tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post4630315673004669581..comments2023-09-26T03:53:17.142-04:00Comments on Pentimento: Music and Memory, Part 21: Weaving False DreamsPentimentohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-58998118516924072882011-06-26T07:39:55.313-04:002011-06-26T07:39:55.313-04:00I'm not a lover of Rachmaninoff -- just not my...I'm not a lover of Rachmaninoff -- just not my thing -- but any pianist should listen to him.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-34416718388712940072011-06-25T22:36:48.014-04:002011-06-25T22:36:48.014-04:00"making old ladies cry"
My mother (who ..."making old ladies cry"<br /><br />My mother (who never learned to play the piano as a child because of a broken finger, or something like that) brought this cassette tape of Rachmaninoff she had at our house that she really wanted my son to hear. It was I don't know how long ago and I still haven't gotten out a cassette player. Do you like Rachmaninoff? I'm just curious. Even if you don't think his music is beautiful, I should honor my mother's request since she does.Theresahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15950499353195671264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-17658111106341962972011-06-21T22:55:40.242-04:002011-06-21T22:55:40.242-04:00Thank you for your comment, Augustine. This will ...Thank you for your comment, Augustine. This will no doubt sound silly and corny, but I really believe that what we're meant to do with our hard-earned knowledge of beauty is to dispense it like medicine, which it is. While Doestoevsky's formulation that the world will be saved by beauty is false, since not beauty but only Christ is redemptive, what we know and practice of beauty can bring healing to others (even if that means making old ladies cry). If we can do that every once in a while, we are not failures.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-7645858722468065732011-06-21T22:43:24.798-04:002011-06-21T22:43:24.798-04:00Your posts are always thought-provoking and deeply...Your posts are always thought-provoking and deeply affective! Sadly, my version of earning an MFA and PhD in the music/musicological world has been nothing but professional and personal oblivion. Your struggles are inspiring, yet leave those of us with even fewer successes feeling like failures at failure.Augustinenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-42191136555066918872011-06-19T21:22:31.901-04:002011-06-19T21:22:31.901-04:00Pentimento, you articulate what my mother could no...Pentimento, you articulate what my mother could not say, though she knew that beauty is evidence of the transcendent. And your personal stories seem to lead to universal themes. Mother Teresa says that if a book leads one person to Christ it was worth reading. Keep writing. Tears are manifestation of the Holy Spirit cleansing us.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-80019347592914599482011-06-19T11:05:25.978-04:002011-06-19T11:05:25.978-04:00Sometimes I have to go to a poet, like Emily Dicki...Sometimes I have to go to a poet, like Emily Dickinson, to understand the paradox that is beauty. <br /><br />Beauty—be not caused—It Is— <br />Chase it, and it ceases— <br />Chase it not, and it abides— <br /><br />Overtake the Creases<br /><br />In the Meadow—where the Wind<br />Runs his finger thro’ it— <br />Deity will see to it<br />That You never do it—maria horvathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13070884396789350035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-31614073826902817042011-06-19T09:54:08.934-04:002011-06-19T09:54:08.934-04:00Perhaps that's why Brahms's music is so de...Perhaps that's why Brahms's music is so devastating; it makes us long for what we can never have on this side of life.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-80949177542030298012011-06-19T09:07:40.010-04:002011-06-19T09:07:40.010-04:00"...a deceiver, making us believe that life i..."...a deceiver, making us believe that life is so much richer, more poignant, more unifying, more exquisite, more imbued with meaning and deep feeling than it really is."<br /><br />No, oh no! Surely that's the true picture, only as the hymn says, "the eye made blind by sin" can't see it. When we have the beatific vision, the Brahms soundtrack will match what we see.Anne-Marienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-34178740377266921642011-06-13T23:11:27.306-04:002011-06-13T23:11:27.306-04:00Beauty wounds, and beauty heals. I think.
And th...Beauty wounds, and beauty heals. I think.<br /><br />And then there's this:<br /><br />http://www.ncregister.com/blog/why-i-love-my-ugly-little-liturgy/Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-16670211364675228522011-06-13T23:04:33.589-04:002011-06-13T23:04:33.589-04:00"that stirring, rushing, choking, devastating..."that stirring, rushing, choking, devastating beauty,"<br /><br />This is a common theme that I'm not well-read enough to have realized was so common outside of my personal observations, right? <br /><br />I was all excited not too long ago to see this quote from Pope Benedict: "The beautiful and the good, ultimately the beautiful and God, coincide. Through the appearance of the beautiful we are wounded in our innermost being, and that wound grips us and takes us beyond ourselves; it stirs longing into flight and moves us toward the truly Beautiful."<br /><br />recently at <a href="http://love2learnmom.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/the-bittersweetness-of-beauty/" rel="nofollow">this blog</a> (only now realized the post title has one of my fave word/concepts, bittersweetness, in it.)<br /><br />It was the part about being "wounded" that got me and that your description above brought back to mind.Theresahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15950499353195671264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-71713611631274866092011-06-13T22:08:08.417-04:002011-06-13T22:08:08.417-04:00I dunno . . . listen to the Op. 60 no. 1 Andante a...I dunno . . . listen to the Op. 60 no. 1 Andante and then tell me.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-31374049853638659322011-06-13T21:35:51.914-04:002011-06-13T21:35:51.914-04:00Of course, it might just be the difference between...Of course, it might just be the difference between Brahms and Shostakovich.BettyDuffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17130418609022759086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-36406001006770268642011-06-13T21:26:20.728-04:002011-06-13T21:26:20.728-04:00Oh man. Reading it immediately.Oh man. Reading it immediately.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-59223955821790716352011-06-13T21:18:07.496-04:002011-06-13T21:18:07.496-04:00Oh gosh. It's in the air. I just wrote a post ...Oh gosh. It's in the air. I just wrote a post about the piece of my life: that Shostakovich Quintet that always has me hankering for something else. But I really think the truth is there in the music, the life as living and suffering--but I always brought a lie to it, some lie that I wanted to believe instead of the truth. The music doesn't lie--I do.BettyDuffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17130418609022759086noreply@blogger.com