“Do you happen to know what a fugue is?” the Master now asked.
Knecht looked dubious. He had already heard fugues, but had not yet studied them in class.
“Very well,” the Master said, “then I’ll show you…”

In those few minutes he saw himself and his life, saw the whole cosmos guided, ordered, and interpreted by the spirit of music…

Many years later Knecht told his pupil that when he stepped out of the building, he found the town and the world far more transformed and enchanted than if there had been flags, garlands, and streamers, or displays of fireworks…

—Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game