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In a message dated 17/06/2007 10:23:01 GMT Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: Very nice story Rayilynlee, amazing that he could improvise with just 3 strings This is an inspiration but to be honest, i'd rather make the best out of life with full faculties :-) ........ and please no angry replies back re my comments if i brought the readers down from the recently inspired state, it's nice to be "inspired" but then again one has to be a realist. ----- Original Message ----- From: "rayilynlee" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 8:26 PM Subject: Making music with what you've got left > PERLMAN - playing on 3 strings > > On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a > concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. If you > have > ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small > achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has > braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him > walk > across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an awesome > sight. > He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he > sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on > his > legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he > bends > down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the > conductor > and proceeds to play. > > By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he > makes > his way across the stage to his chair. They remain reverently silent while > he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait until he is ready to play. > > But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few > bars, > one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went > off > like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound > meant. > There was no mistaking what he had to do. We figured that he would have to > get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off > stage - to either find another violin or else find another string for this > one. But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then > signaled the conductor to begin again. > > The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he > played > with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard > before. > > Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work > with > just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak > Perlman refused to know that. > > You could see him modulating, changing, re-composing the piece in his > head. > At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new > sounds > from the m that they had never made before. When he finished, there was an > awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was > an > extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. We > were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to > show how much we appreciated what he had done. > > He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and > then he said - not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone - > "You > know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can > still make with what you have left." > > What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard > it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the definition of life - not just for > artists but for all of us. Here is a man who has prepared all his life to > make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a sudden, in the > middle > of a concert, finds himself with only three strings; so he makes music > with > three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings > was > more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever > made > before, when he had four strings. > > So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in > which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, > when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left. > > Rayilyn Brown > Board Member AZNPF > Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation > [log in to unmask] > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: > mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn Handy given what replacement strings can cost :) Amanda ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn