I'm not sure whether it's true that the child is father to the man, as the saying goes. But I do know that the child is father to the artist. We're best when we play. If creating art is hard work the result may be impressive, but hardly inspiring. A great pianist does not work the piano, he or she plays it. Mozart and Shakespeare created playfully, like children, their works don't smell of sweat.
You must not be mozart to share this. Spending some holidays, this morning i took the seat at the hotels lobby piano and played like a child in the sandkasten (sand box?). Melodies and harmonies i never would have found at home and never will be able to recall.
ReplyDeleteObviously I agree with both of you completely.
ReplyDeleteThe most beautiful aspect of zen buddhism is the methodic forgetting of everything which could bar us from childlike playful existence and animallike grace.
See also Heinrich von Kleist's essay on awareness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_von_Kleist#On_the_Marionette_Theater
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cber_das_Marionettentheater
Some ours later I have to add, I prefer Samy Molcho to Marcel Marceau. Unforgettable his execution of "The Hunter and the Bird" or of "Cain and Abel".
ReplyDeleteWithout any doubt, Molcho's art is the art of great playing as well, but there is also something more than good and great playing. Something which has to do with pain and which cannot exist without the experience of pain.
Mozart's lightness sometimes has also a kind of nevrotic overmotility which isn't always welcome.
And there are some wonderful works of Bach - and even more of Beethoven - that make us feel a sublime effort going beyond the magic of dynamic exuberance which allows "if" to become "is" just playing.