>“One cannot deny the Jews a certain virtuoso talent for musical reproduction. In the dark races, the emotional, the fantastic, and the basely sensual-passionate elements predominate—qualities that can escalate into an intoxication of the senses, indeed even to the point of animalistic savagery. Such an innate disposition endows the artist with something captivating and enthralling—indeed, something demonic. For this reason, such musical virtuosos are found precisely among the lower races—among Negroes and Gypsies; yet their expression is soulless, and their impact terminates in the realm of the senses, serving only to arouse and seduce them; the music of the dark races is eroticism.
>An unparalleled struggle for existence against ice and night compelled the Nordic man toward an extreme, austere exertion of strength and a profound turning inward; his meager earthly existence awakened a yearning for a Beyond; the path there led through the depths of his inner self; from that source grew his faith, his confidence, and his strength. From these depths—and penetrating back into them—flows the power of tones. For him, music becomes the outward voicing and resonance of otherwise inexpressible spiritual processes; within him, music functions like religion: both represent for him the ultimate, the highest, and the deepest realities; their fundamental characteristic and ultimate goal are purification and purity. To him, music holds significance only when it elevates and purifies.”
>“Consequently, from German souls springs almost exclusively serious music; and where the fair-haired man succeeds in creating cheerful music, its hallmark is a childlike purity and chastity. It is impossible to find a composer of German blood who ever intended—or was even capable of conceiving—the erotic agitation of the blood and senses. Enveloped by the realm of tones, the soul detaches itself from the awareness of its earthly ties: a pure yearning and reaching-out toward a lofty goal—a goal unattainable through mere intellectual deliberation, but accessible only through the immersion of one’s sensibility in a felt sense of All-Being—in God. Music is the consecration of the heart: Bach, Beethoven, and other consecrated spirits are its priests.
>Thus do we Germans feel and desire music; and is ‘Jewish music’ supposed to be capable of satisfying this yearning? If anywhere, then surely in this realm, the attempt by the ‘Negro-blooded Jew’ to foist himself upon us constitutes the grossest insensitivity or sheer audacity. We concede to him a talent for music—such as he feels and requires; yet German musical creation he can neither grasp nor produce—for that, he would need to possess a German soul. What he does bring forth, however, remains alien to us; it neither touches nor reaches us in the slightest, but rather repels us. German and Jewish music are polar opposites.”
Theodor Fritsch, The Handbook of the Jewish Question (29th ed.), 1923
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