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Diary entry for 1931-02-25
... capable of writing differently, he was deceiving himself; he was born to that error and would sooner lay down his pen than undertake a change to the classical way of composing, in which he most certainly could not succeed. ...
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Diary entry for 1926-10-03
... another musician – in the composer's presence – "Do you not find it odd that a Jew has set a text of Martin Luther's to music – then later expressed regret that his bad joke was taken so seriously. Ohne Zweifel schwebte ihm der Gedanke vor, daß sich derlei ...
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Diary entry for 1908-01-15
... was accustomed to imparting to the first examples of this sweeping technique. A tried and tested technique in composition, still increasingly being adopted by composers. √ Busoni plays Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and Liszt's Totentanz in his snakily ...
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Diary entry for 1908-11-15
... evenings during the winter months [he acts as a] judge over composition, performance and instrumentation ‒ he deems it perfectly appropriate for him to find fault with this or that work that a composer or orchestra has delivered because he labors under the ...
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Diary entry for 1914-10-19
... ugliness as it is actually composed, and he would rather disregard the mirror than use it to his advantage. In the afternoon, a walk in most beautiful, almost spring-like weather. In the evening, revision of the Little Library, whose contents ought now be ...
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Diary entry for 1915-01-03
... composer's confession, was unable to tell Goldmark to his face that his astonishment at Brahms's quick and sharp judgment betrayed – to this very day – how far short Goldmark was of being a master! Had he ever taken the paths that Brahms took, then what ...
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Diary entry for 1916-04-03
... advantage. But since, on the other hand, it is a disadvantage if one confronts the youth with his father’s practical experience, the father insists on a clean separation between him and his son, between the reviewer and the composers. He, the reviewer ...
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Diary entry for 1916-05-04
... -Liechen tells me the following, based on a communication of the housemaid: a young officer brings a lady the news that her son has fallen in battle. The mother shows herself to be composed; but as they part, she asks the surviving comrade: "Tell me just one ...
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Diary entry for 1916-06-28
... his wife had had with the composer Bittner, who could see in all my efforts ultimately nothing more than a struggle for details that were of no consequence at all to the main matter. One sees how ineradicably the vain drive towards ostensibly great ...
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Diary entry for 1916-09-01
... struggle with my pupils. Chapter "Composing-Out" taken up. Novalis's "fairy tale" in Ofterdingen is merely an allegory (Goethe: "thus a very subordinate art work") – Goethe's "fairy tale" "should recall everything and nothing" – "incalculable production ...