Reprising this awesome quotation from Romain Rolland on Beethoven’s response to his great obstacles: The hammer is not all: the anvil also is necessary. Had destiny descended only upon some weakling, or on an imitation great man, and bent his back under this burden, there would have been no tragedy in it, only an everyday […]
Romain Rolland on Beethoven’s response to his deafness and depression Read More »
From a letter from Beethoven to Franz Wegeler in Bonn, June 29, 1801: “You want to know something about my present situation. Well, on the whole it is not at all bad … My compositions bring me in a good deal; and I may say that I am offered more commissions than it is possible
Artist as entrepreneur versus patronage — Beethoven and Mozart Read More »
From an account of the famous meeting of the two giants in 1812: Beethoven’s manners were described as rough, like “an unlicked bear,” while “Goethe’s social attitudes were shaped in a more formal age. For Beethoven, 21 years his junior, the only true aristocrats were artists. In the mythology, his disillusionment was clinched by Goethe’s
Goethe versus Beethoven on deference to aristocrats Read More »
How did Beethoven become Beethoven? “The ‘personality’ of such a man as Beethoven is a slowly developed synthetic whole. It is formed by the gradual combination of its constituent elements into an organic unity. For the development of a personality a rich and profound inner life is necessary, and for that reason it is usually
Creative geniuses as selfish — Beethoven version Read More »
A fascinating passage, reported by a young woman named Elizabeth Brentano,[1] who was a friend of Goethe and who met Beethoven in 1810. Here are Beethoven’s own words, according to Brentano: “When I open my eyes I must sigh, for what I see is contrary to my religion, and I must despise the world which
Beethoven on the metaphysics of music Read More »
To start — three sensitive commentators on the meaning of Beethoven’s music. * Hermann Hesse, the Nobel-Prize-winning novelist, in Steppenwolf, contrasting Mozart to Beethoven (and to Kleist, who committed suicide at age 34): “You have lent a deaf ear to those that plumbed the depths and suppressed the voices that told the truth of despair,
Beethoven’s romantic fatalism Read More »
From Maynard Solomon’s Beethoven: “For Beethoven’s German and Austrian contemporaries, the Napoleonic image was especially potent: Bonaparte’s admirers included Kant, Herder, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schiller, Goethe, Hölderlin, Wielan, and Klopstock. Grillparzer, in his Autobiography wrote, ‘I myself was no less an enemy of the French than my father, and yet Napoleon fascinated me with a
Napoleon’s German admirers Read More »
Following up on a series of posts about Michelangelo, Beethoven, and Liszt. From Frederic V. Grunfeld’s very good Rodin: A Biography, the answer in the case of August Rodin is education and self education. Rodin was born into a French culture in which the large majority of the population was illiterate or semi-literate. The fact
How great artists become great: Rodin Read More »
Ayn Rand Center Europe invited me and and Craig Biddle to Serbia to debate whether Objectivism is an open or closed philosophy. I argued for open and Mr. Biddle argued for closed. A recording of the debate follows. Also following the video window (or in this PDF) is a transcription of my remarks for those
Open Objectivism or Closed? Transcription of my Belgrade debate presentation Read More »
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born into a highly musical family. His father was was a skilled violinist and his older sister played the clavier excellently, so from his infancy he was surrounded by music. Yet, as he wrote in a letter to a friend, that was supplemented by deep study. “it is a mistake to
How Great Artists become Great: Mozart version Read More »