(To Freudenberg, in Baden.)

72. "I never wrote noisy music. For my instrumental works I need
an orchestra of about sixty good musicians. I am convinced that
only such a number can bring out the quickly changing graduations
in performance."

(Reported by Schindler.)

73. "A Requiem ought to be quiet music,--it needs no trump of
doom; memories of the dead require no hubbub."

(Reported by Holz to Fanny von Ponsing, in Baden, summer of 1858.
According to the same authority Beethoven valued Cherubini's
"Requiem" more highly than any other.)

74. "No metronome at all! He who has sound feeling needs none, and
he who has not will get no help from the metronome;--he'll run
away with the orchestra anyway."

(Reported by Schindler. It had been found that Beethoven himself
had sent different metronomic indications to the publisher and
the Philharmonic Society of London.)

75. "In reading rapidly a multitude of misprints may pass
unnoticed because you are familiar with the language."

(To Wegeler, who had expressed wonder at Beethoven's rapid
primavista playing, when it was impossible to see each individual