Posted on 09/16/2020 3:00:49 PM PDT by tbw2
Because he was deaf when he wrote them, Beethoven never heard his late quartets. This is a remarkable anecdote; an inhuman feat of human creativity.
I was reminded of a resonant anecdote while reading in the Spectator US of a meeting between British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his wife and Prince Harry and Meghan Marklebear with me.
The article described that the Laborite couple later sent the laborious couple a book of poems by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a 17th century Mexican nun and poet.
The Spectator describes her as a poet known for her proto-feminism and early criticism of the Spanish empire. She is also well known for having stopped writing her risqué poetry on the orders of the Church hierarchy.
This is an interesting symmetry: Beethoven writing music for us that he would never hear; Sor Juana composing poems in her head that we would never read.
(Excerpt) Read more at libertyislandmag.com ...
Deaf Composers, Silenced Writers, Fragile Violins, and the Late Quartets of our Times
https://libertyislandmag.com/2020/09/03/deaf-composers-silenced-writers-fragile-violins-and-the-late-quartets-of-our-times/
/s (Do I really need it?)
But, wait! It was claimed not long back that Beethoven was a BLACK!
To us it is absurd but to some who are grabbing for any black straw they can find it is gospel.
No, no, no, his being deaf proves he never wrote anything he kept a black slave trapped in his basement that wrote everything for him.
Yes, you do need the sarcasm tag. I’ve heard/read very weird BS said in all earnestness.
It is cultural appropriation.
Beethoven’s quartet #15 inspired TS Eliot....
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