English Translation

know, this little sentimental story of the blind girl who heard Beethoven play by chance and whom he performed to thank "something from the moon." Please, dear friend, I want to tell you some more little stories from which you can see what distribution — or should we say, "Invasion into the people?" Beethoven found in Japan. You see, if Japan is called to the record collection for the front and one reads about the wishes of the soldiers, then a European would probably be very surprised to read that no easy entertainment music is desired, but 'serious music and especially Beethoven sound records. I remember a small incident from the Chinese conflict: one of the most successful hunters at that time was a certain captain N., a plane with over 50 shootings, which was already a tremendous achievement at the beginning of the Chinese dispute. One day he did not return from the enemy's flight. On his suitcase apparatus, however, the Adagio from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was played — to the middle. He was always able to be seen sunk in the sounds of his favorite sound records. Even the world war could not inhibit the enthusiasm for bed-hoven in Japan among some young Japanese. The longing for cities like Bonn and Vienna, in which Beethoven's footsteps could be walked, was tremendous. One yearned for the end of the war to finally be able to visit these cities. - A young musician, however, did not even want to wait for the end of the war. He had a fantastically ingenious plan: he volunteered with the French pilots, got trained there and had the intention to "notland" during a reconnaissance flight over the German western area in Bonn. Yes, he was so naive in his enthusiasm for Beethoven that he believed that he would be taken to the Beethoven House as a prisoner of war. — To the great sorrow of the young musician, the plan was discovered early by his family, and the so beautifully conceived emergency landing could not take place. Whether it was a consolation for the young musician that he at least learned to fly on this occasion? But not only the music of Beethoven is known in Japan - also his life interests the Japanese very much. Beethoven biographies are read in Japan very much and the ten best are probably, in some cases several times, translated into the Japanese language, as e.g. Pohl, Notte- bohm, Paul Bekker, Romain Rolland etc. I can understand, dear friend, that you want to know what it really is that the Japanese love Beethoven so much. I want to try to explain it to you in words: we feel somehow related to his music. And even though the music itself should somehow be foreign to the "eastern" ears of the Japanese, the soul that speaks of it is not foreign to us. This wonderful "clean" clarity, this rigour and purity, this overwhelming harmony builds a bridge of tones between West and East and speaks to our feeling. 17