Im on my way to the Blair Quartet concert soon. Theres something bothering me about what I wrote earlier today--about how Beethoven and Blake require us (when were in the presence of their work) to become knights of faith too, just like them. In The Kreutzer Sonata--his dark assault on Beethoven and the power of music--Tolstoy has some scathing things to say about this sort of artificial, art-inspired religious ecstasy. Those who know me well know what a theological slut I am. If I cant be with the the divine principle I love most--a steady, principled skepticism--then Ill love the divine principle Im with. Christian friends especially seem to be puzzled by such changeable and flexible spiritual allegiance. There is no mystery, though. To someone like me, the mystery is how anyone can see light as only one thing, without its being refracted through a rainbow of endlessly possible vectors. This is one truth I find gloriously at work in Beethovens opus 130 Quartet: the presence of many, many truths. One of these truths is the burning, Blakeian faith of the Grosse Fuge. But its just one truth, among many. Heaven forbid that anyone take this as a sermon! Im just trying to get closer to saying what I feel.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 00:00:20 +0000
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