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Letter to a young artist
This is a letter my eather wrote me over 40 years ago. He passed away before he could send it and until about 10 years ago it lay hidden ain abox of his personal papers. I discovered it after my mother pass away and I was going through the papers she had left. I share it with you here.
"I have often thought that I would like to write to you about music. Of course, I know that no one can say anything important about music, because it is beyond words. It might ne said that music is the language of feelings - delicate emotions., stong passions and sprititual ecstacy - that would be impossible to translate into words. If you have ever tried to tell another person about something in beauty, that has moved you deeply - you will know what I mean. It is hopeless to express in words our finer feelings. This gives one the sense of being so alone (a fact we never like to face) that your soul could scream out into the eternal silence.
When the world around you has become dark and dismal. When you experience this terrible sense of loneliness - knowing that if you were to die, no one would miss you much, because no one really loved you. Your family, your friends would soon forget that you ever existed - only the one who really loved you would never forget; but who is that person?? in most of our lives? It's some onewho, (in most cases doesn't exist) we seldom find.
Well this is where music comes into our lives. Yes, I suppose there are other panacrea, such as religions, philosophies, etc. yet they are all theories - music is a real experience. It is like looking at our soul in the mirrior. Our innermost feelings are reflected back to our awareness of them. We find a new world within ourselves, the things we believed in since childhood - become reality. Inside our own being - there is a world we have never known - what a beautiful and real world! A sense of Joy - a joy of living - may come out in a little Shubert waltz. Hope that one may find the "true beloved" is always in "The Spring of Night" of Schuman. Death - the last (and perhaps) greatest adventure of all - becomes magnificent in the 2nd movement of Beethoven's III Symphony. He tell you more than all the preachers of eternity could say about this important question.
The strange thing - is that you know it (you don't believe it) because it has happened to you. "An ounce of experience - is worth a pound of theory."
Hearing great music (and knowing its value) is like a perfect sexual experience. Nothing can be said of it.- it is a pure individual experience and can never be translated into words. It's personal, something between yourself and the beloved.
Now when the beloved is Shubert, Chopin, Brahms or Beethoven - and their great thoughts and feelings are put into you, the whole world changes - the dark clouds run away - the enimies become friends, the worries and problems of everyday existence become nothing.
Well I am an "old timer" talking to a young person, and the question might arise, "I wish I could feel as you do - but how can I?"
The answer is simple - but it takes time before it becomes your own. It is merely---
When you listen to the great masters -have reverence. Expect much. Dont be disappointed if it means nothing to you. Often it takes time for a mortal to rise to the viewpoint of eternity. Don't be afraid - music and the masters are your friends They will impart to you their own love, courage and blessings - if you live with them. Their language is the language of the heart - give your heart to them - and expect to be a better person - not morally - (who gives a damn about that) but as a real living soul -- a being who can experience life at iots greatest level of "Joy"..
In music you will find friends - people who lived and died before you were born - and yet someday (many years from now) you will know what i am talking about. There is a unity of beaty in the awareness of man."
Thanks to my youngest child for the translation of this letter.
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