Our lives can very quickly become inundated with paradoxically unhelpful self-help slogans. ‘Just believe in yourself’, ‘Always give 110%’, ‘Be the best you, you can be’ and ‘Everyone has the potential for greatness’ are just some of the phrases that circulate social media, classrooms and offices. But believing you can do something that you know for a fact you can’t do doesn’t make you so much as ambition as it does deluded. If you always give absolutely everything 1110% you will be constantly exhausted. And what if the best you is actually quite ordinary? For if everybody was great then nobody would be.

Musical Greatness

As soon as some gets serious about their music the converted titled is to go down in history as one of the greats. To have your music live on long after you have died. Mozart, Beethoven, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Queen are held up as being some of the greatest musicians of their time. But what if they weren’t actually that great?

Ask yourself what makes a great person? Some of the answers I came up with when I first encouraged this thought included people who were

• Viewed as being an expert at what they did
• Are at the top of their field
• Humble
• Are making a comfortable living in their chosen profession
• Healthy
• Are genuine, nice and decent people
• Have a circle of close friends
• Have their own family
• Are married
• Aren’t afraid of anything
• And so forth

But what if the people we idolise as being great aren’t actually that great?

We could pick on anyone but let’s pick on Beethoven, who is possible one of my favourite composers. Beethoven was an amazing composer and wrote some extrordinarily beautiful and emotive music. Due to these career accaliades we often hold him up in high esteem. Aspiring composer’s might think ‘if I could just be more like Beethoven’. But do you really want to be more like Beethoven? And was his life really that great?

Beethoven’s Greatness

Growing up Beethoven was nearly beaten to death twice by his alcoholic Father. After Beethoven had shown musical talent his Father decided he should be the next Mozart and if ever Beethoven refused to play for him or his friends there was another beating.

He never married but did manage to have a disastrous love affair which left him in a dangerous state of depression. On top of this, he was the legal guardian and career of his nephew after both his parents and brother died. Beethoven tried desperately to teach his nephew music but each attempt left both teacher and student bewildered and highly frustrated.

Unfortunately by the time Beethoven was in his early 30ies he started to lose his hearing. Eventually, he was forced to give up his performance career (piano) because he just couldn’t hear. This also means that Beethoven actually never heard the music that he wrote. Beethoven’s silent world was enough to drive anyone mad and he frequently fought severe bouts of depression and suicide idiation.

Beethoven despite being Beethoven was poor. He went for periods of time being homeless and frequently moved around. His works were not protected by today’s copyright laws and he would essentially sell his compositions to a publishing company for a one-off payment with no royalties. His works were then being reproduced as unofficial editions through competing companies with beethoven receiving nothing.

Musically Beethovens works were often misunderstood and under appreciated. Compared to Mozart and Haydyn Beethoven’s works were obnoxiously loud with ridulously simple melodies. Today some scholars claim that he was the heavey metal of his day. His most simplistic of melodies is found in the second movement of his 7th symphony. The melody only has three different notes. Critics went as far as to call his works unoriginal.

The Great Artist Life Style

Many times we envision the great artist’s staying up late, drinking discussing art and culture. They might work every other day and when they do their work is easy because after all they are genius’. However, this is rarely if ever the case. Beethoven’s pieces were reworked hundreds of times before he was satisfied with them and it took him 10 years to complete his opera. His manuscripts are covered with crossing outs and many were scrunched up and used as fire kindling.

The Flip Side of Greatness

Yet despite being viewed as somewhat of a ‘freak’, Beethoven was still arrogant. Perhaps one could argue that his arrogance was one of the few things preventing him taking his own life. To Prince Lichnowsky, one of his appreciators and patrons, he wrote: “Prince, what you are, you are through chance and birth; what I am, I am through my own labour. There are many princes and there will continue to be thousands more, but there is only one Beethoven.”

In one of Beethoven’s letters to his brother he stated that suicide was not an option for a man of art such as himself.

Beethoven in many ways was not a great man. But neither are we great men, womon or people. Beethoven was both a success and failure, the abused and abuser the loved and the hated.

And Beethoven is not alone. He is not the one artist who suffered throughout his life but produced amazing work. Beethoven is the norm. Every artist has there own inner struggles and unseen suffering. Some will never get discovered and others like Bach will die long before their works are famous . Some will be remembered while many more won’t.

In Love with the Ordinary

Beethoven’s works are brilliant and we love them possibly because we can relate to his humanness and pain. Beethoven the man, was average and ordinary just like you and me. But even average and ordinary people are capable of doing great things. It’s just important to remember that doing a great thing doesn’t change who you are or what you are worth.

The Reality of Greatness

Greatness is not something you are. It is not a symbol or title you can realistically work towards.

Mark Manson writes in ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck “Greatness is merely an illusion in our minds, a made up destination that we obligate ourselves to pursue, a psychological atlantas.”

Ironically it is the pursuit of greatness that keeps us miserable.  Beethoven is inspiring because he embraced his uniqueness and devoted his life to doing the only thing he could concievable do, writing music.

You too can be inspiring simply by embracing your individuality and devoting yourself not to the pursuit of greatness but to the life that you have.

Read more: https://www.notablebiographies.com/Ba-Be/Beethoven-Ludwig-van.html#ixzz5cv1EGDe8

Beethoven, the Heavy Metal of the Early 19th Century! | Nicolas Ellis | TEDxYouth@Montreal