The Music of the West

'Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.'

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'If music be the food of love, play on,

Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.'

     

                                  William Shakespeare

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THE GREATEST MONUMENT TO MUSIC

'Vier letzte Lieder'

von 

Richard Strauss

'Beim Schlafengehen'

from a poem by

Hermann Hesse

'Now that the day has made me tired,

it is my ardent desire

that the friendly starry night

receives me like a tired child.

Let your hands cease their work

Brow, forget all your thoughts;

All my senses now

want to sink into slumber.

And then the soul, unguarded,

would to soar in free flight,

to join the magic circles of night

to live there deeply, a thousand times.'