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Beethoven – Deafness, Change and Genius


As any composer will tell you, we study quiet a bit.   A good composer will never “tune out” but uses the background of social chaos as a protagonist for creation.

By 1800, Beethoven had become aware of his advancing deafness — surely a most horrible fate for a musician and unendurable to a composer. Agonizing over his fate, Beethoven contemplated suicide, but in the end embraced life, determined to go on composing, if no longer performing. Unhappy with his compositions up to that time and stating that he would now be “making a fresh start,” Beethoven began composing music such as had never before been heard. His Symphony no. 3 in E-flat major, subtitled the “Eroica”, was completed in 1804, and was almost twice as long as any symphony written up to that time. Taking the classical symphony as a starting point, it introduces more themes, more contrasts, more instruments, more weight and more drama than previously heard in the symphonic form.

His sixteen string quartets span his creative life and developed from the classical restraint of the six “Early” quartets to the sublime late quartets which contain music of such personal pain and suffering, that one wonders if an audience was intended to hear them at all. The power of Beethoven’s voice can be heard in the String Quartet no. 11 in F minor. Beethoven’s musical ideas, the “themes” he used and from which he painstakingly constructed his works, were revolutionary for his day.
Not many understood his vision.
Critics vilified him, traditionalists accused him of being an “enemy of the muses”.  He was just a deaf profound genius, confronting deafeningly profound times……………  T. Andrew Schoenberger
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Gun Control Debate – Leave the Children Out of the National Debate

As any composer will tell you, we study quiet a bit.   A good composer will never “tune out” but uses the background of social chaos as a protagonist for creation.

In the 80’s , I composed things a young man would compose.   More interested in stormy, defiant pieces, my psychiatrist father would laugh and say “Great piece son, are you angry at me?”

Now as an older, and hopefully wiser man, I try and write pieces that reflect the era we are living in — these modern times of confusion.

Much has been said about the recent issue of gun control. We are all , yes all, horrified by the violence perpetuated at the work place, the movie theatre, and now our schools. Nobody sane would not question or attempt to find out why such horror seems to grow, encroaching into the most scared areas of our lives. We have had it good for a long time. So good, that we still use words like recession to describe a depression, and conspiracy theorist to confront someone who’s belief systems do not match ours. I stay out of the gun control debate because I have friends on both sides of the issue. I believe that our heroes have fallen, from Armstrong, to Schwarzenegger  to Travolta and Saville and so on and so forth.

And I believe many do not believe that Gov, NRA, or the man from Mars is going to save them. The underlying issue here is trust. Not many gun advocates I know believe that a deranged shooter will be targeting them. They are responsible people and they resent being lumped into the same category as the shooters in these tragedies. They are suspicious of anyone wanting to claim their instruments of protections, and perhaps they should be.On the other hand, where is the need to have such banal and aggressive death weapons like assault weapons ? Should we arm every citizen with A Bombs or should we take away all guns, knives, forks, spoons, and baseball bats?

 

I know where I stand. I plan to write more music, the greatest weapon I can use in my crusade to foster peace and understanding in today’s stressed out generation.I do not believe we are in a mere recession, but something far worse., I do not believe we can make 300 million guns in America disappear  But I do believe that we have to do whatever we can to leave children out of the national debate, even as they have been innocent victims of the outrage. And we must seek answers to the riddles of modern life by finding precedent in bygone eras.

T. Andrew Schoenberger

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Water, Da Vinci, Lake Maggiore and Composing Music

 In one of his many writings on water, its properties and characteristics, Da Vinci observed:

 The waters circulate with constant motion from the utmost depths of the sea     to the highest summits of the mountains, not obeying the nature of heavy  matter; and in this case it acts as does the blood of animals which is always moving from the sea of the heart and flows to the top of their heads; and here it is that veins burst–as one may see when a vein bursts in the nose, that all the blood from below rises to the level of the burst vein. When the water rushes out of a burst vein in the earth it obeys the nature of other things  heavier than the air, whence it always seeks the lowest places.  These waters traverse the body of the earth with infinite ramifications.

