Greatness does not come from victimhood, self-absorption, preoccupation with what might have been – but from what “is,” squeezing everything from it. Sounds simple, but modern America, so easily offended, competing for victim status, has traded contentment for resentment. Time to swap back.
One hundred and thirty-four years ago next week, a boy was born – who would one day be an American. When hope went dark across pre-war Austria, persecution muting life’s music, he fled for freedom.
He arrived in New York in 1938, 1887, his birthdate – but it is what happened between those two years that bears knowing, thinking about, and drawing inspiration from.
Young Paul was lucky. He knew it. He loved piano, and by accidents of family, fate, and date, his home was visited by well-known pianists, with whom he was allowed to play. Friends of his grandmother included Brahms, Mahler, and Richard Strauss.
But what luck and life give, they can take away – and the peace of his early youth was replaced by war. All his talent at the keyboard was set to one side when he was drafted to fight in World War I.
Like his brother Ludwig, who would later compose on a metaphysical keyboard, Paul won honors fighting. However, in a tragedy that would reshape his life, he was wounded. More than wounded, surgeons had to take his right arm.
To some, this would have been the end of life, seawalls of self-confidence, accomplishment, and life’s love of the piano washed out by the overpowering, destructive, uncaring tide of fate. Young Paul would have been within his rights to blame the ugliness and caprice of war for lost hope, a life of bitterness.
That, however, is not what he did. When the war ended, reducing him to one hand, he picked himself up and decided his life mission had changed. He was apparently intended to compose for his left hand.
Composing and playing just for the left hand had never been done, as pianists play with two hands. Never mind, he would compose and commission left-hand-only pieces, begin publicly playing them.
Possessed of one hand and two feet, he developed ways of using foot pedals and one hand in combination to permit chords; a concept previously thought impossible – with just five fingers.
Nor did he stop there. His inspiration led others to a higher level. He asked his former piano teacher – then blind – to help him compose a left-handed piece, which his teacher did. He asked composers from Richard Strauss and Sergei Prokofiev to Maurice Ravel to compose one-handed pieces, which they did.
Almost unbelievably, the pieces composed, commissioned, and played by Paul – with one hand – are so popular that even today, they are widely and regularly played by two-handed pianists.
The piece Paul commissioned of Ravel, a piano concerto for the left hand, premiered in 1932, Paul at the keys, age 45, solo with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Today, the piece is regularly featured. To hear it, with and without orchestra, see, Paul Wittgenstein performs Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.
So, in 1938, he arrived in America, becoming a US citizen in 1946, spending the rest of his life playing and teaching music to young Americans, undeterred by a wartime mishap – inspired to write and commission music of a kind that had not previously existed, and which is still universally enjoyed.
And who was Paul? He was Paul Wittgenstein, whose life – and love of it – inspired songs, books, and movies about what you can do with what “is,” if you are willing not to wallow, but to do. While his brother Ludwig wrote philosophy, he became a philosopher of notes, instilling peace through the piano.
Point: Greatness does not come from victimhood, self-absorption, preoccupation with what might have been – but from what “is,” squeezing everything from it. Sounds simple, but modern America, so easily offended, competing for victim status, has traded contentment for resentment. Time to swap back. Life is truly what you choose to make of it, and that is the real beauty of America, our long-held high note.
Great piece of fantastic history and desire to excel.
Very inspirational and appreciated especially at a darker, destructive period in America when the democrats and communist left work to erase Our Country’s amazing history!
Thank You
Love this. Wonderful article and sooooo true. 🙂
People, go out of your way to seek out and read PaulE’s commentary, I have never disagreed with him!
My Grandfather “escaped” Communist Russia and suffered real financial hardship for doing so. He was very bitter that he had to work as a factory laborer but he had six children, all who were born in Russia. You will ALWAYS BE A VICTIM unless YOU STRIVE TO SUCCEED at whatever you desire. Remember the old adage: “if at first you don’t succeed, you must try and try again until you do!” People, teach this to ALL your grandchildren!
Very appropriate article and sentiment for our times. Far too many Americans today spend more time trying to find ways to justify doing nothing, because they’ve accepted some level of victimhood status, than actually trying to find ways to get things done. Far too many people expect “somebody else” to work to correct a problem or situation for them. Their view seems to be that they are but helpless spectators unable to do anything about anything except complain. This “woe is me” wringing of the hands culture is literally crippling the United States on so many levels.
This nation was built by people who looked at adversity as an opportunity for them to improve things. They didn’t hide in a corner and hope it all just magically went away and improved through no action on their part. Somewhere along the line, far too many Americans seem to have lost the drive to better themselves and the country as a whole.
I agree completely with the last line of your article “Life is truly what you choose to make of it, and that is the real beauty of America, our long-held high note.” If people truly want things to improve, then go about getting it done. Don’t whine and wait around wringing your hands expecting someone else to hand something to you are take care of all your problems. If everyone has that defeatist attitude, then nothing ever improves and everything just gets progressively worse.