Thoughts and Beethoven - 3/27/16

I went to the piano recital. It was more of a lecture than a recital, but it was nice. The pianist has been studying Beethoven for at least two years and traveling to Germany to examine his sketchbooks. It seems Beethoven wrote some of his music ending first. That's how he learned new pieces as well, backwards. That way, he was always working towards something he knew.

Beethoven often wrote the melody first too, which he worked around. And the creative process did not come easy to him. He wrote and rewrote and rewrote again. The pages of his sketchbook are covered in marks and scratches. It's good to remember that creativity doesn't always come easy, even for the greatest artists.