Opus 2: Mind Blown with Rita Dove

The Pulitzer Prize-winning former United States poet laureate, Rita Dove, is not one who can be put in any box or category. She wrote a historically based book about a mixed-race violinist, George Bridgetower, and his relationship with Beethoven entitled Sonata Mulattica. Here is an excerpt from her poem, “Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Return to Vienna”.

So when my proud city spread

her gypsy skirts, I reentered;

she burned a greater, constant light.

Call me rough, ill-tempered, slovenly–– I tell you,

every tenderness I have ever known

has been nothing

but thwarted violence, an ache

so permanent and deep, the lightest touch

awakens it –– it is impossible

to care enough. I have returned

with a second Symphony

and 15 Piano Variations

which I’ve named Prometheus,

after the rogue Titan, the half-a-god

who knew the worst sin is to take

what cannot be given back.

I smile and bow, and the world is loud.

And though I dare not lean in to shout

Can’t you see that I’m deaf? ––

I also cannot stop listening.

Dove’s next to last line “Can’t you see that I’m deaf?” repeats what Beethoven himself wrote in a letter to his brothers in 1802.  “Born with a passionate and excitable temperament, keenly susceptible to the pleasures of society, I was yet obliged early in life to isolate myself, and to pass my existence in solitude. If I at any time resolved to surmount all this, oh! how cruelly was I again repelled by the experience, sadder than ever, of my defective hearing! — and yet I found it impossible to say to others: Speak louder; shout! for I am deaf!”

This letter was written at the same time Beethoven was composing his second symphony, the same one referenced in Dove’s poem. It is a symphony of melodic pastoral passages interspersed with interludes of intensity, which like nearly all his great works, feels autobiographical. At exactly this time Beethoven was facing his disability and severe depression. He was rescued by the music he was compelled to create, and the world is grateful that he made his way forward.

If you’d like to listen to Beethoven’s Second Symphony, I highly suggest this version conducted by Daniel Barenboim in the Royal Albert Hall, London. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEiYmeeV6sI

If you are new to classical music, I’d like to point you to something interesting about this performance. The conductor has NO SCORE! Not a single note of sheet music gets between him and the orchestra. Imagine committing the score with all the complicated parts of an entire symphony to memory. Now I’m going to blow your mind a bit more. Imagine doing this for nearly all of Beethoven’s compositions! And now, for mind-blow number three, imagine also being a concert pianist and playing a piano concerto and conducting at the same time without one single piece of paper. I’ve seen him do it, and it is joyous, incredible, and staggering to think of the capacity of a human brain. I’ve always heard that London cabbies had the largest brain from memorizing all the streets and byways of a massive city, but this takes it one step further. You’ll see more videos of Daniel Barenboim throughout this blog. I admire him so, and the music he makes is top shelf.

To hear the fabulous Rita Dove read her poem, “Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Return to Vienna” on National Public Radio, listen here. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103022231

Until next time we meet, enjoy music, dive into poetry, and thanks for visiting thetonepoet.com.