Communications from the dispossessed: part 1

I was reading a history of Hungary - it is a sad tale of many defeats. The only country to be surrounded by itself - in other words which is surrounded by land which previously belonged to it but which it lost in war. The history must have cast a deep spell on its inhabitants.

It made me reflect on the lives of many of the great composers and pianists of the past. National and personal tragedies seem to combine in so many of the stories of the great artists. We tend to take these stories for granted as being just dry histories, without easily identifying with the lifestyles (probably!). The impoverished artist is almost a cliche. Anyone reading the lives of Rachmaninoff, Nyiereghazy, Lipatti, Modigliani, Van Gogh, Beethoven, Schumann, Clara Haskil, Maria Yudina, to name just a few, may be shocked at the intensity of the human suffering and loss. As someone once said, "to be born an artist is to be born in enemy territory"

We can understand the difference between
a) composing / performing when one has nothing else to live for.
b) composing / performing AS IF one has nothing else to live for. (pretend)
A) is going to lead to a more intense experience.

Type A experiences would include: you are dying / have bad health; critics hate you; you were kicked out of music college; your parents warned you against a career in music; your relationships are up the spout; your country is at war; you belong to the 'wrong' religion; you just lost all your house/land; you can only pay rent thanks to a loan from friends; you come from a part of the world which is often being invaded/kicked around; you are probably anti-social partly because you spent your childhood practising (not always by choice - child prodigies were/are often exploited by parents). Elements of nationality / gender / religion / sexuality / prejudice sometimes thrown in the melting pot too.

Perhaps there is an inverse relationship between life and music - the more sublime and astonishing the performance, the worse the conditions of the performer. The better the conditions, the ‘safer’ the music making. The safer the music-making, the less sublime the communication. Sublime communication is not safe; and tends not to be performed by the establishment darlings.