1996. About music, and its effect on spirits
It has happened twice that I heard the music of stringed instruments, viol och hakbrade, 1on the street, which so soothed the spirits that they could hardly tell they were not in heaven. It cheered them so that they were swept almost beyond themselves with joy. I felt their joy, and it was great, and now even as I am writing these words, there is music of fiddles, and the plucking of strings continues, and because of it they are so changed that they are hardly the same spirits.
Footnotes:
1. Swedish for "violin and harp."
1996. (CONCERNING MUSIC - WHAT KIND OF EFFECT IT PRODUCES UPON SPIRITS.
It has twice happened that I have heard in the streets music from stringed instruments [viol och hakbrade, i.e. violin and harp], which so soothed the spirits that they scarcely knew but that they were in heaven, for they were exhilarated to such a degree as to be, as it were, transported out of themselves. I perceived their delight, which was abundant; and even now, while I write, that music of strings and pulsatile chords is continued. The spirits are so changed by it that they seem scarcely the same.
1996. De musica, qualem effectum in spiritus habeat
Bis contigit, quod audiverim musicam ex instrumentis chordarum, viol, och hakbrade {a}, in platea, quae ita mulcebat 1
spiritus, ut vix scirent aliter ac essent in coelo, nam exhilarati sunt, ut quasi extra se rapti, eorum gaudium sensi, quod multum erat; nunc quoque cum haec scribo, musica ista fidium, et pulstatilis chordarum, continuatur, ex ea sic alterantur, ut vix sint iidem.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has mulciebat