“To sing a wrong note is insignificant, but to sing without passion is unforgivable.”

— Ludwig Van Beethoven

Last update Dec. 18, 2023. History

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Ludwig Van Beethoven 43

German Romantic composer 1770–1827

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“To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Not found in Beethoven's known works. It may be a summary of the following description of Beethoven from his piano pupil Ferdinand Ries: "When I left out something in a passage, a note or a skip, which in many cases he wished to have specially emphasized, or struck a wrong key, he seldom said anything; yet when I was at fault with regard to the expression, the crescendo or matters of that kind, or in the character of the piece, he would grow angry. Mistakes of the other kind, he said were due to chance; but these last resulted from want of knowledge, feeling or attention. He himself often made mistakes of the first kind, even playing in public."
Disputed
Source: "When Beethoven gave me a lesson" https://books.google.com/books?id=j8RIq67v51cC&pg=PA294&dq=%22when+beethoven+gave+me+a+lesson%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAGoVChMI7Yyz0PiNyQIViDuICh1YIAzR#v=onepage&q=%22when%20beethoven%20gave%20me%20a%20lesson%22&f=false

“The easiest way to avoid wrong notes is to never open your mouth and sing. What a mistake that would be.”

Pete Seeger (1919–2014) American folk singer

Source: How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger (1981), p. 95

“Of ladies, knights, of passions and of wars,
of courtliness, and of valiant deeds I sing.”

Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso

Le donne i cavallier, l'arme, gli amori,
Le cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto.
Canto I, stanza 1 (tr. David R. Slavitt)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

“Genuine melody sings itself without a voice. It sings inside, within the heart, in man's very entrails!”

Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915) Yiddish language author and playwright

Mekubolim, 1906. Alle Verk, vi. 53.
Context: There are melodies that must have words... and melodies that sing themselves without words. The latter are of a higher grade. But these, too, depend on a voice and lips,... hence are not yet altogether pure, not yet genuine spirit. Genuine melody sings itself without a voice. It sings inside, within the heart, in man's very entrails!