Beethoven grabbed me again. I never know when or where this will happen, but this week it did happen. My emotions have been extreme lately. Politics. A new grandbaby. A new project in Italy. Illness. And with these emotional swings Beethoven sneaks back in. He is the ultimate manifestation of emotional swings.
In one morning this week, both of these found me. A poem. And Beethoven.
First the poem:
Good Bones
by Maggie Smith
Life is short and I’ve shortened mine,
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.
Learn more about this amazing writer here: https://maggiesmithpoet.com/
What grabbed me about this? Things might be at their worst, but you can make this place beautiful, right? This seems a very Beethoven like attitude. The ill, suffering, deaf Beethoven. The vile, rude, even cruel Beethoven. Yet joy, beauty lived in his head, and in his hands. He pulls it all out through his music. Fear. Despair. And Love. Love that can reach forward to us now. As Jon Batist says, “I love you even If I don’t know you.”
Jon Batiste you say? That was the Beethoven that grabbed me.
This entire album, Beethoven Blues by Jon Batiste is a meditation on hope, thanks to Beethoven and Batiste. Shall we call him the 4th B? This quote is from his recent interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air”:
“Beethoven’s work taps into a “universal connective, magnetic truth in music,” Batiste explains, that you also hear in blues. “It’s like things that make you cry every time you hear them; things that make you dance, every time you hear them. It’s just something in the DNA of that sound.”
I was enthralled by Batiste’s interpretation of the “Waldstein Piano Sonata”. For comparison, here is the piece with graphic note illustrations, where the keys are literally “smokin.”. The difficulty level of this piece is daunting.
And here is Julliard trained Batiste’s “Waldstein Wobble”. Fasten your seatbelt for this boogie woogie key blazer.
Crying and dancing at the same time. That has been me lately. And Jon Batiste. And Maggie Smith. And maybe you too. Please take care of yourselves while we ride this roller coaster of life together.
So glad to see you back sharing again, although the poem was a tough one for me. Thanks for turning us on to this interpretation of Beethoven. Love Jon’s music and have listened to 4 of the cuts so far. The Wobbly piece? I can’t even!
Thanks Jennie. It is a hard poem. And it is asking about redemption. I must hold that in hope. As for Jon, he is beyond words. Sounds like you knew about this album before me. I’ve been a bit isolated.