Reader's Digest has published Jerome Weidman's 1955 story about the evening he spent with Einstein.
Weidman has just had dinner in the home of a distinguished New York philanthropist, and discovers that there is to be a chamber music concert following, which he is going to have to endure.
I fixed my face in what I hoped was an expression of intelligent appreciation, closed my ears from the inside, and submerged myself in my own completely irrelevant thoughts.
After a while, becoming aware that the people around me were applauding, I concluded it was safe to unplug my ears. At once I heard a gentle but surprisingly penetrating voice on my right: “You are fond of Bach?”
I knew as much about Bach as I know about nuclear fission. But I did know one of the most famous faces in the world, with the renowned shock of untidy white hair and the ever-present pipe between the teeth. I was sitting next to Albert Einstein.
When he tells the famous scientist that he is tone deaf, and knows nothing about music, Einstein takes him upstairs away from the concert and shows Mr Weidman that he has a greater appreciation of music than he realises, by patiently leading him from the popular music he is familiar with into classical instrumental music. Then, Einstein dramatically announces
“Now, young man, we are ready for Bach!”
As we returned to our seats in the drawing room, the players were tuning up for a new selection. Einstein smiled and gave me a reassuring pat on the knee.
“Just allow yourself to listen,” he whispered. “That is all.”
It wasn’t really all, of course. Without the effort he had just poured out for a total stranger I would never have heard, as I did that night for the first time in my life, Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze.” I have heard it many times since. I don’t think I shall ever tire of it. Because I never listen to it alone. I am sitting beside a small, round man with a shock of untidy white hair, a dead pipe clamped between his teeth, and eyes that contain in their extraordinary warmth all the wonder of the world.
I wonder if you also feel that you are not able to enjoy music, because you are "tone deaf?" Part of Einstein's method in helping Weidman to appreciate the music was to get him to sing what he had just been listening to. The young man discovered that he was able, at least to some degree, to reproduce what he had been hearing.
Mitchell Conservatorium can't resurrect Einstein to help you to explore the wonderful world of music, but we can provide you with other enthusiastic guides who can help you, too to develop a love of music through making music yourself.
You can find out more from our website or by speaking to one of our friendly staff during office hours on 6331 6622.
