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It is typical of Schumann's musical thinking to construct this complex network of references outside his music-to quote Beethoven, and then to have Beethoven's distant beloved refer to Clara. But this should give a clue to the nature of Schumann's achievement. It is not Schumann's music that, refers to Clara but Beethoven's melody, the "secret tone."

— Charles Rosen The Romantic Generation (1995)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Rosen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.