Rossini's Stabat Mater Excerpt--Schopenhauer, WWR, p. 262

"Therefore, if music tries to stick too closely to the words, and to mould itself according to the events, it is endeavoring to speak a language not its own.  No one has kept so free from this mistake as Rossini; hence his music speaks its own language so directly and purely that it requires no words at all, and therefore produces its full effect even when rendered by instruments alone."