Themes of “Beethoven” by Shane Koyczan: ISC English Rhapsody Solutions
1. Theme of Resilience and Determination
2. The Transformative Power of Art
3. Genius
4. Child Abuse
5. Pain and Suffering in the Process of Creativity
1. Resilience and Determination:
The poem by Shane Koyczan explores the theme of resilience and determination of Beethoven. The poem reflects on the life of Beethoven, who overcame significant obstacles including deafness, to create profound and enduring music.
Beethoven has experienced a painful and difficult childhood, as his father used to abuse him and violently beat the young child on a habitual basis.
His father was extremely ambitious for his son to become a legendary musical genius. He not only imposed these unrealistic expectations on Beethoven, but he also used to take out his frustrations by verbally and physically abuse him.
Long practice sessions were forced upon the child and the severe ache in fingers hardly melts the father’s heart. Whether Beethoven plays notes gently, slowly, fiercely, the unkind father would discourage him saying “NOT GOOD ENOUGH”.
Life continued to be difficult for Beethoven even, after he grown up, Beethoven was deprived of the “most precious tool” of a musician, his eardrums. His incurable deafness stood as challenge to his musical career which was overcome with the strong determination. Beethoven could no longer hear or discern the nuances of the symphonic music unfolding in his creative imagination.
His deafness painfully isolated and separated him from directly experiencing the praise, applause, admiration and cries of his name from audiences.
Because of strong will and determination Beethoven was able to overcome all the challenges of his life and successfully created the most powerful music. His music has the quality to pierce in the nerves of the audience like a fleet of warship marching through the incessant firing of cannon shells, exploding violently.
2. Transformative Power of Art:
In this poem “Beethoven”, Shane Koyczan uses metaphors, visual and sensory imagery to dramatically depict how Beethoven’s music entered into his listener’s bodies with overwhelming immersive power.
When the audience would let his music hit their nervous system, the thunderous assault of his music on their nervous system is captured through the metaphor of an invading navy bombarding with cannon fire. His music would hit every smallest part of their body and erupt into divine pleasure.
Each melodic note leave its metaphorical impactful mark on the listener, imprinting itself on their psyche, making them desperately ache and crave just one more jolt of the musical drug that is Beethoven. Beethoven had become an addiction for music lover.
Beethoven was genius, his musical scales were such as to take you to unprecedented heights i.e. the height of Towers of Babylon. The magic of his music was simply divine. It could turn the solar system into cymbals to crash together, causing comets to collide into one another. The resulting sound would be so loud that it could shake the constellations to make the stars begin to fall down. It would seem as if the whole universe had began to cry.
Beethoven was such genius musician that his thoughts moved at the speed of sound, able to transform raw human emotions into the musical compositions. On hearing his music the pleasure imparted by his music was so concrete that you could touch the joy and it becomes a tangible thing.
His symphonies are so life like that each note of his music was such as if love and hate are personified elegantly, dancing together with graceful precision and splendour. He was a part of music and music was a part of him.
This way the poem celebrates the transformative power of artistic expression, illustrating how it connects us to our emotions and to one another.
3. Genius:
“Beethoven” by Shane Koyczan underlines the idea that there is little difference between a mad man and a genius. Like a mad man, a genius does abnormal things, thinks abnormally and live abnormally. Actually a genius himself is far beyond the normalcy. Most of what he says is beyond the comprehension of most people.
His acceptance by others is always difficult. Some geniuses do not get recognition for their works during their lifetimes.
Beethoven was a great musician, who can be classified as genius. But he was not satisfied with his work. From the beginning of his life, his father’s attitude and his disapproval for Beethoven’s efforts by saying “NOT GOOD ENOUGH” made him rigid and perfectionist.
In order to achieve the pinnacle of excellence he found it difficult to connect with others. He remained isolated and aloof. To make matter worse for him, he was hard of hearing. So most people, even the masters in his field failed to understand him. But they ultimately realised his greatness and admitted the originality of his compositions. His music, as the poet notes, was simply divine, though like his own father Beethoven said to himself that it was not good enough.
Beethoven was such genius who never bowed down before anyone, king or queen. But he bowed before his music. He got down on his knees for music. He cut off the legs of his piano so that he could feel the vibrations of his tunes through the floor. The man who did not get down on his knees before anyone, got down on his knees for music. Music was his God.
4. Child Abuse:
The poem “Beethoven” also explores the theme of Child Abuse. The poem highlights the physical and emotional abuse in Beethoven’s childhood which left the indelible marks on his psyche. The hurt remained throughout his life. He failed to connect meaningfully with others and enjoy his life fully.
Beethoven’s overambitious father used to drink alcohol and regularly abused him physically and verbally. He used to beat the young child abruptly in the process of turning his Son into genius. He used to pour out all the frustrations on the poor child and constantly disapprove and criticise the young boy. The mercy was shown only when the boy would strike such perfect notes which would tumble up through the “roof to tickle the toes of angles” whose “harps couldn’t hold half the passion” that the boy held himself.
Beethoven constantly faced impossible standards of perfection but his father refused to be pleased. He was pushed to excel. Even after practising to complete exhaustion, his fingers got extremely tired with muscles contorting like the twisted “gnarled roots” of ancient trees, the words that bombarded his ears were “IT WAS NOT GOOD ENOUGH”. There was an extreme, unreasonable pressure, young Beethoven had to face.
The shadow of his father could never leave him even when he was at the height of his career.
When the orchestra played his symphonies, he acted as his father did. He was never satisfied and repeat his “father’s anthem” “NOT GOOD ENOUGH”. This irked the musicians. They tried to make fun of him by imitating his movements without playing any instrument. The poor man, Beethoven, thought that their notes were perfect as the deaf has an intimacy with silence.
But the divine music of Beethoven was enough to cause confusion among the musicians, who ultimately surmised that the man “Must be a genius”.
5. Pain and Suffering in the Process of Artistic Creativity :
The poem “Beethoven” illustrate how pain and suffering are integral part of the process of artistic creativity.
Beethoven had faced a number of challenges including his progressive hearing loss, which could have ended his career as a musician. But all these adversities, fueled his creative genius and transformed his pain into divine melodies which continue to resonate deeply with audiences.
Being deprived of a musician’s most precious tools – his eardrums and his power of hearing, Beethoven was unable to produce proper rhythms for the symphonies playing in his mind.
His deafness painfully isolated and separated him from other people. He was not destined to hear the praise, applause and cries of “Beethoven” from his audience.
But the pain of his deafness contributed the most to enhance his artistic expression. Despite of his deteriorating hearing, Beethoven’s inner world became richer and more complex. His inability to hear external sounds may have intensified his focus on the internal melodies and harmonies that he transformed into music. His deafness made a close relationship between Beethoven and silence, which heightened his sensitivity and creativity.
Apart from this his difficult and painful childhood also reflected in the depth and intensity of his music. The sharp and high musical notes of his symphony, mirror his inner turmoil and resilience.
Beethoven chose his music to give vent to his inner pain and suffering. His music played as a medium to communicate with this world, when he is unable to express his emotions through words.
Beethoven’s ability to transform his personal hardships and channel them into his music serves as a powerful testament to the idea that adversity can enhance artistic expression.