“Here I should add experience has taught me that the intrinsic value of a work has nothing to do with its place in one or the other of these categories. It frequently happens that a composition which owes its existence to external influences proves very successful; while one that proceeds entirely from my own initiative may, for various indirect reasons, turn out far less well. These indirect circumstances, upon which depends the mood in which a work is written, are of the very greatest importance. During the actual time of creative activity complete quiet is absolutely necessary to the artist. In this sense every work of art, even a musical composition, is _objective_. Those who imagine that a creative artist can--through the medium of his art--express his feelings at the moment when he is _moved_, make the greatest mistake. Emotions--sad or joyful--can only be expressed _retrospectively_, so to speak. Without any special reason for rejoicing, I may be moved by the most cheerful creative mood, and, _vice versâ_, a work composed under the happiest surroundings may be touched with dark and gloomy colours. “In a word, an artist lives a double life: an everyday human life, and an artistic life, and the two do not always go hand in hand. “In any case, it is absolutely necessary for a composer to shake off all the cares of daily existence, at least for a time, and give himself up entirely to his art-life. “Works belonging to the first category do not require the least effort of will. It is only necessary to obey our inward promptings, and if our material life does not crush our artistic life under its weight of depressing circumstances, the work progresses with inconceivable rapidity. Everything else is forgotten, the soul throbs with an incomprehensible and indescribable excitement, so that, almost before we can follow this swift flight of inspiration, time passes literally unreckoned and unobserved. “There is something _somnambulistic_ about this condition. _On ne s’entend pas vivre._ It is impossible to describe such moments. Everything that flows from one’s pen, or merely passes through one’s brain (for such moments often come at a time when writing is an impossibility) under these circumstances is _invariably good_, and if no external obstacle comes to hinder the creative glow, the result will be an artist’s best and most perfect work. Unfortunately such external hindrances are inevitable. A duty has to be performed, dinner is announced, a letter arrives, and so on. This is the reason why there exist so few compositions which are of equal quality throughout. Hence the _joins_, _patches_, _inequalities and discrepancies_.