While he [Henri de Régnier] was speaking to me about certain words in the French language whose gold had become tarnished through too much use by the hoi polloi, I thought to myself that the same thing was true of certain chords whose sound had become commonplace in music for export; this reflection is not strikingly novel unless I add that at the same time they have lost their symbolic quality. Really, music should have been a hermetic science, protected by text so long and difficult to interpret that they surely would have discouraged the herd of people who use it as casually as they do a handkerchief! Moreover, instead of trying to extend art further among the people, I propose the establishment of a “Society of Esoteric Music” and you’ll see that neither M. Helmann nor M. de Bonnières will belong. While I am writing you, the girl at the piano below me is sawing out some music in D which is really fearful! Alas, it’s living proof that I’m right. << less