"I can understand your complaint, my dear Josephus, and I sympathise with you. But the mountain of the muses is to be reached only by a very precipitous path. There is no craft - however modest it may be - to which the novice does not have to serve an apprenticeship of at least three years. What should I say then about music, which not only surpasses the simpler crafts and arts in ingenuity, difficulty and richness, but, in fact cannot be rivaled by any of the liberal arts?* The benefit your efforts may bring you - the hope of success, the facility in writing which you will gradually acquire, and finally, the firm confidence that what you are writing is well-written - may encourage you."
-Johann Joseph Fux, Steps to Parnassus: The Study of Counterpoint, 1725
* This was written in 1725 when other crafts and technologies were not as advanced as they are today. I mean no offense to those who aren't musicians in posting this quote!
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