Such sounds as imitate the natural inarticulate voices of men, or any animals in pain or danger, are capable of conveying great ideas; unless it be the well-known voice of some creature, on which we are used to look with contempt. The angry tones of wild beasts are equally capable of causing a great and awful sensation… . It might seem that those modulations of sound carry some connection with the nature of the things they represent, and are not merely arbitrary; because the natural cries of all animals, even of those animals with whom we have not been acquainted, never fail to make themselves sufficiently understood; this cannot be said of language. The modifications of sound, which may be productive of the sublime, are almost infinite. Those I have mentioned are only a few instances to show on what principles they are all built.

Nothing is more similar to inner insanity than music, which most clearly imitates this ur-movement through the consistent, eccentric ebbing and rising of tones. (Music) is itself a turning wheel that proceeds from one point and despite detours always returns to the beginning.

[Denn nichts ist jedem inneren Wahnsinn ähnlicher als die Musik, die durch das beständige excentrische Ausweichen und Wiederanziehen der Töne am deutlichsten jene Urbewegung nachahmt und selbst ein drehendes Rad ist, das, von Einem Punkt ausgehend, durch alle Ausschweifungen immer wieder in den Anfang zurückläuft.]