Break-ins and Beethoven

It's been quite a week... full of highs and lows and the inevitable, ubiquitous inbetweens.

I'm an aunt again... my newest nephew is a week old yesterday.... That made for an exciting weekend (last weekend). He was born at home and despite some family concerns - the birth went perfectly - or so I'm told... I was not there to witness the actually birth but I did get to see him a few hours later.

Two days later (while I was at work... since I walk to work) my car was broken into. I have nothing of value in the car (other than the car itself). Because I have nothing of value, the thieves didn't steal much... but they (or he... or she... or it) managed to do some significant damage to the passenger door (in order to gain access to the interior of the car) and then completed demolished the glove compartment. In the process of demolishing the glove compartment either by accident or design, they did take the glove box latch. I'm still not sure why it was necessary to rip the entire glove compartment door apart and then rip half way through the bottom of the glove compartment. In some ways it is ironic... if they were really only after the latch... then they did several hundred dollars of damage in order to walk away with a $17 part... a $17 part that with the proper tools is very easy (and quick) to remove w/o doing any damage (I know this because I had to replace that very same latch a few years ago and I did it myself while I was out of town).

Ah well... insurance will cover the repairs and in the end I'll have a new door panel and a new glove compartment (both of which will probably rattle less than the originals which were getting very old)... but it still sucks that there are people in the world that will enter someone else's property just to do damage and take stuff that isn't theirs. It makes me sad more than anything else. ... well... first it makes me angry, really angry... then, after some time to think about it .... it makes me sad. In the end though... there is really little I can do... other than but a huge barbed wire fence around my property and booby-trap it... and I don't want to do that. I still love my house and my neighborhood... in some ways this inspires me to pay even more attention to the "goings on" around the neighborhood... I found myself walking around the neighborhood several times this week... just establishing that I belong here and getting to know my surroundings even better. I've met several of the neighbors and I just have to let this inspire me to meet more of them.... that's the only way to combat things like this... build and nurture a community.

Anyone who has read thus far is probably wondering where the Beethoven is... other than in the title...

A couple of nights ago I went to the Symphony with my mom. My parents have season tickets (we have a truly phenomenal local Symphony Orchestra - worthy of a true mecca). My father dislikes choral music to the point of truly despising it.... I've never understood why - as I find few things more transcendent than listening to a multitude of voices raised in harmony. I feel it deep in my soul almost as much as I feel percussion. This week the Symphony presented Beethoven's 9th (including the final movement - "An die Freude" "Ode to Joy"). Of course - the final movement is choral – so I was invited to take my father’s seat. Of course, I accepted the invitation. I’ve never heard the 9^th performed live, so this was to be a real treat. We arrived early because in addition to having a remarkable symphony, we have the privilege to have a truly gifted conductor who gives short “talks” as a prelude to the evenings show. This evening, of course, was about Beethoven. He did not speak only of the 9^th though, he spoke of Beethoven in general. Having studied classical piano for over 10 years and having taking several music history classes in both high school and college, I know something of this history but it was still brilliant to listen to. Our conductor said one thing which has stayed with me through the entire weekend. He talked about Beethoven’s introduction of the harmonic 9^th into his composition (B flat)… he spoke of how radical, how revolutionary, that was. In the 1800’s, harmonics were not common place. How shocking, how ear (and mind) expanding it must have been to hear a harmonic for the first time. People were flattened by it (no pun intended) – they were blown over (or blown away). It was a shock… and now only a couple of hundred years later it is so common place that we don’t even consider that there was a time when it wasn’t part of our musical vocabulary. All weekend this has been in my head and I keep mulling it over and wondering what the new shock will be. Is there anything today that can shake us the way Beethoven shook the people of his time with this simple note? And – will that shock be a revelation? Will it inspire further evolution? Or will we try to censor it, suppress it, and crush it out of some kind of false sense of protection?

Ok… that’s enough wandering thoughts for tonight…