“Before going any further may we take it that the object of art is to obtain a partial revelation of that which is beyond human senses and human faculties – of that, in fact, which is spiritual? And that the means which we employ to induce this revelation are those very senses and faculties themselves?”

"The Letter and the Spirit", in the journal Music and Letters, vol. 1 (1920) p. 88.

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Ralph Vaughan Williams 13
English composer 1872–1958

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