Essay About Music Of The Romantics And Finest Performance

Teaching and Learning
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Teaching and learning
Much of the novel is set in a classroom; the room with two pianos where
Keller attempts to teach Paul to be great. It becomes clear that he knows
early on that Paul is not capable of achieving greatness, but perhaps because
Paul reminds Keller of his son, he persists. It is a strange series of lessons
because Keller has learned to be suspicious of the very thing he loves. The
music of the Romantics that were his passion has become to Kellers mind the
music that Hollywood stars kiss to. As dismissive, in its way, as Pauls
comment that rock music is Music to shit to. And yet Keller is not really free
of his love for this type of music. It haunts him. He removed his own finger as
part of his promise to himself to reject certain pieces of music and then he
learns to play as well without it.
Keller is teaching very complex lessons about music. And Paul is
ultimately unable to learn them. He cannot understand that he needs to
interpret music and give the composer credit for what he has created. For the
young Paul music is a show designed to give the artist accolades. It is where
the audience gives him appreciation, not where he gives the audience the gift
of the music. He learns to be a good forgery. He picks up the rhetoric and
learns to be technically perfect. He blusters for some years convinced of his
own greatness and squanders his parents money on a fruitless tour of
Europe and exploits Rosies love by demanding her support for his self
indulgent dreams. But he knows what real music is, and he cannot even
convince himself that he truly has the gift. His finest performance, a
performance filled with passion to convince Henisch that Keller lives too fails.
By failing to demonstrate the sure hand of his teacher, he finally has to face
the truth about his musical talent. And yet much of what Keller taught the
young Paul is with him and