ossible; if this is not the case petty changes will certainly not
improve the whole."

(Teplitz, August 23, 1811, to Hartel, the publisher, who wanted some
changes made in the hook of "The Mount of Olives.")

28. "Good heavens! Do they think in Saxony that the words make good
music? If an inappropriate word can spoil the music, which is true, then
we ought to be glad when we find that words and music are one and
not try to improve matters even if the verbal expression is
commonplace--dixi."

(January 28, to Gottfried Hartel, who had undertaken to make changes in
the book of "The Mount of Olives" despite the prohibition of Beethoven.)

29. "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."

(Reported as an expression of Beethoven's by Bettina von Arnim to
Goethe.)

30. "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.")

ON COMPOSING

Wiseacres not infrequently accused Beethoven of want of regularity in
his compositions. In various ways and at divers times he gave vigorous
utterance to his opinions of such pedantry. He was not the most
tractable of pupils, especially in Vienna, where, although he was
highly praised as a player, he took lessons in counterpoint from
Albrechtsberger. He did not endure long with Papa Haydn. He detested the
study of fugue in particular; the fugue was to him a symbol of narrow
coercion which choked all emotion. Mere formal beauty, moreover, was
nothing to him. Over and over again he emphasizes soul, feeling,
direct and immediate life, as the first necessity of an art work. It
is therefore not strange that under certain circumstances he ignored
conventional forms in sonata and symphony. An irrepressible impulse
toward freedom is the most prominent peculiarity of the man and artist
Beethoven; nearly all of his observations, no matter what their subject,
radiate the word "Liberty." In his remarks about composing there is a
complete exposition of his method of work.

31. "As regards me, great heavens!