[Smt-talk] Beethoven and India ?

[matralab]

Dear Collective Wisdom

I am looking to verify an unsourced quote by Beethoven vis-a-vis Indian
music.

In the program brochure of the 1974 Metamusik Festival Berlin, the nameless
authors claim that
Beethoven had read the 1801 German edition of William Jones 1799 treatise
"The Music of Hindoostan".
His response is reported to have been: "philosophically interesting but of
no consequence to me musically" or something to that effect.

Does any of you by any chance know this quote and its bibliographical
reference ?
Is there an accessible and searchable Beethoven texts archive where I could
look for it ?

Any help or hint is welcome ( I read German, but not Beethoven's
handwriting).

Thank you in advance

Best
Sandeep Bhagwati
Canada Research Chair in Inter-X Arts
Concordia University
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