Falling Short
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“The true artist is not proud. He senses dimly how far he is from his goal, and though others may admire him, he feels sad not to have reached the point where his better genius lights the way like a distant sun.”
Personally, I’m astonished by the humble nature of this reply. At this point in his career, Beethoven had completed his first seven symphonies, eleven string quartets, and an amazing array of sonatas and chamber music.
At the same time, I’m reassured by the idea that Beethoven viewed his works as being ‘far from his compositional goals’. I’ve often sat through performances of Beethoven’s symphonies and felt like I got a ‘good ass-whuppin’ – the inventiveness of the motivic variations is exquisite, the formal timing seems dead-on, and the sheer quantity of sound he generates is awe-inspiring. Though he’s not always achieved perfection, by my book, there are some spots in the 6th symphony and the late string quartets that seem perfect to my ears.
To date, I have not completed a work and thought to myself, “That was exactly what I was trying to accomplish.” I feel as though I’ve been close, but even with innumerable tweaks and revisions, it’s not quite what I was after.
So what are the implications to all artists, if the greatest among us have fallen short of their own artistic goals?
First, we can cut ourselves a little more slack. I’ve had performances where afterwards lots of folks were patting me on the back and had clearly enjoyed my music, and I’ve failed to enjoy the moment because I’ve fixated on those one or two spots that weren’t quite like I had envisioned. Lighten up Kendrick!
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Secondly, though we should never ‘settle’ for a half-baked solution, we can also let the little things go and move on to the next work. Sure, having a performer do a pickup on the fifth quintuplet might be ‘perfect’, but in the end, we might achieve the same result by having them come in on the fourth sixteenth note, without expending as much brain power. We'd also cut the performers a break at the same time.
Leonardo da Vinci once said ‘Art is never finished, only abandoned’. Personally, I might be a little more productive if I abandoned the effort a little sooner, and stopped striving for the ultimate perfection.
Leonardo da Vinci once said ‘Art is never finished, only abandoned’. Personally, I might be a little more productive if I abandoned the effort a little sooner, and stopped striving for the ultimate perfection.
And, as Beethoven has proved, listeners can sense perfection, even when we’ve come a little short of our goals.
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