Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg: His Short Biography and Aesthetic Representation of His Works

This definiteness also expresses itself in the extraordinary economy of his note figures. What he says, he indicates briefly but decisively, without leading to it through extensive passages or complicated note figures. His words are short and strike quickly and forcefully, like lightning, with all their power, whereas long preparations, sprawling resolutions of chords, and modulations isolate the feeling and weaken the impression by failing to point the feeling toward a definite central point. The multiplicity of notes scatters the attention of the mind, and while it chases sociably after a feeling with the notes, the surface escapes it, lacking a central depth.

Most composers are flattering portrait painters who draw for the large portion of their listeners a picture of their own feelings, over whose colorful paints the true feeling intended to be expressed is forgotten. They sacrifice everything to the glitter and flow of the melody.

Fashionable trends must be the order of the day: trifling passages that flutter as lightly as zephyrs across the ear and mind, and over which the mind hurries just as quickly