Composers...

Having almost two blocked ears, I have been given a heightened awareness of what it must be like to be deaf. I plan to get my ears unblocked tomorrow - but I know there are many people who can't. Being someone who wears glasses, my ability to hear was very important to me - and with that being dulled, I have again a greater appreciation for people like my neighbour who is both deaf and blind. One of things I missed the most is the ability to hear music and my inability to hear myself and others singing. The one person I thought of then was Beethoven and how he overcame this challenge to be one of the greatest composers ever......

Here are some insights into some of our greatest composers....

1) BEETHOVEN

Beethoven, as a teenager lost his mother and supported his brothers. However, at twenty-eight he realised he was beginning to lose his hearing. He quickly started pulling himself away from others because of this. At forty-nine this bold figure with shabby coat, torn sleeves, and heavy thicket of hair could communicate only by writing. Once when he felt death near, he wrote a message to his brothers, saying: “Almost alone in the world, I dare not venture into society more than absolute necessity requires.” Then he added, “O God! Thou lookest down upon my mysery; thou knowest that it is accompanied with love of my fellow creatures, and a disposition to do good.” (G. T. Ferris, The Great German Composers, pp. 131–32.) And from that mind that could not hear men talk came the roar of joyful music. He wrote it on scraps of paper, on walls, blinds, and tables. Great symphonies and choruses have carried his powerful tidings to the world. He was fifty-five when that momentous No. 9, known as the Choral, was completed in 1826. At fifty-six he was dead.

2) HANDEL

Elder Spencer J. Condie writes in an article in 2010 called 'Handel and the Gift of Messiah' of a composer who had become dissillusioned with his life and after returning from a long walk, picked up a amnauscript filled with scripture referenece from Isaiah foretelling the birth of Jesus Christ and describing His ministry, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. He was so inspired by those words that he could not write fast enough.... and completed the work, which will remain one of his most defining compositions, in just three works. Upon finishing it - he humbly stated that "God had visited me" (Stephan Zweig, The Tide of Fortune: Twelve Historical Miniatures (1940), 121). Following the first London performance of Messiah, a patron congratulated Handel on the excellent "entertainment" to which he replied - "My lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them - I wish to make them better" (in Donald Burrows, Hande:Messiah (1991), 28) 

3) MOZART

In music one year, after making ammendment after ammendment to my compositions, my teacher told us about Mozart's ability to write music ready to be played without error... Not much help to me at the time, but something that I have never forgotten... And then just last week some 25 years+ later - as in just last week I actually learnt what this was. Mozart had an eidetic or photographic memory. In his own words, Wolfgang Mozart described how he used the creative process: “Those ideas that please me I retain in memory. … All this fires my soul and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodized and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statue, at a glance” (in Brewster Ghiselin, The Creative Process, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1952, p. 44). Truly amazing, as is his music.

4) SCHUMANN

Having been exposed to his music but not playing much of it - I was once told that Schumann wrote music for his wife to play, she herself being an accomplished pianist. I also remember that the fingering in the music is what we call extended which requires your hand to be spread out and in some places complex. My teacher told me that was done because Schumann's wife had large hands.... I'm not sure if this was true or not, but is something I will never forget, 1) that a man loved enough to write for his wife and 2) that a man would accomodate his wife's challenges and write music to suit. Recently, I have discovered that after Schumann passed, his wife remained the main editor of her husband's work and was responsible for the music of Schumann living on long after his death - and that is love.

I can't wait to hear again..... and promise to listen better and never take my hearing for granted again!

Yours in friendship,

Mxox