Chopin
12. (After the evocation) – Could you tell us about your situation as a spirit?
- Still errant.
13. Do you miss your Earthly life?
- I am not unhappy.
14. Are you happier than before?
- Yes, a little.
15. You say a little, meaning that there isn’t much difference. What is it missing so that you can be even happier?
- I say a little for what I could have been, since with my intelligence I could have advanced more than I did.
16. Do you expect to achieve the happiness you miss now?
- It will certainly come but new trials will be needed.
17. Mozart said that you are more somber and sad. Why so?
- Mozart told the truth. I get sad because I did not accomplish a committed assignment and do not have the courage to restart.
18. How do you see your musical compositions?
- I have them in high account. However, we do it better among us here, particularly when we have more resources.
19. Who are the members of your orchestra?
- We have legions of musicians at our service that play our com- positions with a thousand more talents than any one among you. These are complete musicians. They use their throats as instruments, so to speak, supported by instruments similar to organs that retain incredible accuracy and sound quality that I believe you cannot begin to comprehend.
20. Are you really an errant spirit?
- Yes. That is, I do not exclusively belong to any planet.
21. How about your musicians, are they errant as well?
- Errant like me.
22. (To Mozart) could you kindly explain what Chopin has just said? We do not understand that execution of music by the errant spirits.
- I understand your surprise. However, we have already said that there are particular worlds destined to errant beings, worlds that can be temporarily inhabited, a kind of bivouac or makeshift resting camp to these spirits, fatigued by a long erraticity, an always somewhat painful state.
23. (To Chopin) do you recognize one of your students here?
- Yes. It seems.
24. Could you kindly watch the execution of a piece of your composition?
- That would give me great pleasure, particularly having it ex- ecuted by a person that has kept a good memory of me. Please transmit my appreciation to him.
25. Can you give us your opinion about Mozart’s music?
- I like it very much. I consider Mozart my master.
26. Would you share that opinion with respect to today’s music?
- Mozart said that music was better understood in his time than nowadays. That is true. I will object, however, that there still are true artists.
NOTE: The fragment of sonata dictated by the spirit of Mozart has just been published. It may be acquired from the office of the Spiritist Review or from the bookstore of Mr. Ledoyen, Palais Royal, Galerie d’Orleans, 31. Price 2 francs – it will be posted against a mail order of that amount.
