Leo Tolstoy once said: "Life is not an easy pleasure, but is destined to be a heavy burden." This sentence is used to describe Beethoven's life, which is appropriate. To understand Beethoven's life, I first recommended "The Biography of Beethoven" written by Roman Roland.
The Biography of Beethoven by Romain Rolland in 1703. This book does not sprinkle hundreds of thousands or even millions of words from the birth of the person concerned like most celebrity biographies, fully mobilizing the previous historical research and the author's imagination to describe. On the contrary, Roman Rolland uses his concise and vivid writing technique to show the world how Beethoven sings joy in the suffering of fate, and overcomes mediocrity with forbearance and pity.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Germany in 1977. During his lifetime he composed 9 numbered symphonies, 10 violin sonatas, 35 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, 1 opera, 2 Masses, etc., and more notably, almost all of his works have been preserved to this day. Beethoven's life experienced the French Revolution and the fierce european upheavals, which made all his works mixed with a strong sense of the times, and he was an extremely sensitive and unstable person, so his works always presented a rhythm of ups and downs.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > life and death: only by treating life with a "born to die" attitude can the value of life be highlighted</h1>
"Beethoven's Biography" describes the encounters of Beethoven's life, which makes people feel sad after reading it.
(1) Illness torments his body and mind, and he fights back against the cruelty of fate with perseverance
Beethoven was born into a poor family, his mother was a maid and died as a teenager. From the age of 4 he was asked by his father to practice in front of the instrument every day. At the age of 17, he had to work to cover the expenses of the entire family, including raising two younger brothers. At the age of 26, Beethoven suffered from an ear disease, which rumbled all day long, and his internal organs were often painful. But his arrogant self-esteem and the peculiarities of his profession made him hide from everyone and pretend to be a normal person. The torment of illness also had a great impact on his career. In order to pretend that he was a normal person and not be hurt by the enemy, he performed as usual during tinnitus.
Beethoven's friend Schindler once told this story in Fidelio:
It is not difficult for us to imagine the scene at that time, nor is it difficult to appreciate how painful Beethoven was at that time. But it was this experience that, instead of knocking him down, made him write a work of extreme pity. Two years later, he composed the world-famous Ninth Symphony, which received thunderous applause after the performance.
It is precisely because of the ear disease that he can hide in his inner world and be isolated from the world. He did not choose to succumb to fate and give up his creation. Instead, in order to continue his beloved musical career, he chose to be patient. He still took command, endured the questioning eyes of others, and endured the contempt of the enemy. All of those excellent works that have passed away are created by him in pathos and forbearance. As Beethoven once wrote in a letter to a friend: "I live in sadness and forbearance, firmly believing that disasters are full of goodwill."
(2) A life of emotional ups and downs, never married, but he used this as inspiration to create a large number of works about love
Beethoven never married in his lifetime, and according to the literature, he maintained chastity throughout his life. He had been engaged to Teresa Terrence Bruncer in 1805, and they fell in love with each other at first sight, and the marriage was blessed around him. But just when Beethoven was indulging in the delicacy of love, the woman proposed to dissolve the marriage contract and end the relationship in 1810.
Beethoven fell out of love! For this reason, he spent a period of muddled nightmares and self-abandonment. Whenever I think of the sweet time I spent with my former lover, I feel even more like a knife. To this end, he wrote in his notebook: "Yield, yield deeply to your destiny; you can no longer exist for yourself, only for others; for you, there is happiness only in art." Oh God, please give me the courage to conquer myself. ”
After Falling Out of Love, Beethoven devoted all his remaining strength to creation, and for this reason, the Seventh Symphony and the Eighth Symphony, which have been handed down to this day, were born during his death for his feelings. Even though the breakup made him miserable, he still turned this painful experience into inspiration for creation.
Beethoven was tormented by illness and love throughout his life, and constantly suffered physical and mental pain. But he overcame the torment of fate that he endured in turn and continued to create. In the end, in this life, he overcame the mediocrity of mankind, overcame his own destiny, and overcame his pain.
Heidegger
Heidegger, the representative of existential philosophy, once said: "Death as the end of this being is even the possibility that this is the most intrinsic, unrelated, and certain, but uncertain and transcendent in itself." Death exists as the end of this being. Philosophers strive to define death, ostensibly studying death, but in fact studying a "living toward death" attitude to survival.
Heidegger's "life to death" is a kind of death as the end, and every day we spend is in the process of rushing to death. Using this philosophical concept of death of the "countdown" method reminds us to increase the density of life and give full play to the value of human beings, so as not to waste this life.
Novelist Yu Hua's "Alive" is a novel that describes "life" around "death". It mainly describes the life of Xu Fugui. He gambled and lost the family business, his son was sucked alive because of a blood transfusion to the county magistrate's wife, his daughter died in childbirth, his wife and son-in-law died unexpectedly, his grandson also died unexpectedly because of eating beans, and finally accompanied him only by an old cow. By portraying a series of unexpected deaths of characters, the novel highlights the preciousness of life and allows the reader to purify the soul in tragedy. As Yu Hua said, "To live is only to live." ”
Only by living first can we create value and create miracles.
