Beethoven Matters in 2021

I'm trying to be hopeful for this new year. I feel like I have really lowered the "bar" for what I want. So many of the things I used to worry about (or at least be concerned with) matter so little, and so many of the things I used to take for granted (like being able to play music with people and spend cold days indoors with friends, being able to visit our children and our grandchildren) seem virtually unattainable. 

And it is all due to people who willingly invite this virus into their lungs by attending (and creating) unmasked indoor events, and willingly transmit it to the lungs of others because they feel they are making a political statement. Or something. 

Since March 14th I have worn a mask every time I have gone anywhere that required me to share air with others. I have been doing everything in my power to help lift the spirits of my fellow musicians. I have practiced every day with the goal that when I emerge from this isolation I will be a better player and will contribute more to the music that I play with and for others. But this is going on too long. And too many people are getting sick, and too many people have died. Too many people will die this evening, and too many people will die tomorrow. 

I'm holding out hope for the Biden administration to speed up the delivery of vaccines and to convince 70% of the population to take them, and to wear masks and continue to practice social distancing even if they have become vaccinated. I'm working my way through the Beethoven Violin Sonatas while I wait; and the C minor Sonata (Number 7) is currently providing me that wonderful combination of solace and challenge that helps take my mind off my troubles, which are also our (as human beings and as musicians) troubles. 

In the middle of everything that we have experienced during 2020, it has still been a Beethoven year. I have spent nearly every day of it practicing one piece of Beethoven or another, and have learned a great deal about music and about violin playing during my year-long celebration of this 250th year since his birth. Now that 2020 has officially ended, I still have Beethoven's music on my stand. I'm making my way through his Violin Sonatas with new eyes and ears (because of all the other Beethoven pieces I have been practicing), and with a better command of left-hand technique and bow control (because these things grow when you practice music that demands them to grow). 

Because of all the revelations about racism and sexism in musical institutions, and the "sudden" realization (after people quietly and not so quietly mentioning it for decades) that the majority of repertoire programmed by professional orchestras, opera companiees, and chamber ensembles prior to 2020 was written by dead, white, male composers, there have been musicologists who have claimed that Beethoven should no longer be important.

I believe that the more we understand about what music is, what music does, and what music can be and can do, the more we understand that Beethoven has a special kind of relevance that transcends time, style, era, and gender. I admit that it is vital to vary our musical fare, but there are times when we need to reach for the Beethoven in order to understand what we are experiencing as human beings. Particularly now.

When this pandemic is behind us, I'm hoping that I will remember 2020 more as the year I spent practicing Beethoven every day than as the year I had to stop playing concerts and playing chamber music. Rather than the year I started wearing a mask when I went outside, I would like to think of it as the year I started becoming confident about teaching remotely. I wrote more music this year than in any other year of my life, and had more contact with musicians in far away places that seem to enjoy playing and singing what I have written.