For this otherworldly polymath, who understood well the elemental nature of water, this construct still holds true, five centuries after he wrote it.

In some of my music, I have incorporated the sound of old cathedral bells, having listened to them many times during my travels to Florence and Milan. Of special interest has been the northern Italian lake region, Lago Maggiore and Lake Como, the mystical region that has inspired much of my composing.

Always while in Italy, I speak to people about the flood of 1966, since having personally experienced flooding in Florence, I cannot even begin to describe the sheer viscera of watching mud heaving forth, and the river turning dark, choppy, furious.. In many of my winter sojourns, I have grabbed my travelling companion, ran in the rain to an Osteria, steeled myself with a Macchiato, and ran back to my abode to compose more music, using the crescendo of the furious raindrops as my meter.

But back to Da Vinci and his observations. Da Vinci would have much to say if he were alive today. I believe he would have ideas about Super Storm Sandy, the droughts, the Tsunami, the Hurricanes and blizzards. He would , above most ancient genius’s , be a constructive voice in civil engineering, promoting reasonable protective barriers to protect our worlds populations from the ravages of “climate change”.  I further believe he would be experimenting with vibration, as an audio barrier, to contain an encroaching sea. The music I have written in this region of the world,is amber liquid in nature, limpid engorged pieces molding into torrents of tonal passages that, like a bursting of veins, descend upon the listener like a deluge from the seas.

Music must break it’s banks sometimes, like rivers misbehaving, like rain upon a windowpane, and then must be like a giant ocean, silent in it’s profound depth.

Thomas Schoenberger

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PianoWorks Music Composed by Thomas Schoenberger

This is a collection of mostly new compositions. dedicated to the memory of Dr T. Schoenberger — doctor, master gardener, veteran and father. The compositions were inspired by hearing my good friend Professor Robert Levin tackle the most difficult Mozart pieces with grace and ease.

[bandcamp album=3963152816 bgcol=272E30 linkcol=4285BB size=venti]

Thomas Schoenberger

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Jacob Orbrecht, The Black Plaque and Avian Flu

I have always enjoyed listening to the mostly forgotten music of composer Jacob Orbrecht.I admit finding out about the composer quite by accident. He came from a small town in the Netherlands that attracted my curiosity for other reasons.
But his music stands out, ethereal, and somehow almost shamanistic, especially the music he wrote for the dead, i.e. masses. The town, in the 14th century,was bustling with trade and indutry. Then plague hit and strangely, nothing prior to the 15th century seems to be extant, even though we know that the town was a well known trade hub in the prior century.
What about the dress of the plague doctors – I believe that may be a clue. My belief is that the historians were wrong about much of the “Black Death” I have watched the usual “History channel” promotions and even though I know epidemiologists and they tell me my hunches are wrong, I believe at some later date, scientists will start to seek avian evidence from the 14th century ( detritus in their ancient nesting places) and be quite surprised to find that , with all the supposition they have given to their Black Death theories, there seems to be a profound lack of contemporary accounts of dead mice.
Sure we know that 1/3 of Europe died in the Great Plague of 1347-1352. For such a terrifying event , filled with stress beyond belief, why would so many so called Plague Doctors dress in odd Bird like masks? We are led to believe the rats were the cause,or rather, the fleas from the rats that came with the ships into the old Italian port cities of Genoa Milan., so forth. Go to any port town today and witness the birds that flock around the ships. Why have no scientists sought out examining the bones of birds that can be dated to this period? Perhaps it could be something to consider.
But I digress. The Plague Doctor (Italian: medico della peste, Dutch: pestmeester, German: Pestarzt) was a true spectacle.Donning the 14th century version of the HazMat suit, these “doctors” were usually hired hands, meant to scope out the truly horrifying outbreak areas, hired by the powers that be to report and quarantine the areas the city fathers feared to inspect personally. 

Just as we have seen in modern days,as “clean up crews” contain nuclear accidents, (only to later die of radiation posioning), these Plague doctors had a high incidence of death. Might the city fathers have purposely designed the avian head garb, knowing full well the Plague was associated with birds, not rats? Might the heavy cloaks these fellows wore have been actual carriers of an avian flu tha is lost to history today? Should attention be cast on old pigoen nesting sites nestled in Gothic era cathedrals , not human graves? Surely Thomas, its a long shot, my scientist friends say.

