here's to the crazy ones

In an
article critiquing a gargantuan history of music, one tendril struck me:

Bach's great Mass in B minor was never performed during his lifetime: as a Catholic Mass, it could not be played in a Protestant church, and the use of an orchestra was forbidden in Catholic churches during Bach's lifetime, although he hoped it might eventually be possible. His "Goldberg" Variations is the most successful of all his works in concert performance today, yet the kind of concert in which it can be performed did not exist for another century, and it had to wait for recognition and acclaim for still another hundred years. Both these works fascinated many musicians during the long period before they could find a niche in the social world of performance. The first great set of works to become the staple of serious public piano performances was the thirty-two Beethoven piano sonatas: only two of these were played in a concert hall in Vienna during Beethoven's lifetime.

That sends chills down my spine. It makes my eyes water and my chin tremble. We tend to look back and think of these people as "forward-looking." But they had no idea whether the future they envisioned would ever come to pass. They just created what they envisioned. My suspicion is that, though they would have liked the idea that such a future did come to pass, they didn't really care that much.

In the words of that great old Apple commercial, here's to the crazy ones. The people who can stare at a blank canvas and see shapes and forms never painted before, the ones who can sit in silence and hear melodies never dreamed of.