It was never thenceforth allowed to fall into
abeyance, but was developed in direct ratio with his withdrawal from
the world. An atavism from some remote Aryan ancestry inclined him, as
in the case of so many Germans, to mysticism and the occult. It was a
condition which had its compensations. That there were periods when he
saw visions may be conjectured by the character of the last quartets.
When they were written, Beethoven was in the shadow of death, on the
border-land of the other world, and from that proximity he relates his
experience. These works receive the reverence of all musicians for their
spirituality, their mysticism, their psychological qualities. They are
the revelations of the seer, awe-inspiring mementos of states and
conditions of mind which transcend the experiences of ordinary life. In
these last impassioned utterances of the master, we find a strain
holier, more profound, different from anything which the art of music
has yet produced.
The Cavatina on its first performance, on March 21, 1826, was received
with indifference, and the finale, which was an exceedingly long and
difficult fugue, fared even worse.
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