IN THE HETEROGENEOUS COLLECTION of essays, reflections, anecdotes, and fictional letters on the visual arts, architecture, and music published in 1799 under the title Phantasien über die Kunst, für Freunde der Kunst (Fantasies on the Arts, for Lovers of the Arts) there is one hymnic section in praise of music: “Die Wunder der Tonkunst” (The Wonders of Music). It opens with two similes followed by two metaphors — a “herrliche Fülle der Bilder,” as they are termed in the euphoric style of the whole section — in which the speaker attempts to convey the mysterious and poignant appeal of music. First he suggests that music resembles the phoenix, a bird that rises up “zu eigener Freude […] zu eignem Behagen.” Then he compares music to a dead child transported to heaven, its liberated soul experiencing “goldne Tropfen der Ewigkeit.” Finally, after drawing a relatively mundane parallel between the limited duration of a performance of music and the transience of human existence, he likens music to a tiny island in a vast ocean, green and blessed “mit Sonnenschein, mit Sang und Klang” (W1:205).

A mythical creature that eludes death in constant self-regeneration, an innocent infant carried off by premature death but transfigured in immortality, an Arcadian isle remote from civilization and undisturbed in its sensual bliss: Romantic images indeed, clichés even, and not without a touch of sentimentality. Yet these images betray significant assumptions about music.