#beethoven

I do strongly feel that among the greatest pieces of luck for high achievement is ordeal. Certain great artists can make out without it, Titian and others, but mostly you need ordeal. My idea is this: the artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business: Beethoven's deafness, Goya's deafness, Milton's blindness, that kind of thing. ↗

— John Berryman

#artists #beethoven #goya #literature #luck

A deaf composer's like a cook who's lost his sense of taste. A frog that's lost its webbed feet. A truck driver with his license revoked. That would throw anybody for a loop, don't you think? But Beethoven didn't let it get to him. Sure, he must have been a little depressed at first, but he didn't let misfortune get him down. It was like, Problem? What problem? He composed more than ever and came up with better music than anything he'd ever written. I really admire the guy. Like this Archduke Trio--he was nearly deaf when he wrote it, can you believe it? What I'm trying to say is, it must be tough on you not being able to read, but it's not the end of the world. You might not be able to read, but there are things only you can do. That's what you gotta focus on--your strengths. Like being able to talk with the stone. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#composer #inspirational #reading #inspirational

With copious evidence ranging from Plato's haughtiness to Beethoven's tirades, we may conclude that the most brilliant people of history tend to be a prickly lot. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#brilliant #conclude #evidence #history #lot

Frank Zappa... was Beethoven for insane rock guys. ↗

— Scott Ian

#frank #frank zappa #guys #insane #rock

What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven. ↗

— Ludwig van Beethoven

#am #beethoven #birth #i #i am

If a professional musician in a symphony orchestra is playing Beethoven. But this particular orchestra have played this particular chestnut so many times, they can play it in their sleep. Does the genius remain present in the music or not? ↗

— Robert Fripp

#does #genius #many #music #musician

I was a strange, loud little kid who could sit at the piano and kill a Beethoven piece. ↗

— Lady Gaga

#could #i #kid #kill #little

Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more. ↗

— Neville Marriner

#even #instruments #late #more #most

There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't improvising. ↗

— Wynton Marsalis

#believe #his #improvising #one thing #played

I worked on scores. I went to the musical library in Berlin which is very famous. I discovered that we had scores of Beethoven, printed scores of Beethoven, that are full of mistakes. Not the wrong or false notes, but the wrong dynamic, understandable things. ↗

— Kurt Masur

#berlin #discovered #dynamic #false #famous