“Perfection must be the goal of every true artist.”
Beethoven
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The Study of Musical Creativity
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So the true study of music is based on the general study of musical creativity, on the general study of inner, human musical unfoldment, on the systematic study of the individual creative personality.
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Well-founded Musical Education as the Criterion for Development |
Only on that basis it makes sense to consider an outer presentation of that which is created within by the intellect and heard with the inner ear.
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Fundamentals of the Interpretation |
Musical education thus presents itself as a systematic, well-directed training program for an inner-human cultivation of character.
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Training Program at the Foundation of the Musical Art |
This definition of the purpose of music guarantees us the approval of the great wise men of all high cultures; for they considered this central task to be the principal field of musical activity. Thus, music today regains its original paramount importance in determining human evolution.
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The Significance of Music in the Human Evolution |
In principle, music knows two kinds of systems of order which each further subdivided are the two magic arms that present the music to the listener.
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These two great systems of order may be considered as the horizontal one recognizable from outside and comprehensible by the understanding and the vertical one recognizable from inside and comprehensible by the feeling.
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The Horizontal and the Vertical System of Order in Music |
The listener, in turn, receives the music presented to him with two arms: the qualities of his feeling and his understanding.
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Giving and Receiving Music |
Both systems together form the twofold human path of understanding the one musical structure. Endowed with feeling and understanding, man extracts that dual knowledge from music and interprets it as the horizontal system of order the one which he comprehends with his understanding and as the vertical system of order the one which he comprehends with his feeling. Due to the heterogeneity of these two methods of knowing, i.e. feeling and understanding, music is being perceived in space and time within our consciousness.
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The Mechanics of Perfect Hearing |
Now he realizes that he himself is the true essence of the composition, the origin of the composition, the origin of each single composition, the origin of all compositions together, the origin of all music, and the origin of all that which music is, was, and ever will be. Reaching this high musical goal, re-emerging from this musical unity into a manifold world of music, and re-entering again the unbounded origin of music is the supreme musical experience and the level proper for any genuine musical experience.
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The Supreme Musical Experience |