QuotesCosmos
Not found in Beethoven's known works. It may be a summary of the following description of Beethoven from his piano pupil Ferdinand Ries: "When I left out something in a passage, a note or a skip, which in many cases he wished to have specially emphasized, or struck a wrong key, he seldom said anything; yet when I was at fault with regard to the expression, the crescendo or matters of that kind, or in the character of the piece, he would grow angry. Mistakes of the other kind, he said were due to chance; but these last resulted from want of knowledge, feeling or attention. He himself often made mistakes of the first kind, even playing in public.""When Beethoven gave me a lesson"
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To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable

— Ludwig van Beethoven

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable" in the context of "Not found in Beethoven's known works. It may be a summary of the following description of Beethoven from his piano pupil Ferdinand Ries: "When I left out something in a passage, a note or a skip, which in many cases he wished to have specially emphasized, or struck a wrong key, he seldom said anything; yet when I was at fault with regard to the expression, the crescendo or matters of that kind, or in the character of the piece, he would grow angry. Mistakes of the other kind, he said were due to chance; but these last resulted from want of knowledge, feeling or attention. He himself often made mistakes of the first kind, even playing in public.""When Beethoven gave me a lesson"" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Ludwig van Beethoven" (Disputed) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#Ludwig van Beethoven#play#insignificant#inexcusable#without#passion#wrong#note
Ludwig van Beethoven

About Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17 1770, died March 26 1827) was a German composer and pianist who lived predominantly in Vienna, Austria. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers.