Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Beethoven in Bonn On Saturday we saw a little bit of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.  In the morning we visited the Beethoven House    where Beethoven was born in 1770.  We walked around the tiny house for almost two hours, listening to our audio guides.  Our son, Mr. Numbers, made sure he listened to every track on his guide, all 32.  Elisabeth stopped periodically to draw pictures: the organ Beethoven played in a nearby church, two of the pianos he owned.  She said she wanted to go home and write music.  I was moved by the account, in Beethoven’s own words, of his hearing loss and his intense inner struggle.   We heard portions of his 5th and 9th symphonies as he would’ve heard them at the time they were first performed.  It was a barely audible muffled sound. Though Beethoven wanted to take his own life, he felt he could not, because of his burning desire to to the work he had to do, to write the music that was in his...

Quote by Goethe in the Keukenhof Thursday morning we took the tram to the Van Gogh museum.  Elisabeth chose to do a treasure hunt offered by the museum.  She was busy searching paintings to answer questions, and writing about which were her favorites.  John and I shared an audio tour, passing the headphones back and forth while we kept our eyes on the kids in the ever thickening crowd.  Henry was listening to a children’s audio tour that was for ages 6-12.  It was a bit beyond him, but it kept his interest.  By the way, in The Netherlands they pronounce Gogh like “Goch,” the ch being a sort of guttural sound. I have always enjoyed Van Gogh’s paintings, but never thought much of the artist himself.  I knew there was some crazy story about him cutting off his ear, and that did not endear me to him.  In my mind I chalked him up as another artist with problems.  When I read the introduction to his self portrait I read for the first time that...