Thomas Mann constructed Doktor Faustus as a chronicle of the life and tragedy of the composer Adrian Leverkühn, told by his childhood friend, Serenus Zeitblom. This excerpt  is taken from the eighth chapter, describing a music lecture by one Wendell Kretzschmar, an American-born composer and musician who, for a brief period, works as the local church's organist  in their provincial  hometown, Kaisersaschern. The theme of vividly described lecture is Beethoven's famous Piano Sonata Opus 111.