BS: ponder this (Itzhak Perlman)

Subject: ponder this
From: kendall
Date: 28 May 01 - 04:30 PM

Original Message ----- From: Jim Stewart To: Gordon Bok Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2001 11:03 AM Subject: (Fwd) Fw: Itzhak Perlman

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Subject: Itzhak Perlman
Article from the Houston Chronicle

On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him.

He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an incredible sight. He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.

By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They remain reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait until he is ready to play. But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap. It went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do. People who were there that night thought to themselves: "We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage - to either find another violin or else find another string for this one."

But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before. Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that. You could see him modulating, hanging, recomposing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before. When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then applause from every corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said, not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone, "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."

What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the way of life - not just for artists

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: kendall
Date: 28 May 01 - 04:34 PM

for all of us. Here is a man who has prepared all his life to make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a sudden, in the middle of a concert, finds himself with only three strings. So he makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings was more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever made before, when he had four strings.

So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is: Make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left.

Houston Chronicle

------- End of forwarded message -------

formatting fixed by a Joe clone

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: RichM
Date: 28 May 01 - 04:42 PM

Thank you, Kendall---for sharing this experience.

The music springs to life in the creative mind and hands of an inspired musician--and not just in his instrument.

Rich

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: Gypsy
Date: 28 May 01 - 04:58 PM

What a great thing to share! thank you so much!

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 May 01 - 05:09 PM

Thanks, Kendall!

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 May 01 - 06:38 PM

I have a headache from wading through it but very nice anyway.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: DonMeixner
Date: 28 May 01 - 06:42 PM

Wow.

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: CarolC
Date: 28 May 01 - 07:00 PM

Perlman is, and has for many years, been one of my favorites. This story doesn't surprise me one bit.

And as for the larger life lesson that can be learned from that experience... well, I think it's true. We can bring beauty into the world even when we have very few resources at our disposal. If we choose to.

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: KT
Date: 28 May 01 - 07:15 PM

Kendall, thanks for passing this along.....fabulous! KT

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 28 May 01 - 07:28 PM

Lovely story which may be true or based on fact but check here.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: Bill D
Date: 28 May 01 - 07:56 PM

but, after it has been quoted and forwarded 1000 times, doesn't it officially BECOME true?

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: kendall
Date: 28 May 01 - 07:57 PM

The moral is the same, It aint what you got, it's how you use it.

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: GUEST,Lyle
Date: 28 May 01 - 10:27 PM

Old quote: Just because it didn't happen doesn't mean it isn't true!

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: CarolC
Date: 28 May 01 - 10:29 PM

What does the link say? Clicking on it makes my computer freeze up.

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 May 01 - 10:36 PM

It says you need a new computer Carol.

Actually it's a treatise on whether or not the story is accurate of another "urban myth." Whatever, as someone said, it's a nice story and a fine paradigm.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: CarolC
Date: 28 May 01 - 11:01 PM

"It says you need a new computer Carol."

Too true, Spaw... too true.

Thanks for describing the contents of the link.

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: CarolC
Date: 29 May 01 - 01:04 AM

I have been able to read the information in Jon's link in the form of an e-mail that someone has sent to me.

The link neither confirms nor denies the story. What is important to me, as an admirer of Itzhak Perlman the human being as well as Itzhak Perlman the musican, is that true or not, it is entirely consistent with the sort of person he is. He has had my utmost respect for many years.

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 29 May 01 - 01:37 AM

When I break a guitar string during a performance, I keep on playing too. But it sounds like shit. It also sounds like shit when I'm playing all six strings. Way to go, Itzhak.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: CarolC
Date: 29 May 01 - 04:14 AM

It also sounds like shit when I'm playing all six strings.

--Seamus Kennedy

Well, Seamus, if you'd quit jumping around when you're playing, maybe it wouldn't sound so bad.

All joking aside, "sounds like shit" isn't what I've heard about your playing.

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: hesperis
Date: 29 May 01 - 03:09 PM

Interesting. I am constantly playing life with many less resources than "normal". But having less than what is needed is quite normal, unfortunately, and thousands keep going in spite of it every day.

And I still make beautiful music.

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: Kim C
Date: 29 May 01 - 03:29 PM

the show must go on, right?

Subject: RE: BS: ponder this
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 29 May 01 - 06:37 PM

A truth that profound doesn't need to be accurate. At least as far as I'm concerned. That's, Kendall.

Bart