Real music can essentially be the product of suffering. Without the struggle of the soul and the desperate situation of life, in essence, there would be no music. Music is essentially loneliness. It is precisely because of this desperate loneliness that it is possible to stand in a spiritual temple instead of a material festival.

Look at these names, which one is not a soul struggling in the desperate situation of life? Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Bruckner, Mahler, Shostakovich, and even Tchaikovsky, whom I despise extremely. Just like "Two Springs Reflect the Moon" that Chinese people are most familiar with, isn't it the same? The life and soul here are not necessarily individual. Without the desperate situation and struggle of the entire nation, there would be no "Yellow River Cantata". Basically, after 1949, no work can stand up in terms of the breadth of life and the depth of soul.

Excerpted from "Talking about Zen"