Music of the Mind

Each man has his own gift from God…

1 Corinthians 7:7

Ludwig von Beethoven is another of my favorite composers.  His first music teacher was his father, who, according to many accounts, was a jerk and hoped to promote his son for money as a child prodigy such as Mozart.  He was performing at the age of seven [his father claimed he was six] as an accomplished pianist  He also studied organ, violin and viola.  He wrote and published his first composition at the age of thirteen.

That which inspires me about Beethoven, however--aside from his gorgeous music, is his determination to rise above the infirmity that began to plague him at twenty-six years old – the loss of his hearing.  He briefly thought of suicide in his early thirty’s, but the music in his head persuaded him to live for his art.  By the age of forty-four, Beethoven was profoundly deaf.  He could no longer perform on the piano, but continued to conduct and compose.  When he conducted the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned around at the end of the performance so that he could see the thunderous ovation.  He could hear nothing.

How in the world do you write music when you cannot hear a thing?  How do you hear each instrument of the orchestra and which portion of the music they are to play?  How do you conduct an orchestra that you cannot hear?  You do so by pouring forth the glorious music that God has placed in your mind.