why I write, just click
the information that either music or
art deliver isn’t intellectual, in the
sense that it isn’t driven by any
discernible logic
it’s a logic of the heart, which follows
other, inscrutable, principles
“Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison
ne connaît point.”, the heart has its
reasons which reason can never
ever fathom – Blaise Pascal
therefore art
Richard
“Madonna and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele”
(1436)
_______
if Beethoven had written merely one transcendental
work we would still have been beholden, but that he
wrote neither two, nor three, but several immutable
pieces is extraordinary, super-, apparently, human,
though, of course, manifestly not, unless you want
to bring Jesus into the picture as such a dual being,
then we’ll talk, but Beethoven is a staunchly secular
voice, devoid of the spiritual considerations of a
Bach, for instance, Beethoven speaks for humanity,
its longings, consternations, aspirations, its essence,
no longer the discredited primacy of the Cross and
Its imperial derivatives, Human Rights have trumped
God
what Beethoven maintains however is the reverence,
his later pieces – you’ve heard the “Hammerklavier“,
already, the 32nd piano sonata – are manifestly
spiritual experiences, as opposed to religious
the 14th String Quartet will do the same
if the “Hammerklavier“ is akin to Moses delivering
his peremptory tablets, the 14th String Quartet is
the Sermon on the Mount, in the history of music
they have so great an impact
briefly, as briefly as I can, I’ll say a few introductory
words, then let your soul and the music do the rest,
see what happens to your karma
there are seven movements in the 14th, uninterrupted,
no pauses between the movements, though each is
easily identifiable, tempo therefore becomes incidental
instead of Classically ordered, the first movement, for
instance, is an adagio, a Classically improbable spot
the sections therefore play much as chapters in a
novel, advancing according to the logic and emotions
of the moment, always, as in all of Beethoven, moving
inexorably forward despite the intricacies of the, not at
all predictable, plot, as had been the case in the more
regimented Classical model, Beethoven takes you,
instead of around the corner, into the clouds, into a
spiritualized heaven, a place of profound existential
introspection
try listening to the 14th String Quartet attentively
without thinking about your soul, its existence,
its mission, in the very face of its ineradicable,
and fateful, actuality, the human conundrum,
Beethoven lets us know we’re not alone
some mountaintop Sermon indeed, watch what
happens to your sensibility, your very sacred
self, or maybe I should say, listen
may your path be decked meanwhile with laurels,
and your days be blessed with grace, be it ever
so merely, maybe, human
who knows
sincerely
Richard
psst: if you’ll allow me to pursue my series of
similarities you’ll imagine piano sonata
no 32 as Beethoven’s “Last Supper”,
this one in particular five luminous stars
take a few minutes, well, nearly an hour,
to watch, imbibe, incorporate, integrate,
this video, to smell this miraculous
flower, Beethoven’s piano sonata no 29,
the monumental “Hammerklavier“, the
equivalent, to my mind, of the Eiffel
Tower, the Coliseum, the Parthenon,
Homer’s “Iliad“, I promise it will
transform you
I’ll talk about it later, I also promise
Richard
psst: you might need some Kleenex
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