music

Cellist Pablo Casals* on Work

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“To “retire” means to me to begin to die. The man who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age.”

“…Casals argues, we renew ourselves through purposeful work. (He) lived and worked for another four years, dying eight weeks before his ninety-seventh birthday.”

From Brainpickings.com

Addiction

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Tammy Gann

“The thing that will give you your body and nervous system back is physical exercise. I can’t stress it enough. That’s how I got my body and nervous system back. You have to go to boot camp. It makes you feel better. It’s the only thing that does. Eventually, it scours the devil out of you.“

James Taylor on his addiction to heroin and alcohol

Even Brahms Did it…

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We attended our daughter’s concert tonight. She’s a member of the Youth Symphony of the Southwest (members are aged 15-20). They played Brahms:  Symphony No. 1 in C minor and it was 45 minutes of absolute bliss.

I learned something new: Brahms so admired Beethoven and wanted so badly to create something in the same caliber that it took him fourteen years to complete this concerto.  Fourteen years.

He toiled and created on one project for fourteen years. That’s some serious perseverance.

So if you’re working on a masterpiece of any kind and you’re stressed about how long it’s taking you to create it, don’t sweat it. Just keep at it and pay no mind to time.

 

 

Motivation

 

“I am sitting at the open window (at four a.m.) and breathing the lovely air of a spring morning… Life is still good, [and] it is worth living on a May morning… I assert that life is beautiful in spite of everything! This “everything” includes the following items: 1. Illness; I am getting much too stout, and my nerves are all to pieces. 2. The Conservatoire oppresses me to extinction; I am more and more convinced that I am absolutely unfitted to teach the theory of music. 3. My pecuniary situation is very bad. 4. I am very doubtful if Undine will be performed. I have heard that they are likely to throw me over.”

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 

 

“You absolutely have to believe in yourself. Man, you’ll get rejected hundreds of times. You have to believe in yourself if you’re going to succeed.”

Jon Bon Jovi

 

Confidence – noun, a feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities. 

Tchaikovsky was plagued by depression and also a hypochondriac. Somehow, he persevered and produced prolifically.  Bon Jovi and Tchaikovsky both possessed the drive to create music. This high level of motivation enabled them to overcome obstacles such as rejection and mental illness.

 

 

*photos from Unsplash.com