(To his friend, the admirable violinist Schuppanzigh, when the latter
complained of the difficulty of a passage in one of his works.)

[Beethoven here addresses his friend in the third person, which is the
customary style of address for the German nobility and others towards
inferiors in rank. H. E. K.]

40. "The Scotch songs show how unconstrainedly irregular melodies can be
treated with the help of harmony."

(Diary, 1812-1818. Since 1809 Beethoven had arranged Folksongs for
Thomson of Edinburgh.)

41. "To write true church music, look through the old monkish chorals,
etc., also the most correct translations of the periods, and perfect
prosody in the Catholic Psalms and hymns generally."

(Diary, 1818.)

42. "Many assert that every minor piece must end in the minor. Nego! On
the contrary I find that in the soft scales the major third at the
close has a glorious and uncommonly quieting effect. Joy follows sorrow,
sunshine--rain. It affects me as if I were looking up to the silvery
glistering of the evening star."

(From Archduke Rudolph's book of instruction.)

43. "Rigorists, and devotees of antiquity, relegate the perfect fourth
to the list of dissonances. Tastes differ. To my ear it gives not the
least offence combined with other tones."

(From Archduke Rudolph's book of instruction, compiled in 1809.)

44. "When the gentlemen can think of nothing new, and can go no further,
they quickly call in a diminished seventh chord to help them out of the
predicament."

(A remark made to Schindler.)

45. "My dear boy, the startling effects which many credit to the natural
genius of the composer, are often achieved with the greatest ease by the
use and resolution of the diminished seventh chords."

(Reported by Karl Friederich Hirsch, a pupil of Beethoven in the winter
of 1816. He was a grandson of Albrechtsberger who had given lessons to
Beethoven.)

46. "In order to become a capable composer one must have already learned
harmony and counterpoint at the age of from seven to eleven years,
so that when the fancy and emotions awake one shall know what to do
according to the rules."

(Reported by Schindler as having been put into the mouth of Beethoven by
a newspaper of Vienna. Schindler says: "When Beethoven came to Vienna he
knew no counterpoint, and little harmony.")

47. "So far as mistakes are concerned it was never necessary for me to
learn