If you play Beethoven wrong, do you blame Beethoven?

Many people have vowed never to be a Christian, saying that they are all hypocrites! To a degree, I was one of those people. I didn’t entirely agree with the assertion that ALL Christians are hypocrites, however, I couldn’t deny that some Christians’ (and also non-Christians’) actions contradicted what they claimed to believe. We’re all imperfect human beings and we all do things that are somewhat inconsistent with the self-portrait that we display to the world. There are countless “alleged” followers of Jesus who don’t practice what they preach. In fact, many of them are known to call out others for “sinful” behavior who are also guilty of precisely that same sinful behavior, or other comparable ones. This is stated well in the Bible (Matthew 7:3): “why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”.

The problem is this: We shouldn’t rely on any person to define what a Christian is supposed to be. One who is interested in learning about Christianity should refer to the Bible and to its Inspired purveyors of Truth, chief among them, Jesus himself! If we depend on the behaviors or actions of any so-called Christian (who is still just a man), we could easily conclude that they are inconsistent in their faith, and that we have little or no desire to become one of them. Even a true Believer, one who genuinely follows Christ and produces “good fruit”, (Matthew 7:17), cannot fully emulate the ideals of Christ. Christians struggle with these things as much as anyone else, but that doesn’t mean they are all hypocrites. Believers and non-believers alike fall pathetically short of God’s ideals.

Now, having said all of that, there are people who claim to be Christians, yet exhibit little evidence which would give credence to those claims. When a person encounters someone like that, it is fair to surmise that, perhaps, they are not truly a Christian. For example, one may go to church, read the Bible, say the right things, tithe to the church, and generally perform good works towards others. Yet, If these behaviors do not occur naturally–as a product of their faith–but only as a way to prove their “goodness” to God and Man, then it would be more accurate to describe them as a person who is “trying to be good” but who is not necessarily a true believer in Christ.

So, this brings me (sort of) to Beethoven. I remember when I used to practice my classical piano pieces in college. I was a music major with an emphasis on piano performance. I had to practice for many hours every day, memorize very difficult pieces, and perform them in front of my professors, peers, and other interested observers, namely family and friends. While it is exceedingly important to play those pieces both expressively and accurately, I believe the overarching goal is to perform them in a manner which clearly represents the intentions of the composers who had written them. This is NOT to say that I shouldn’t try to render them through the lens of my individual style. In fact, every musician has a unique and (hopefully) beautiful approach to producing the music created by the great composers of the past and present! That said, it is essential that the notes written by the composer, and the directions given to us in the form of dynamics, phrasing, tempo, and other explicit expression markings in the piece, be followed as closely as possible. Otherwise, the performance of that piece will not truly reflect the character of either the music or its composer.

So, after countless hours of thoughtful and painstaking practice, one might assume that I performed these marvelous pieces of music virtually without blemish. That I was able to share their sublime beauty with the listeners and reveal the incomparable genius of their respective composers while also, seamlessly, addressing each and every technical and artistic aspect of the music. In reality, I found this to be far from the truth when I actually performed the masterworks of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, or even composers of significantly lesser stature. In order to do this, one would truly have to be “perfect”, and we all know this is not possible!

I recall, in my senior year, I was playing Chopin’s Ballade in F minor. Many musical scholars and concert pianists have rated this piece as one of Chopin’s greatest, perhaps even as one of the greatest piano compositions ever written. Now, before I continue, note that I’m using an example of a Chopin composition, even though I used Beethoven’s name in the title of this post. I did that because, despite the greatness of both Chopin and Beethoven, I felt that Beethoven may be more universally recognized than Chopin. In any case, my example would be true for any Beethoven composition as well.

To continue, I diligently practiced the Chopin Ballade throughout my entire senior year in order to prepare for my final senior recital. Meanwhile, I consulted one of the senior piano professors at my music school who had performed this piece many times in public throughout his life. He told me that he had been practicing and performing this composition, intermittently, for over 50 years. Sadly, he firmly believed that he was not yet fully competent, nor ever would he be, to play it exactly as Chopin had intended it to be played. I was astonished, terrified in fact, by what he said. I was a mere 22 year-old student and it was the first time I would be performing this piece in front of people! So what hope did I have of truly presenting the piece as Chopin intended?

My main point here is to demonstrate that there is no Christian, no matter how hard they try or how sincerely they believe, who can truly achieve who Christ was. We become better Christians through acquiring knowledge and living our lives according to His Word but, essentially, it is only because of the Grace and Forgiveness granted to us by Christ Himself that we can make any progress at all. So, in the end, it is infinitely better to refer to the composer (God) than to the player of the piece (Man). Look at Jesus Himself, within the larger context Bible, as the model for how real Christianity is defined. This represents a far more stable platform on which we can base our decision to become Christians.