THE LIGHTBULB SERIES 

Please read the essay by Cosmo Buono on Beethoven first. Once you do, you will see that  the composer’s life was filled with all sorts of challenges. Even though he was highly talented,  he failed to be recognized as a prodigy, a hope his father had to bring the family wealth and  security. His mother died when he was only 17 years old, which made it necessary to return  home to Bonn, and abandon his plans to study with Mozart, a collaboration that could have  changed his life forever. 

What most people remember about Beethoven outside of his extraordinary abilities as a  composer however, is the fact that he started going deaf when he was in his twenties, a  condition that continued to worsen to the point where he contemplated suicide. By this time he  was already building a solid reputation as both a musician and a composer. Scientists and  historians alike believe that his condition was the result of progressive lead poisoning, with lead  having been used in everything, even the plates from which many people ate. 

By the time he was 46 years old, Beethoven was completely deaf. What remains so astonishing  is the fact that he never heard some of his own greatest works. The Ninth Symphony, Missa  Solemnis, Diabelli Variations, his last five piano sonatas, and all of his late string quartets were  masterpieces he would never hear. Some might say he was a victim of his deafness, while  others can justifiably point to the fact that he became a victor over a condition that might have  caused other composers to give up completely. 

Here is how he did it. Composition is its own language, and Beethoven knew it well enough so  that he could “hear” the music in his head. The imagination of his “inner ear” made him familiar  with notes, chords, and harmonies, so that he heard everything in his mind and was thus able  to compose for instruments based on what he imagined their sounding like together from his  memory. 

He also took other more drastic measures to overcome his disability, such as placing his jaw  on the piano in order to feel its vibrations, and in a more severe effort, removed the legs from a  piano so that he could feel its vibrations on the floor.

The work of a classical musician, even under the best of circumstances, is very challenging.  There are, literally, years of practicing in order to make repertoire come alive. This is even before  one begins the lifelong quest to launch a successful career, or for that matter, a career of any  kind. 

However, there is one simple factor that makes the difference between a victim and a victor.  A victor never gives up. 

Beethoven refused to let the difficulties that plagued him his entire life get in the way of his  becoming, and staying, a pianist and composer. Almost two hundred years after his death he  is still considered to be one of the best, if not the best composer that ever lived. If he had  chosen at any point to give in to the difficulties of his life—even before he lost his hearing—we  would not have the legacy of great music he has left us. 

Consider a modern-day example of a victor, the pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. Blind since birth he has  to learn everything by ear. Still, he tied for the Gold Medal in the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition,  and played in Carnegie Hall as part of the 2011 Keyboard Virtuoso Series. He has also released  many albums and performs with some of the world’s most celebrated conductors, among them  Vladimir Ashkenzy, Kent Nagano, and Yutaka Sado. 

During the premiere of his Ninth Symphony on May 7, 1824, the deaf Beethoven was unaware  of the thunderous applause. One of the soloists, Caroline Unger, gently turned him around to  face the audience, who gave him a tremendous standing ovation that he could only see, not  hear. 

What is this week’s Lightbulb Moment? That you are a victim only if you choose to be, and that  being a victor means finding a way to get past anything that presents an obstacle. Being a  victim is when life takes control of you. Being a victor is when you take control of life. 

Don’t say a portion of a work you are studying is difficult. Practice it until it becomes easy. Don’t  say a work is too long to memorize. Break it up into smaller pieces until you can play it  completely from memory. Be like Beethoven, the victor: the master of his fate, and the captain  of his soul.