At about the age of six or seven, I realized that of all the invisible powers the one I was destined to be most strongly affected and dominated by was music. Gertrude (1910)
In the German spirit the matriarchal link with nature rules in the form of the hegemony of music to an extent unknown in any other people. Steppenwolf (1927)
We consider classical music to be the epitome and quintessence of our culture, because it is that culture’s clearest, most significant gesture and expression. In this music we possess the heritage of classical antiquity and Christianity, a spirit of serenely cheerful and brave piety, a superbly chivalric morality. For in the final analysis every important cultural gesture comes down to a morality, a model for human behavior concentrated into a gesture.