The Free Play
of Human Forces
in the Language
of Music

The Klassischer
Komponist
as a Guide
to Knowledge

Dance through
the World
of Aspirations

Traits of the
Human Character
on the Path
to Perfection

Thus, to the composer, the motif is that original musical element through which he takes the listener by the hand – on the level of his feeling and understanding – and carefully guides him step-by-step into worlds of greater human happiness.

When a motif in its derivations, its deviations, its changes – i.e. in varying disguises – interacts with itself in the musical work and appears with many different faces, the musical creator describes the manifold forms in which the human character in its most varied shades dances skilfully and successfully through the world of aspirations, nibbling everywhere without settling down into boundaries.

And always there are guiding and guided motif qualities; and the musical motifs always move within a system of distinct hierarchic relations.

And if, in the course of the musical event, the guide changes, it only shows how certain qualities of the character safely guide others on their way to perfection, through their own domain, through their own familiar world of the fulfilment of desires – just as a man guides a friend safely through his own world, which is familiar to himself but may be full of danger for the other.