It is not merely and absolutely through its own intrinsic beauty that music affects the listener, but rather at the same time as a sounding image of the great motions of the universe. Through profound and secret connections to nature, the meaning of tones elevates itself high above the tones themselves, allowing us to feel at the same time the infinite in works of human talent. Just as the elements of music – sound, tone, rhythm, loudness, softness – are found throughout the entire universe, so does one find anew in music the entire universe.

Eduard Hanslick – Vom Musikalisch-schönen

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more

Lord Byron – Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage