Ludwig Van Beethoven: Quotes about music

Ludwig Van Beethoven was German Romantic composer. Explore interesting quotes on music.
Ludwig Van Beethoven: 86 quotes66 likes

“Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Conversations (January 1804)

“Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven

As reported by Elizabeth Brentano (Bettina) in a letter to Goethe, 27 May 1810.
Quoted in Edwin Burgum The new criticism (1930), p. 179

“Music is indeed the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Attributed to Beethoven by Bettina von Arnim in a letter to Goethe (28 May 1810); Goethe's Correspondence with a Child http://books.google.pt/books?id=UC8HAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA210&dq=%22+music+is+indeed+the+mediator+between+%22&hl=pt-PT&sa=X&ei=sF40VL3AIILwaIThgNgL&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=%22%20music%20is%20indeed%20the%20mediator%20between%20%22&f=false (1837)

“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Musik höhere Offenbarung ist als alle Weisheit und Philosophie.
http://books.google.com/books?id=W2k6AAAAcAAJ&q=%22Musik+h%C3%B6here+Offenbarung+ist+als+alle+Weisheit+und+Philosophie%22&pg=PA193#v=onepage
As reported by Bettina von Arnim in a letter to Goethe, 28 May 1810.
Goethe's Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde: Seinem Denkmal, Volume 2, Dümmler, 1835, p. 193.
Variant: Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven

“One clashes with stupidity of all kinds. And then how much money must be spent in advance! The way in which artists are treated is really scandalous. I am compelled to give a third of my receipts to the manager of the theatre and a fifth to the hospitals. Devil take them! As long as these abuses exist, I shall always ask whether music is or is not an art that may be freely exercised. Believe me, there is nothing to be done for artists in times like these.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven

24th November, 1814
Source: Johann Wenzel Tomaschek, "A Talk with Beethoven", The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 33, Beethoven Supplement (Dec. 15, 1892)