156 THE NATURE OF MUSIC 



the true and the beautiful are ever perfect. How 

 vain, hopeless, even absurd is the seeking of equivalent 

 ideas in words for ideas in tones. 



The language of tones alone completely voices and 

 harmonizes the composite inner experience; it is the 

 inner world of harmony governed by the same laws 

 as the outer world which it mirrors, it is therefore a 

 whole; universal harmony is its essential message, 

 universal harmonization of mankind is its essential 

 purpose and function. The composite inner experi- 

 ence with its infinitesimal number of elements is 

 summed up in the momentary mood (Stimmung), and 

 the most we can say of the ever changing mood is that 

 it is now brighter, now darker, or now lighter, now 

 heavier; that it varies in the individual and is not 

 the same in any two individuals. Music attunes the 

 momentary mood of one, of all; here lies its power, 

 the power of the musical moment. All the other arts 

 share in the universal message and purpose, but no 

 one or combination of them so pervade the inner life, 

 exert so great a power or occupy so unique a position 

 in the art-hierarchy as does music. In the drama we 

 note that the other arts merge into, aid and strengthen 

 each other in accomplishing the essential purpose of 

 the drama which first of all is pure illusion. But 

 music being a whole and complete in itself does not 

 and cannot merge with, be aided and strengthened by 

 the other arts. The drama is illusion, music is reality; 

 the drama represents, music presents. Drama and 

 music are therefore antitheses, each is most potent by 

 itself, each antagonizes and disturbs the other when 

 the two are associated, as in the music-drama. For 



