Beethoven - Pain, Art, Creativity (Ode to Joy) Immortal Beloved

"To play without passion is inexcusable!"
— Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven had an abusive father who tried to exploit him as a child prodigy, an infatuation for women who were totally out of reach, a tragic deafness that defies imagination, the comical frequency in which he shifted residences in Vienna, his disillusionment with Napoleon, his unkempt appearance and lack of personal hygiene, a man with a vision of universal brotherhood increasingly withdrawing into himself.
It's almost tempting to stop right there, as if his tormented life were reason enough to explain his exalted music, but the written record demands a closer look. Beethoven wrote a lot of letters and so did his friends, and in their 1999 book, "Manic Depression and Creativity," authors D Jablow Hershman and Dr Julian Lieb argue quite convincingly that the great composer had bipolar:
"I joyfully hasten to meet death," Beethoven wrote as his deafness made itself apparent, "... for will it not deliver me from endless suffering?"
This was no isolated event. An 1801 letter to a friend refers to a two-year-long depression. The next year he is begging Providence for "but one more day of pure joy." In 1813, he may have attempted suicide, disappearing and being found three days later. In 1816, he wrote: "During the last six weeks my health has been so shaky, so that I often think of death, but without fear ..."
Ironically, his bipolar may have enabled him to survive deafness and loneliness. According to the book's authors:
[Bipolars] can be happy without cause, or even in the face of misfortune It may be that Beethoven survived as a creator because he was brave or because his love of music kept him going. What he did have were his manic days of "pure joy" that he prayed for, and manias triggered by the process of working, along with the confidence and optimism mania brings.
His mania seemed to stoke his creativity, as he crashed and banged on his pianoforte, taking the instrument to its limits, scribbling on walls and shutters if paper wasn't available, dousing his head with water that ran through to the rooms below.
Ultimately, Beethoven medicated himself with the only available drug besides opium - alcohol. He literally drank himself to death. And as deafness closed in around him, he withdrew from the world, into himself. He wrote his Eighth Symphony in 1812. Then his creative output dried up. In 1824, he would premier his Choral Symphony. It was as if a piece of this magnitude required a tortuous 12-year gestation. He would also compose his transcendent string quartets. But soon his liver would give out on him, and in early 1827 he died at the age of 56, leaving behind sketches of a tenth symphony the world would never hear.
by John McManamy
"My misfortune is doubly painful to me because it will result in my being misunderstood. For me there can be no recreation in the company of others, no intelligent conversation, no exchange of information with peers; only the most pressing needs can make me venture into society. I am obliged to live like an outcast."
— Ludwig van Beethoven

Category:

Education

Tags:

• beethoven
• genius
• art
• pain
• creativity
• Nietzsche
• music
• philosophy
• ode
• to
• joy
• artist
• yt:stretch=16:9

[MrVillyOdin]

@123petar123 Immortal Beloved.

[123petar123]

How's this movie called! PLS ANSWER

[ntipouan]

Turn on the music, switch off the lights, maximise, press play; enjoy the Beauty.

[MrMonyou]

por dios beethoven no es de este planeta.....es de otra galaxia.

[ADHDfox]

Beautiful :) 

[MITHWORLD1]

amazing from 6:07 to 6:27,that´s all what we really are... <3

Excellent pangea,thanks a lot ;)

[dewinthemorning]

Loved the video and the music!

[chivaking]

woot i love it so much.

[PapaWilk]

Incredibly moving. Thank you for uploading.