"Why do I write? What I have in my heart must come out; and that is why I compose."
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"Do you believe that I think of a divine violin when the spirit speaks to me and that I write what it dictates?"
(To Schuppanzigh.)
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"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.)
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"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."
(To the Archduke Rudolph.)
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