MAN AND MUSIC
Ernest Bloch · The Musical Quarterly · 1933
This article was written by me sixteen years ago; it first appeared in the March 1917 issue of “The Seven Arts.” Since then my ideas have not greatly changed. Today, I have as little faith as then in theories, systems, or “isms.” We hear of late a great deal about “abstraction” in art. That is a superficial, and shortsighted illusion, which does not withstand the most elementary psychological analysis. In spite of all the ephemeral theories and contrary opinions, a work of art remains for me an “ideal graphology.” It characterizes its author, whether or not he is willing to admit it, in the most truthful, most complete manner. It reveals—even unbeknown to him—his inmost nature, his virtues and faults, his temperament, and the degree of his intellectual and emotional faculties. The richer his nature is, in sensitiveness and imagination, the greater, richer and mightier will be his creation, since it is the synthesis of that nature—always provided, of course, that the technique or craftsmanship is adequate