Page:Rolland - Beethoven, tr. Hull, 1927.pdf/134

102 "Why do I write? What I have in my heart must come out; and that is why I compose."

"Do you believe that I think of a divine violin when the spirit speaks to me and that I write what it dictates?"

"According to my usual manner of composing, even in my instrumental music, I always have the whole in my mind; here, however, that whole is to a certain extent divided, and I have afresh to think myself into the music."

(To Treitschke: from correspondence concerning Beethoven's musical settings to some of his poems. Treitschke was the man who revised the libretto of Fidelio when it was seriously thought of reviving it.)

"One should compose without a piano. The faculty of expressing what one desires and feels (which is so essential a need to noble natures) comes only by degrees."