The art of music above all the other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation.

The great men of music close periods; they do not inaugurate them. The pioneer work, the finding of new paths, is left to smaller men.

Two years of close association with some of the best (as well as some of the worst) tunes in the world was a better musical education than any amount of sonatas and fugues.

Beethoven was ahead of the times, Bach behind them.

But in the next world I shan't be doing music, with all the striving and disappointments. I shall be being it.

The art of music above all the other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation.

Wagner used to read the libretti of his operas to his friends; I am glad I was not there.