Masters of the Universe Sunday, April 20, 2008 I recently watched Yundi Li perform of a selection of Chopin piano works. As I sat silently with 4600 other classical music fans, I fell in love with Chopin all over again. One solitary thought entered my mind as the previously speechless crowd erupted into simultaneous applause: this mind-bendingly beautiful music is the reason why Chopin is Chopin. Many gifted musicians have composed music for the piano, few have ever wrapped the 700 lbs of ebony and ivory around there finger the way Chopin has. There are only a choice few composers who have as deftly controlled the strings of the piano reducing it to a marionette in the hands of a skilled puppet master. After the concert, my companion and I mused that it is impossible that a mind that could produce such gut-wrenching melodies could function normally in this placid world of men. How for example, do you create the matchless theme and variations that the right hand carries in the second movement of his second piano concerto and then order a pizza? Can the ability to pull tears out of the eyes of millions for generations co-exist with the ability to perform everyday imperatives like buying groceries? If you believe that there are excessively grandiose notions above then perhaps you should listen to Chopin’s second piano concerto in F minor again. Chopin cannot be described as normal, ordinary or commonplace and it seems very logical to conclude that someone who is an utter genius at one thing could be completely useless at another. This is simple polarity, when skewed so completely above and beyond the ability of mere mortals does it not make sense that terrainius functions such as mailing a letter might prove cumbersome? Last year I purchased a collection of Charles Dickens writings. Out of familiarity I first read “David Copperfield” and then “Great Expectations”. One solitary thought entered my mind as I was pulled into the perfect prose that Dickens puts forth; this literary perfection is the reason why Dickens is Dickens… Beethoven is Beethoven, and at the same time Michael Jordan is also Michael Jordan. It’s amazing how someone who is as human as you or I can become an idea, ideal or measure against which subsequent greatness is measured. Your list of “Masters or Mistresses of the Universe” may be quite different than mine, but reconsider some of the heroes who have inspired you and changed the way you look at the world and yourself. If you’re like me, you might feel grateful, refreshed, inspired and amazed all at the same time. That alone is worth the price of admission. Alexander Michael Gittens Home Page © 2008-2007 Copyright Alexander Michael Gittens. Contents may be used without permission when credited |