Qin Bo, the director of the documentary "The World of Man", said in "My Strange Story Conference 2": "My shooting experience made me realize that I had to see the truth of life. The truth of this life is that often we are shaped by those difficult situations, those difficult times. "It is precisely because of those difficulties and obstacles that our souls are constantly sublimated. Beethoven struggled with suffering all his life, and it can even be said that he spent his whole life to sublimate his soul in suffering. As Roman Rowland recalled in hindsight that he put the biography of Beethoven in the first place when he wrote the book "Celebrity Biography", the reason is: "May the unfortunate person, seeing a victim who is just as unfortunate as he is, despite the obstacles of nature, will do his best to become a worthy person, and can masturbate." ”
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Sorrow and Joy: When suffering becomes the soil of his artwork, compassion is the background of his life
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(1) The spirit of endless struggle became the main theme of his life, and pathos became the main theme of his creation
Beethoven lived during the French Revolution. When he was a university student, he actively threw himself into the democratic revolution against the old feudal system, supported the spread of democratic and free ideas, and turned his patriotic revolutionary feelings into creative inspiration, not only printing a collection of poems to support the Great Revolution, but also creating day and night, with the firm spirit of revolutionary struggle as the creative passion, and completing the fourth, fifth, and sixth symphonies, and so on, all of which were full of his deep sympathy for the people and the firm determination of the victory of democracy and freedom.
Beethoven's early creative works were mainly pathologies for piano sonatas, and he even directly named his works "Sonatas of Sorrow", from the word "pathos", it shows its obvious crystallization of consciousness. "Pathos Sonata", with solemn tones, passionate emotions, and noble emotions, this piece mainly conveys Beethoven's magnificent poems against the cruelty of fate and the pursuit of a happy life. Zhao Pingguo said in "How to Play the Sonata of 'Pathos'": "The original pathetique of pathos contains the dual meaning of grief and excitement, and it is incomplete to only emphasize the sad and ignore the excited side. Beethoven's "Sonata of Sorrow" mainly conveys that human beings knock on the door to fate in the face of suffering.
Sorrow and joy are inherently opposite and contradictory, and compassion and joy are important chapters in human life. In this life, he also searched for the joy of life in the tragic fate, showing the tension of human subjective initiative and the spiritual strength to brave difficulties and move forward forever.
(2) Yearning for the light in suffering, "community of human destiny" has become his unswerving belief for the rest of his life
Ode to Joy is a chorus introduced by Beethoven in the Ninth Symphony. When the theme of joy first appeared, the band suddenly stopped playing, and there was an unexpected silence, and then began to sing with an atmosphere of mystery and divinity, and the theme of this piece was indeed to praise the gods.
The "goddess of joy" brings strength to people to fight suffering; makes people brothers and loves each other. Isn't this the prayer of all the world? In a world full of unknowns, full of suffering, full of sorrow, with faith, with passion, with pain still struggling. Fight against difficulties, fight against fate, fight against society.
This is a song written for the victims, a song for the protesters, a song for those who are struggling to create a new situation. And all this is the common wish of all mankind and the portrayal of human destiny. Beethoven spent the rest of his life through music conveying his strong desire to build a "community with a shared future for mankind".
Beethoven was inclined to the republic all his life, and he advocated the idea of "freedom, equality, fraternity", which not only represented the social trend of thought in France in the 18th and 19th centuries, but also had a forward-thinking consciousness and represented the thought of all mankind. In 1792, at the age of 22, Beethoven wrote in his memorial book: "Strive for good, love freedom more than anything, even for the throne, never deceive the truth." "It's his quest for freedom, it's his spiritual quest, and it's the main element in his creative work.
Throughout Beethoven's life, from his initial advocacy of freedom, equality, fraternity and other ideas, to the middle-aged and elderly people to adhere to republicanism, the essence of his life is that his life has been committed to conveying the "community of human destiny" through music, perseverance and expectations, struggle and pursuit.
The community of shared future for mankind refers to the fact that the international community has increasingly become a "community of destiny" in which "you have me and I have you". In 2011, China proposed in the white paper "China's Peaceful Development" that it should seek new connotations of common interests and common values of mankind from the new perspective of "community of common destiny".
Republican politics, advocating that the state and the government are public, and the government should work for the public interest. Republic: A country is a "republic" measured by whether its form of government "governs republicanly." The only measure cannot be based solely on the presence of "republic" in a country's name. For example, Britain was the first modern republic to wear the mantle of a monarchy, and was the first to complete the transition from a mixed equilibrium system to a decentralized equilibrium system (although the Full Name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" was actually "republican").
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the economist Baledo once proposed the "rule of two eights", that is, in the allocation of world resources, 80% of the wealth is in the hands of 20% of the people, which is the group of people who hold the wealth is the group of people who benefit the most from the whole society.
The republic advocated by Beethoven ostensibly pursues democracy and freedom, but in essence it represents the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of people and represents the advanced stream of social thought.
Beethoven transformed his life's suffering into a source of creation, and continued to write masterpieces. He spent his life pursuing truth and believing in the meaning of hard work and struggle. As Romain Rowland once said, "The man I call a hero is not a man who reigns in thought or strength; but a man who is great by heart." Su Shi said: "Those who have established great things in the ancient world are not just like those who have supernatural talents, but also have the will to persevere." Artists often use pride to support persistence and use their works to vent their suffering. ”
Throughout his life, Beethoven not only constantly confronted suffering and fate, but also always yearned for truth, goodness and beauty, and was committed to realizing the common interests of all mankind. He brought not only those works of art that have been handed down to this day, but also represents the human attitude of "living to death" and constantly breaking through and overcoming mediocrity. I think that as ordinary people, in this materialistic world, reading "Beethoven's biography" can nourish our increasingly weak spirits, and draw from the book the courage of Beethoven himself to fight against the cruelty of reality.