New England Conservatory of Music - Neume Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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Beethoven! . . . The heart and brain quicken at the name! Artist, teacher, heliever in his fellowmen, he speaks to ns across the span of a century. And his message, told through his music and his life-story, is a message of joy and brother- hood. Two thousand years ago the great Teacher of Nazareth taught that we should love men as brothers. Three centuries earlier, the Greeks had lived the truth that we should love beauty as art. In the life and art of Ludwig van Beethoven one sees this love of beauty and love of humanity as two powerful creative forces. Through these forces he wrought supreme works of musical art. To succeeding generations his music and the example of his heroic life ha e brought joy. comfort and faith. We are musicians. Here is one of the greatest figures in the history of our art. Let us make him our companion. The life which we are to enter following this period of study will have its difficulties, perhaps its sorrows. Our ideals will be challenged and too often will we be tempted to lower them. In such hours let Beethoven counsel us, as he had to counsel himself. For was not he beset by just such difficulties! ' Did he not know suffering and disappointment in almost unbearable measure? The life of the ordinary man, deaf, sick at heart, afflicted with an incurable malady, would have become embittered and sterile. Beethoven ' s spirit did not break, and lo! out of the depths of anguish rose one of the glories of an age — the Ninth Symphony: A mighty chorus, fired by the genius of this Titan, bursts into a frenzy of joy and tri- umph. The music surges through heart and brain; it carries the voice of humanity to the gates of Heaven itself. . . And that voice is Beethoven, hymning of human brotherhood and of joy everlasting.

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THE NEUME NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN He towers above US in bronze, as in the flesh he towered anions his contemporaries. His sculptured face declares intellect, nobility, a powerful determination, and, withal, human tenderness. The massive head seems to shake defiance at all that is ignoble and trivial of today, as during his lifetime it defied Fate itself.