.
Fantasy leaves nothing to the imagination.
Creativity is real life; imitation is what most of us settle for.
When the garbage truck (dustbin lorry) came to pick up the rubbish this morning, and the truck is idling in the middle of the road, it emits Beethoven's Fur Elise, the first few bars thereof, repeatedly, as a safety warning - do not come near. When I phone up the truck rental company a few hours later (not a garbage truck you understand - a moving truck), I am put on hold, and get precisely the same tune piped into my ear - do not hang up. Wonder what Ludvig would have made of that, had he known, as he scratched those famous notes onto his parchment with his goose quill pen.
Friday night, in a bamboo beach bar, the reggae Beatles CD is on as usual, the semi-naked chef has retired to the couch, clearly exhausted by the heat in the kitchen, the Pacific is lapping the sand 20 yards away, it's warm, balmy, with a slight sea breeze, the three bargirls are truly delightful, and I am totally alone - the sole punter in the bar. Where on Earth is everyone?
"Beethoven is the friend and contemporary of the French Revolution, and he remained faithful to it even when, during the Jacobin dictatorship, humanitarians with weak nerves of the Schiller type turned from it, preferring to destroy tyrants on the theatrical stage with the help of cardboard swords. Beethoven, that plebeian genius, who proudly turned his back on emperors, princes and magnates - that is the Beethoven we love for his unassailable optimism, his virile sadness, for the inspired pathos of his struggle, and for his iron will which enabled him to seize destiny by the throat."
Igor Stravinsky
Creativity is real life; imitation is what most of us settle for.
When the garbage truck (dustbin lorry) came to pick up the rubbish this morning, and the truck is idling in the middle of the road, it emits Beethoven's Fur Elise, the first few bars thereof, repeatedly, as a safety warning - do not come near. When I phone up the truck rental company a few hours later (not a garbage truck you understand - a moving truck), I am put on hold, and get precisely the same tune piped into my ear - do not hang up. Wonder what Ludvig would have made of that, had he known, as he scratched those famous notes onto his parchment with his goose quill pen.
Friday night, in a bamboo beach bar, the reggae Beatles CD is on as usual, the semi-naked chef has retired to the couch, clearly exhausted by the heat in the kitchen, the Pacific is lapping the sand 20 yards away, it's warm, balmy, with a slight sea breeze, the three bargirls are truly delightful, and I am totally alone - the sole punter in the bar. Where on Earth is everyone?
"Beethoven is the friend and contemporary of the French Revolution, and he remained faithful to it even when, during the Jacobin dictatorship, humanitarians with weak nerves of the Schiller type turned from it, preferring to destroy tyrants on the theatrical stage with the help of cardboard swords. Beethoven, that plebeian genius, who proudly turned his back on emperors, princes and magnates - that is the Beethoven we love for his unassailable optimism, his virile sadness, for the inspired pathos of his struggle, and for his iron will which enabled him to seize destiny by the throat."
Igor Stravinsky
"His attitude to the princes and nobles who paid him was conveyed in a famous painting. The composer is shown in the course of a stroll with the poet Goethe, the Archduchess [Archduke surely?] Rudolph and the Empress. While Goethe respectfully gave way to the royal pair, politely removing his hat, Beethoven completely ignored them and continued walking without even acknowledging the greetings of the imperial family. This painting contains the whole spirit of the man, a fearless, revolutionary, uncompromising spirit. Suffocating in the bourgeois atmosphere of Vienna he wrote a despairing comment: “As long as the Austrians have their brown beer and little sausages, they will never revolt.” " 
"His personal life was never happy. He had the habit of falling in love with the daughters (and wives) of his wealthy patrons – which always ended badly, with new fits of depression. After one such spell of depression he wrote: “Art, and only art, has saved me! It seems to me impossible to leave this world without having given everything I have felt germinating within me.” "
http://www.marxist.com/beethoven-man-composer-revolutionary190506.htm
"His personal life was never happy. He had the habit of falling in love with the daughters (and wives) of his wealthy patrons – which always ended badly, with new fits of depression. After one such spell of depression he wrote: “Art, and only art, has saved me! It seems to me impossible to leave this world without having given everything I have felt germinating within me.” "
http://www.marxist.com/beethoven-man-composer-revolutionary190506.htm
