ABSTRACT
Let us turn from my own musical confessions to the only other complete set of musical introspections which I have been able to obtain as distinguished from the mere answers, however abundant, to a Questionnaire. These notes, written like my own, at various moments and as the spirit moved her, are from the friend I have called Bettina. A certain tendency to the interpretation of music into other terms must perhaps be discounted in one who is a poet and novelist; also a degree of what I have called “Translation or the Composer’s phenomenon.” For Bettina, 1 before becoming a well-known writer, had been in the constant habit of expressing her moods in extempore playing. Not indeed like so many Answerers to my Questionnaire who have confessed to such musical self-indulgence: Bettina has unusual technical, as well as intuitive knowledge of music; some of her improvisations might stand the test of being written down, and everything she says about music shows a highly developed sense of form. She is in so far an attentive, indeed often a critical, “Listener,” keenly enjoying the lucid following of musical intricacies, which she compares to the pleasure of becoming acquainted with new localities, following paths in woods, etc. At such moments she is thoroughly aware of the sui generis emotion of music.
