Playing the first few notes of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is like an amateur chef putting the first ingredients of a complicated recipe that her mother had made since her childhood, into her favorite dish. It's like an amateur software engineer writing code for his favorite game company. It's like a young lawyer finding himself in a Federal court. It's like a young artist, finding himself able to paint the first few strokes of the Mona Lisa.
It's simple, 'cause it's just a few tablespoons, a few typed keys, an argument, a few strokes of a brush-it's really just a handful of piano keys played slowly. A four year old could play them correctly.
And yet, they are so incredible-so beautiful-so precious to me. I've listened to the Moonlight Sonata since childhood (without knowing what it was). I played it at night when I couldn't sleep in my early teens. My ear buds digging into the inside of my ears. I've imagined playing it for years now. I've closed my eyes and moved my head along to the notes.
Beethoven wrote the Moonlight Sonata for one of his students whom he had fallen in love with-it's a love-song. It's soft, beautiful, captivating. Light, happy, carefree, loud, passionate, deep, amazing.
It was what I played when God's love over-spilled into my heart, into my ears, my emotions, my soul.
Any of you who play the piano could play the first few notes-the whole first movement; and if you're really good, the whole third, perfectly, and not be moved, or think once about it. You could just be playing and wondering to yourself what you'll have for dinner. But to me, to me, it's so dang beautiful, and amazing.
And someday, I will play Beethoven's best work (in my opinion, which is saying something, his ninth Symphony is pretty incredible), all the way through, and I will play it superbly.
xoxo
The Winter Girl...
