Beethoven: A Study in Spiritual Development

I say I read it, but reading a book about Beethoven, no matter how deeply it delves into the secrets of this being who heard everything except the noisy sounds of the world, without pursuing Beethoven’s music in the corridors and labyrinths of the soul, without listening continuously, repeatedly, stubbornly, with the obstinacy of life, to every musical phrase he wrote, this one who never stopped coming to us without the trouble of waiting, and whom we sometimes wait for while he is among us like the oxygen we cannot see, this reading is of no avail, just as talking about swimming is of no avail about swimming, and describing color is no substitute for seeing it. So let us go to Beethoven and hear from him before we hear from anyone else about him. If this necessary leadership is achieved, talking about him will become talking about a visit through which we have acquired a close friend, not the gloomy face that we see in his pictures, nor the quarrelsome, lonely man whom people sometimes avoided because of his intense aversion to people, but the pure, honest, joyful, cheerful, continuous, affectionate, captivating, generous hand and soul companion, sad with a universal sadness that is individual and emanating from him. That is Beethoven in his music: strength without arrogance and gentleness, without fluidity and an audible radiance. Most of what he wrote was a reorganization of feelings through a spiritual experience that has no parallel in the history of art at all, as confirmed by more than one of those who were scorched by the sun of his music.