Tuesday, September 11, 2012

A "Night" with a Nobel Prize Winner

Monday evening, I had the privilege to attend a discussion with Nobel Peace Prize winning author and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel. He is best known for his book, Night, which I read during High School for an English course.  I remember being profoundly moved by the book about a Jewish youth who recounts the horrors of being in a concentration camp during the Holocaust.

The event was held in the sold-out Orpheum Theatre of Vancouver (holding roughly 3000 people.) Normally, the Orpheum is where I attend Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concerts. Nonetheless, it is fitting that Dr. Wiesel presented here because music has played a huge role in his life. He did, after all, study the violin.  The book Night even includes a passage about a violin being played during a death march.

"I was thinking of this when I heard the sound of a violin. The sound of a violin, in this dark shed, where the dead were heaped on the living. What madman could be playing the violin here, at the brink of his own grave? Or was it really an hallucination" 


Clearly, music played such a fundamental part in the author's life that it was included in this book as well. The first topic that Dr. Wiesel discussed with the moderator was, in fact, music. 


He recounted warm and humorous tales of his childhood learning the violin. Dr. Wiesel revealed that when he writes, he writes to quartets or quintets. Symphonies are far too distracting, he claimed.  The intimate nature of the string quartet also lends itself perfectly to the art of writing.

Wiesel explained why he writes. His philosophy is the following: "Remember, for there is, there must be, hope in remembering." It took Wiesel 10 years after the Holocaust had ended to break his vow of silence. He realised, however, that what would he be without his memory?  We are, after all, what we remember. Dr. Wiesel had horrific memories from his experience in the death camps but knew that he was ultimately responsible for what he did with those memories. What would he do with that memory that would improve the condition of the world in which we live? As he explained, "If I don't remember, I disappear. At the end, you'll forget yourself."


Dr. Wiesel discussed that his task as a writer was to honour the memory of Holocaust survivors, "to collect their tears, collect them into a story so that their tears become a testimony." The courage that it must take to write and craft an art from such darkness is difficult to imagine. Admittedly, Dr. Wiesel is a deeply religious man and ascribes a great deal of his strength to his Jewish faith.

I am almost certain that Dr. Wiesel enjoys the Beethoven string quartets so that is the music that I have chosen to accompany this entry.  In fact, a family that had attended this event, took the same bus as me and we entered into a great discussion about what music might be playing as Dr. Wiesel writes.  (Apparently, he wakes up at 5 am to write four hours of fiction each day.) I have selected three slow movements from the string quartets that I feel best represent what I learned this evening.  The three selections are from each of Beethoven's three compositional periods: the early, middle, and late periods.

The first selection is from opus 18, no. 1.  This is perhaps some of the most unrelentingly sad music that Beethoven composed. This second movement is a stark contrast from the bright, hopeful first movement that precedes it. It begins with a sorrowful melody but does seem to visit a happier, more nostalgic time in Beethoven's life and some lighter passages are played.  Nonetheless, Beethoven does not let the listener linger for too long in those sweet remembrances. There is never any doubt as to the movement’s ultimate message.  This piece conveys a deep pain that is simply part of the human condition.  I still maintain that this is the most profound writing of his early compositional period.

The second selection is from opus 59, no. 2. This slow movement from the well-known e minor quartet is deeply reflective and has a sense of peace. The thick texture created by sustained notes adds emotional depth to this sublime movement of quartet literature. This is Beethoven at his most sensitive. The violin often gets melodic passages which allude to sweet memories of youth.
The third selection is the stunning third movement from opus 135. The String Quartet in F, opus 135, was the last complete work Beethoven composed, only a few months before his death in March 1827.  It  is the work of a composer who seems to have suddenly attained some new, simple truth after miles of struggle.  The third movement resembles a whispered prayer in the dark.  It is a movement that
overflows with forgiveness and love, but is also full of great sadness.  

