Gurgling through the flood of sound

"Walter's tenderness collapsed like a soufflé taken out of the oven too soon. He heaved a deep sigh. Then, hesitantly, he sat down again at the piano and struck a few notes. With or without his will, it turned into improvisations on themes from Wagner operas, and in the splashings of the dissolutley swelling substance, which he had denied himself in the days of his pride, his fingers waded and wallowed, gurgling through the flood of sound. Let them hear it far and wide! His spinal cord was paralysed by the narcotic influence of this music, and his lot grew lighter ..."

-Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities