical images" — hardly typical concert fare. From a conductor's point of view, Carmina is an absolute blast — so many people, so many textures, so much variety. And, contrary to what conductors might tell you, when 300-plus performers are involved, size does matter."

"The romantics of the 19th century thought that the artist is at war with society, and must be destroyed by it eventually; this is the theme of all of Hoffmann's stories. I suggested -- in The Outsider and the subsequent five books of the 'cycle' -- that the fault lies partly with the artist, for preferring pessimism and self-pity to serious thought, and that the 'outsider' must eventually learn to accept his position as a spiritual leader of society. The church once provided the link between 'outsiders' and society, standing for the world of values, of 'meanings; beyond the present. The artists of the 19th century found themselves without this visible symbol of non-material values, and were, as Hoffmann says, frequently destroyed by society, or by their own destiny of standing outside it. I concluded that they must learn to stand alone, to be twice as strong, for half the problems of our civilization are due to 'the treason of the intellectual', their tendency to opt out and collapse in self-pity"

"The magic of music is so strong, getting stronger, it should break any shackle of another art."

"Die Meistersinger can have an unpredictable effect on audiences. It's a mystifying work -- odd among Wagner's operas, odd among operas generally. It's billed as a comedy, and by comparison with Wagner's normal mode of cosmic tragedy, it can fairly be called lighthearted. But it doesn't have much in the way of laughs; the funny scenes are so enormous and diffuse they're like slapstick performed by cumulus clouds."

"As he [John Dough, the Gingerbread Man] walked along he heard the sound of a piano, and paused at an open door to peer within the room, for he imagined someone was pounding upon the keys of the piano with a sledge-hammer. But immediately a fluffy-haired man looked up and saw him, and the next instant pounced upon the gingerbread man in much the same way that a cat would pounce upon a rat, and seized him fast, drew him into the room, and closed and locked the door. John was astonished, but the fluffy-haired musician began pacing up and down the room, swinging his arms and shouting: "I have it! I have it at last! I am great! I am magnificent! I am better than Vogner himself!" He paused to glare upon John. "Why don't you shout, you baked idiot? Why don't you weep with joy?" he cried. "It is great, I tell you! It is great!" "What is great?" asked John. "The symphonie! The divine symphonie, you heartless molasses-cake, or devil's food, or whatever you are! And I composed it—I—Tietjamus Toips! I am greater than Vogner!" "I didn't hear it," said the gingerbread man. The musician threw himself upon the piano, and produced a succession of such remarkable sounds that John was surprised. "Did you understand it?" demanded the fluffy-haired one, jumping up again. "No," said John. "No! Of course not! No one can understand it. It is genius! It will be played at all the great concerts. The critics will write columns in praise of it. Some folks can understand Vogner a little. No one can understand me at all! I am wonderful! I am superb!""

"No composer has had so deep an influence on the course of his art, before or since. Entrepreneur, philosopher, poet, conductor, one of the key composers in history and most remarkable men of the 19th century, Richard Wagner knew he was a genius. He was also an unpleasant, egocentric and unscrupulous human being."

"After the last notes of Götterdämmerung I felt as though I had been let out of prison."

"Monsieur Wagner a de beaux moments, mais de mauvais quart d'heures."