When I Open My Eyes I Must

Such Incidents Brought Me To The Verge Of Despair, But Little More And I Would Have Put An End To My Life - Only Art It Was That Withheld Me, - Ah, It Seemed Impossible To Leave The World Until I Had Produced All That I Had Felt Called Upon To Produce.

Music Is The Electric Soil In Which The Spirit Thinks, Lives And Invents. All That's Electrical Stimulates The Mind To Flowing Surging Musical Creation. I Am Electrical By Nature.

I Carry My Thoughts About Me For A Long Time, Often A Very Long Time, Before I Write Them Down; Meanwhile My Memory Is So Faithful That I Am Sure Never To Forget, Not Even In Years, A Theme That Has Once Occurred To Me.

But What A Humiliation For Me When Someone Standing Next To Me Heard A Flute In The Distance And I Heard Nothing, Or Someone Standing Next To Me Heard A Shepherd Singing And Again I Heard Nothing. Such Incidents Drove Me Almost To Despair; A Little More Of That And I Would Have Ended My Life - It Was Only My Art That Held Me Back.

Life Would Be Flat Without Music. It Is The Background To All I Do. It Speaks To The Heart In Its Own Special Way Like Nothing Else.