Wednesday, August 6, 2008

On This Date in 1945 - Some Thoughts, and the Perennial Question

As a young artist, I recall a day during a conversation with a brilliant historian; a question was posed by him, and what I remember about his question was not only the content, but his eyes, looking directly into mine, informing me silently that this was indeed a pregnant question.
The question was " why does Beethoven's music sound the way it does?"
There was silence; then, the reason for his seemingly simplistic query slammed into me. This historian was , by way of his question, beseeching me to attach intrinsic historical context to every issue in my consciousness, including the arts. Anything short of that requisite results in intellectual failure.
That question, asked of me so many years ago, has transmogrified my entire train of thought concerning not only music, but all other issues which pop into my pursuits.
As a result and an example, I recall lecturing on the parallels between Beethoven and Thomas Jefferson; or, Mozart as an entity totally unaware of the Enlightenment that was forming him; or the relationship between Scriabin and the psychedelic craze in the twentieth century, etc., etc.
To encapsulate: the elemental nature and power of historical context is the primary reason I sometimes digress from the arts to communicate with you the importance of a particular date in Man's history, and I trust and hope that you will forgive me for such digressions.
I rail at such historical revisionism as the denial by a troubling number, during our time, who deny the existence, for example, of the Holocaust; or, I sometimes chortle at Hitler's championing and use of Beethoven's music at so many occasions when I realize that Beethoven would have hated the dictator to the marrow of his bones.
And so, having read all of the above, I hope that you will forgive me for recalling that on this date in 1945 the history of our world altered within a nine second period, when the city of Hiroshima was destroyed.
I find it rather disappointing that I see veritably nothing available today concerning that event.
I once told a historian that "your subject is the most vulnerable in all of Man's intellectual pursuits." After a moment of thought, he agreed.
I remember a statement made recently by George Will who said "it's like someone attempting to plant cut flowers." Was he referring to the plight of the history teacher? I wonder.
How well has Man learned from his own history?

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