Playing Violin with 3 strings - An inspirational story

[Guest guest]

Sairam all.

 

I came across an inspirational story and want to share

with you all.

 

== Sathya

=====================================================

 

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 them 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.

 

--

Regards,

 

Sathya

[Guest guest]

Soumendra Bhattacharjee <soumendra_toronto

Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:19pm

Re: [saibabanews] Playing Violin with 3 strings - An

inspirational story

 

Sai Ram Sathya ,

 

Awesome this story is indeed inspirational-

 

Great job thanks a lot for sharing this story.

 

Regards

 

Soumendra

 

----------

 

sherry jagdeo <sherryjagdeo

Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:21pm

Re: [saibabanews] Playing Violin with 3 strings - An

inspirational story

 

what a totally inspiring story ! thanks for sharing. Jai Jai Sai Ram.

 

sherry.

 

----------

 

"Srimanta Kumar Jana" <srimantajana

Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:20pm

RE: [saibabanews] Playing Violin with 3 strings - An

inspirational story

 

Sathya Narayana Kebalom Sudhyam

Sathya Narayana Kebolom Premam

Sathya Narayana Kebalom Sangeet

Sathya Narayana Kebalom Sristi

 

Lord Sathya Narayana is the name of purity, Lord Sathya Narayana is

the name of Prema. Lord Sathya Narayana is the name of music. Lord

Sathya Narayana is the name of creativity

 

 

 

 

 

saibabanews, Sathya Narayanan

<ksathyanarayanan> wrote:

>

> Sairam all.

>

> I came across an inspirational story and want to share

> with you all.