# The Quest for Immortality



## Guest (Jul 27, 2007)

A little philosophical question.
It seems that all men have least a small desire for immortality. There are those like Alexander the Great who conquered vast amount of land and named conquered cities in his name to achieve the goal of being immortal. Pharaoh’s erected huge monuments so that they might be remembered throughout the ages. There are scientists who invented or discovered things/theorys/ect. that have benefited mankind. These seem to be the stipulations for becoming "immortal" BUT in the realm of art the game changes. Art seems to be the only place where you can become immortalized without doing anything to alter history. Now pieces of music have played roles in the altering of history but their creation was not meant for this, it just was a situation of circumstance. It is incredible to think that something that has no tangible value to society can make someone immortal. Fur Elise compared to the conquering the known world or the invention of the light bulb should not even be thought of as a way to be known forever, but Beethoven is remembered by most everyone. 

Now the question is,

Did the immortal composers struggle to gain immortality; therefore creating these beautiful works of art. Or did they create out of pure love for music and immortality was bestowed upon them?

Another way of asking,

Did the struggle for immortality separate the "Greats" from the rest?


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## Kurkikohtaus (Oct 22, 2006)

Notserp89m said:


> Did the immortal composers struggle to gain immortality; therefore creating these beautiful works of art. Or did they create out of pure love for music and immortality was bestowed upon them?


To answer the question when stated this way, I believe the latter to be true. I think too much is made of this Romantic notion, "the *struggle *for immortality", and most of that which is made of it is made _after_ the fact by others, looking back at the body of work of a certain artist from the vantage point of time gone by.

Certainly, for some megalomaniacal composers like *Wagner*, immortality was a primary concern. But I think composers were much more concerned with (and aware of) the _present and the past_, the tradition that they were continuing and their among their contemporaries.


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## SchubertObsessive (Aug 15, 2006)

They struggled for the Eternal, and aligned themselves with eternal principles, creating beautiful music expressive of the Eternal, therefore finding immortality.

Notserp, your question reads like, 'did they struggle for fame?'. Think of this ideal in the modern day, and then find how much transcendental art was created by this motivation. Anything?


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## zlya (Apr 9, 2007)

We often forget that most also struggled for money. Even a genius has to survive.


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## broselam67 (Jul 31, 2007)

You have simply touched on one of the most imponderable questions of humanity, and one of its great fears, that of oblivion. I think bach, beethoven ,etc were artists like any other, struggling to earn a living while chasing the dragon of their particular neuroses and genius. i think art created for the sole purpose of "immortality" would ultimately not survive the test of time


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## colleengail726 (Aug 1, 2007)

I think the 'struggle for immortality' is really another way of describing the whole creative side of human existence. Shakespeare marvellously says - 

''Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But while this muddy vesture of decay doth grossly close it in
we cannot hear it." (Merchant of Venice Act V Scene 1).

The artist expresses a transcendant reality which is beyond our mortal senses. So it's a sort of struggle for the artist of rival/different natures. Of human nature and of the divine. 
It's a struggle to survive. But the artist longs for more of what he has felt and what he has seen of a better world.


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