A supreme composer can only come out of a musical nation.
Music is the reaching out towards the utmost realities by means of ordered sound.
There is no reason why an atheist could not write a good Mass.
Beethoven was ahead of the times, Bach behind them.
To the unmusical hearer a note on the gong means dinner, this perhaps often is menacing enough.
I have always found it difficult to study. I have learnt almost entirely what I have learnt by trying it out on the dog.