These movements from the Beethoven quartets are glimpses into the human condition at various points. Each of them strongly evokes a sense of memory and nostalgia.  Both Beethoven and Wiesel had the courage to present an aspect of humanity that is dark but is in fact - very real.  If one were to ignore the sadness, does that do honour to one's memories and experiences? Wiesel would likely argue not. 

Music serves as a powerful connection to many of my most precious memories.  The more I experience in this life, the more meaningful each piece of music becomes.  I hear more in the notes that the composers have written. I am increasingly grateful for this new understanding that only comes with experience and age.  Truthfully, I can not imagine the anguish that Dr. Wiesel must experience when listening to certain compositions, but I was completely inspired by how he has decided to turn the atrocities he witnessed into an art form that encourages the world to think critically about prejudice, racism, and hatred.  Through his books, Wiesel is pushing our society toward critical thinking about how we will remember the past in order to improve the future. One can not help but be in awe of how he turned such an incredibly negative situation into a beautiful artistic expression through his novels.  The struggles and sadnesses that Beethoven endured in his life find that same expression in the string quartet movements that I have selected. They are a testament that it is acceptable to grieve, remember, and to remember with intention so that the future is improved.

Life is not made of years. Life is made of moments. At the end its the sum of moments that makes our weight." - Elie Wiesel (September 10, 2012 - Vancouver, BC)

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Pictures at a Classroom Exhibition

The two things closest to my heart as a classroom educator are literacy and music appreciation.  Today, I had a chance to combine these two passions. I unashamedly snuck in some classical music into the students' day. Oh, and did I mention it was Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky? Russian virtuosity for the win! (I had to introduce them slowly before we get to Rachmaninoff...)

Children are in a process of learning how to cope with emotions, changes in life, and the healthy outlets that they can use to do so.  Certainly music has served as a major way in which I have experienced my emotions in a healthy way and expressed what it means to be human on the deepest level.

When I thought of Pictures of Exhibition, I wasn't sure how to relate it to the children's lives. They didn't grow up in Tsarist Russia (pity!) Then, I remembered why Mussorgsky wrote this great work. He was devastated over the death of his artist friend, Victor Hartmann.  As an hommage to his friend and a way to cope with his grief, Mussorgsky composed this masterful work for solo piano.

I chose a simple storybook that told the tale of how Mussorgsky was friends with Hartmann and was shook deeply by his sudden death.  A critical component of the lesson was connecting what Mussorgsky was experiencing with the children's lives. Some identified with his grief and others simply stated that sometimes they too needed outlets to express their "sad feelings" but were not quite sure how.

One way that an educator or adult could get children to connect with the story behind Pictures at an Exhibition is to get them to identify fine arts activities which they enjoy. Many tiny hands shot up when I asked: "Who here likes to paint?" or "who likes to draw?" They understood that humans express themselves through visual art.  Many even grasped that Mussorgsky could portray those visual expressions through sound. Indeed, many of the students were able to vividly imagine each scene being "painted" by Mussorgsky when I revealed the title of various movements. (Yes, I played the piano version for them as I read the story of how Mussorgsky came to write Pictures at an Exhibition.)

This virtuosic piece of piano music is so rich and colourful and narrative that it is a great starting point for children in learning about classical music. The reaction of the boys in my class was particularly remarkable since they were impressed by the true athleticism required by a pianist to play the more technically demanding passages of this work.

Mussorgsky's motivation for writing Pictures at an Exhibition is a story of how the arts are fundamental to human life. We use them to express the deepest scars that grief leaves on us.  In a time when arts funding in schools is the first thing to be cut, it is now often the role of the classroom teacher to bring this aspect of a child's education alive.

My earnest hope is that the children grasped that they can turn to their preferred art form in times of joy,  trial, and tribulation. I look forward to the rest of the year with this creative group and cultivating their interests - helping them to become increasingly comfortable with showing their individuality and allowing their feelings to be explored through the fine arts. After all, isn't that what it is to be human?