{"id":425,"date":"2009-06-27T20:51:41","date_gmt":"2009-06-28T01:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=425"},"modified":"2009-06-27T20:51:41","modified_gmt":"2009-06-28T01:51:41","slug":"beethoven-and-woodworking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/27\/beethoven-and-woodworking\/","title":{"rendered":"Beethoven and woodworking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/img_0447_edited-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-426  aligncenter\" title=\"img_0447_edited-2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/img_0447_edited-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"370\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What can someone who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/19\/8-desultory-thoughts-and-paradoxes\/\" target=\"_blank\">just likes making things out of wood <\/a>humbly learn from a musical genius like <strong>Beethoven<\/strong>? I remember reading many years ago a quote by Beethoven that struck me with its <strong>depiction of his invincible creativity<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I carry my thoughts about me for a long time, often a very long time, before I write them down&#8230; I change many things, discard, and try again until I am satisfied. Then, however, there begins in my head the development in every direction, and, inasmuch as I know exactly what I want, the fundamental idea never deserts me, &#8211; it arises before me, grows, &#8211; I see and hear the picture in all its extent and dimensions stand before my mind like a cast, and there remains nothing for me but the labor of writing it down&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;my ideas&#8230;sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What does this have to do with our little world of saws, planes, and wood? I feel that the really difficult, critical aspects of making a woodworking project are <strong>consistency and veracity in design and workmanship<\/strong> &#8211; the long line. Success comes from keeping sight of the <strong>&#8220;fundamental idea,&#8221;<\/strong> which one hopes and believes is a good one, through the many steps of a project, while bringing forth the commensurate breadth and depth of technique to render it.<\/p>\n<p>This applies to not only a big project or a tour de force of design and technique, but as well to simple, modest <strong>work done satisfyingly well<\/strong>. David Pye, in <em>The Nature and Art of Workmanship<\/em>, states &#8220;Regulated workmanship means workmanship where the achievement appears to correspond exactly with the idea&#8221;. <strong>The force and clarity of the idea must drive its fulfillment<\/strong>. This is not an easy task.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no delusion of grandeur here; this woodworker is not a speck of a Beethoven. Nevertheless, I do like to make things out of wood, to have an idea and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/24\/build-it\/\" target=\"_blank\">make it <em><strong>be there<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Yea, that\u2019s <strong>happy woodworking<\/strong>. Best wishes for your ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What can someone who just likes making things out of wood humbly learn from a musical genius like Beethoven? I remember reading many years ago a quote by Beethoven that struck me with its depiction of his invincible creativity: I carry my thoughts about me for a long time, often a very long time, before [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}