I just saw Leonard Bernstein’s Omnibus lecture on Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (listen to it here). The lecture was very moving, to say the least. Bernstein took Beethoven’s initial rejected drafts of the symphony and played them, mistakes and all, commenting on the probable reasons why Beethoven discarded certain notes [...]
Posts Tagged ‘creativity’
Exercises in Failure (Part 2): Let them trash your work
I had a professor in one of my painting classes who always gave everyone the highest mark possible. From the struggling students to the almost-pros, our grades were almost exactly the same - 100/100.
Of course, chronic absentees were another question - but the lowest they’d get was 80%. This made everyone happy as it made [...]
Exercises in Failure: Allow yourself to create crap
We’re all afraid of failing. We dread critics, seek the praise of our peers, and crave spotless records. We think that to be happy, productive citizens, we have to avoid failure as much as possible.
Who can blame us? In school we were taught to be ashamed if the teacher marks a giant red “X” on [...]
