My Zero-eth Post or, Beethoven Wasn't Great at Math (N.M.)
Writing convention might suggest calling this Post #1, My First Post, or even Post The First, but as there were at least two attempts to occupy that spot before I settled on this one (and it not being my first blog-like content), associating with the number 1 seems inappropriate. Picking 0 is more annoying and pretentious, though if I convince myself that critics aren’t nearby, all the better. No one should take this 0 too seriously; there is something to be said for what one can accomplish if you think no one is looking.
When presenting to the public, especially where your work is approached with unburdened expectations, interested people lean in. First impressions aren’t everything, though if one could control something about how those people meet you, to ensure you are always able to put your best foot forward, would you decline to use it? The many times you have created/performed/introduced something, that you could now rewind and do differently? I don’t try to live in regret, but I admit there are many dozens of such moments in the grand scheme of things. You do need a sense for what a good first impression is, otherwise you might only leave bad ones…
I’m not the first to get creative with initial impressions; credential fluffing is a tale as old as time. Before Beethoven was old enough to be the adult “Beethoven”, his father would advertise him as a couple years younger. Ludwig seems not to have particularly liked papa, but I conjecture he took up some appreciation for numerical looseness. And no, I’m not referring to the fact that Beethoven supposedly struggled with multiplication and division until his dying days, rather that his first two piano concerti were published in their opposite order of composition; sometimes I wonder whether anyone back then was bothered by this, if they even knew. I typically conclude that the only people capable of getting that worked up had to:
1. Attend one of the original performances for the “Second” Piano Concerto (presumably just a Piano Concerto in B-flat major at this point)
2. Subsequently hear the “First” Piano Concerto and think, “What on earth is going on? I already heard a first concerto.”
3. Personally lose lands during the Napoleonic Wars.
I’m done piling on the Beethovens. After all, Ludwig routinely published earlier works at later periods throughout his career, and he wasn’t alone among composers to do this. But since I mentioned Napoleon...
Everyone and their mother know that Beethoven crossed out Napoleon's name as dedicatee in the Eroica Symphony, but did you know that the "Kreutzer" Violin Sonata was originally written for George Bridgetower (who sightread the premiere performance), while Mr. Rodolphe Kreutzer was not a fan of the piece and never played it? Were it not for a falling out, we might today be calling it the Bridgetower Sonata. Still, you must be a pretty sensitive composer if you find yourself changing dedications all the time. Schubert's last piano sonatas were intended for Hummel before publishers switched his name for Schumann; at least Schubert had the excuse of already being dead..
I’m terribly sorry, this is the sort of quality you get when the author introduces words like "zero-eth." Even just seeing it typed out like this makes me question my education.
Nathan Mondry
Cover photo: Karpati & Zarewicz
