The following was written by my late wife Elaine. She wrote a long book, a diary really, from which this is the final passage:
A Few Writings about Music
As a composer, I had a slump for the first year of the war (WW I), feeling that writing music was a most futile occupation. What got me out of the slump was getting letters from men in the armed forces who said they hoped I was still composing because that was one of the things they were out there for.
– Walter Piston
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
And so she makes music wherever she goes
– 17th century nursery rhyme
Music must never offend the ear; it must please the hearer, in other words, it must never cease to be music.
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1775, in a letter to his father
What a humiliation when one stood beside me and heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard the shepherd singing and again I heard nothing! Such incidents brought me to the verge of despair, and little more. I would have put an end to my life, but it seemed impossible to leave the world until I produced all that I felt called upon to produce. And so I endured this wretched existence.
– Ludwig van Beethoven, 1800
Beethoven was totally deaf, and the music he wrote he could only hear inside his head. He wrote symphonies, chamber music, church music, cantatas, preludes and fugues, organ music, huge choral works, Masses and many other forms of music. But he never actually heard it, except in the world of music that existed in his mind.
I must study politics and war so that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry and music.
– John Adams, 1780
My quote: “After my family, who are number one, music is my life.” Elaine Blakeslee, 2001.
To my children: I’m ending my story now, with the most recent celebrations in Dave’s and my personal life. We went to the Greenbrier Hotel a year ago for a special lunch on January 2, 2001 to celebrate our 47th wedding anniversary, and today it’s New Year’s Eve, and on our anniversary in just a couple days, January 2, 2002, Dad and I are going to celebrate our 48th by going to the General Lewis Inn in Lewisburg, one of our favorite “special” places.
I’ll see you all soon. I love you all very much, and I wrote this story of my life for you.
Grandma Elaine (Herivel) Blakeslee
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee (1931 – 2024) built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
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