I quietly counter that nobody has demonstrated one rodent skeleton from the time to prove their theories of Bubonic Plague I was force fed all my life. The 14th century human skeletal remains found in European mass grave sites still remain our greatest hope to coming up with root casual agents for the wholesale die off, they say. But still. we need to look to the birds as a possible prime suspect I counter.

 

We may look closely at the eves and archers mounts of the 14th C buildings and seek our answers in where pigeon and sea birds made their nests over the last 6 centuries. The cathedrals and palaces remain a potential treasure site where perhaps, such evidence may lie. . The town where Orbrecht was born is a point of study for me. I have been there a number of times, investigating our feathered friends of the sky, seeking answers outside of the Universities and labs, studying the old market squares, including this Netherlander city. where pigeons still gather in the ancient city center. The well known 14th century die off sites in Europe include Avingon, Genoa, Venice Paris, London. etc. In the case of Orbrecht, his hometown( Ghent) was a die off site in the preceding century before he was born. It is written in the city records of the time.

Happening upon such a ethereal composer as I seek other knowledge is a side benefit that comes with the thrill of discovery. He probably did not know much about what had happened to his forefathers, just like most people do not know much of what lies beneath their very feet, or for that matter, what their forefathers did in the preceding century. When I tell people that San Francisco had a plague before and during the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, they are startled. Its true and the information is readily available. When I tell them that history is full of mysterious plagues followed by cleansing fires, they ask for evidence. Its all there. London 1664-1666, SF 1900-!907,. etc etc etc. Rinse and repeat. — T. Andrew Schoenberger

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How About Self-Improvement in the Form of a Club? Another Great Idea from Ben Franklin

Would we benefit from a spectaular model in history?
A model that brought forth enlightenment, understanding and creative energies?
I think the answer is to be found in the year 1727. The year the Junto was born.
The WHAT you say?
THE “JUNTO”
Check it out on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junto_(club)
Franklin organized a group of friends to provide a structured form of mutual improvement. The group, initially composed of twelve members, called itself the Junto (the word is a mistaken use of the masculine singular Spanish adjective “joined”, mistaken for the feminine singular noun “junta”, “a meeting”. Both derive from Latin “iunct-“, past participle of “iungere”, “to join”). The members of the Junto were drawn from diverse occupations and backgrounds, but they all shared a spirit of inquiry and a desire to improve themselves, their community, and to help others. Among the original members were printers,surveyors, a cabinetmaker, a clerk, and a bartender. Although most of the members were older than Franklin, he was clearly their leader.
What about starting a Junto in your neighborhood? There are plenty of great modern-day examples patterned on Ben’s example.

P’unk Avenue hosts a monthly Junto in their studio in Philadelphia, where the Junto originated.[3] Since January 2006, the Silicon Valley Junto has met in Palo Alto and San Francisco to discuss topics such as happiness, love, storytelling, and Americanism.[4] Two graduates of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, run the Montreal Junto, devoted to professional networking and public service. They meet on the last Wednesday of each month.[5]

The University of Pennsylvania Chapter of the Junto Society is also in operation. As founder of both institutions, Ben Franklin remains an important motif for both the Penn Junto Society and the University in general. The Penn chapter has strong roots in Philadelphia’s history, but was revived last year by an elite group of members graduating with the Class of 2011. The society exists primarily for intellectual discourse, socialization and networking purposes. As members disperse to the four corners of the globe, they hope to expand the society’s scope and activities worldwide.

The Hong Kong Junto was established in 2009 comprising a diverse group of the business community including lawyers, bankers, investors, authors and entrepreneurs. The Hong Kong Junto meets the second Thursday of every month, usually in Central, with one of its members chairing the evening during which one of Franklin’s original questions is asked and answered by all present, along with one other question that is the discretion of the member hosting. In 2012 the Hong Kong Junto started to become involved in promoting and supporting selected social enterprises in Hong Kong.

 

T

Thomas Schoenberger
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