Howard Jay Smith is an
award-winning writer from Santa
Barbara, California. BEETHOVEN IN LOVE; OPUS 139 is his third book. A former Washington, D.C. Commission for the Arts Fellow, & Bread Loaf Writers
Conference Scholar, he taught for many years in the UCLA Extension Writers’
Program and has lectured nationally. His short stories, articles and
photographs have appeared in the Washington Post, Horizon Magazine, the Journal
of the Writers Guild of America, the Ojai Quarterly, and numerous literary and
trade publications. While an executive at ABC Television, Embassy TV, and
Academy Home Entertainment, he worked on numerous film, television, radio, and
commercial projects. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara
Symphony - "The Best Small City Symphony in America" - and is a member of the American Beethoven
Society.
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About the Book:
At the moment of his death, Ludwig van
Beethoven pleads with Providence to grant him a final wish—one day, just a single day of
pure joy. But first he must confront the many failings in his life,
As Beethoven ultimately faces the realities of his just-ended
life, we encounter the women who loved and inspired him. In their own
voices, we discover their Beethoven—a lover with whom they savor
the profound beauty and passion of his creations. And it’s in the arms of
his beloveds that he comes to terms with the meaning of his life and
experiences the moment of true joy he has always sought.
Purchase Information:
Amazon
Thanks for this interview, Howard
Jay. Can we begin by having you tell us
about yourself from a writer’s standpoint?
I am an award-winning writer
living in Santa Barbara, California. BEETHOVEN IN LOVE; OPUS 139 is my third book. A former Washington, D.C. Commission for the Arts Fellow & Bread Loaf Writers'
Conference Scholar, I taught for many years in the UCLA Extension Writers’
Program and have lectured nationally. My short stories, articles and
photographs have appeared in the Washington Post, Horizon, the Journal of the
Writers Guild of America, the Ojai Quarterly, and numerous literary & trade
publications. While an executive at ABC Television, Embassy TV, and Academy Home
Entertainment, I worked on numerous film, television, radio, and commercial
projects. I serve on the board of directors of the Santa Barbara Symphony --
The Best Small City Orchestra in America -- and am a member of the American Beethoven Society.
When not writing, what do you like
to do for relaxation and/or fun?
Living near the ocean now, we
enjoy hiking and kayaking along the coast.
We also frequent the many local classical music performances and the
Opera.
Congratulations on your new book!
Can you give us the very first page of your book so that we can get a glimpse
inside?
Chapter One:
Plaudite, Amici, Comoedia Finite
Est
Applaud My Friends, the Comedy is
Over
By all accounts my funeral was a grand
success.
Despite
the snow and slush soaking through their shoes, all Vienna turns out. Twenty thousand mourners or more, accompanied
by the Imperial Guards, guide the grieving to my grave. Streets crowded,
impassable. My coffin, lined with silk, covered in flowers, rolls through the
chaos on a horse drawn bier. Paupers and princes; merchants and mendicants;
menials and musicians; clerics and commoners; they all come for this, their
Beethoven’s final concerto.
As if
they ever owned me or my music…
Plaudite, Amici,
Comoedia Finite Est. Applaud my friends, the comedy is over. Inscribed
herein rests my final opus.
Ja. Yes, they
are all patrons and lovers… Lovers of my music, the very music the gods have
forbidden me to hear. How cruel. To suffer my last decade without sound –
any sound except the incessant surge of blood pounding through my veins - an
eternity inscribed on the calendar pages of my life.
And so
it is, these celebrants, anxious for one last encore, crowd the alleys and
streets of the Hapsburgs capital in throngs not seen since the defeat of
Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Grande Armee oh so many years ago.
The
cortege rolls on past the taverns and cafés of this fair city where dark beer,
schnitzel and sausages reward the day. Ah, the saints and sinners of Vienna have always loved a good party, never mind the
excuse.
Are they
singing? Alle Menschen werden Brüder. All men will become brothers.
They must be, yet I hear nothing.
I wonder
if she is among them. My muse; my love; my passion; my sacred fire; will
she be there to safeguard my voyage through Elysium?
Or is
she too denied me as was the sweet sighs of love and the embrace of family
stolen by gods capricious and uncaring? Are they so vengeful? So
embittered by spite? Like Prometheus, have I dared too close to
revelations reserved for them alone?
The clouds
grow ever darker, ominous.
Must I
embrace death silently ere my last symphony suffuses the stage? Is this my
end? To be cast out as by our Creator as history’s cruel joke, a deaf
musician? A composer unable to know the vibrancy of his own scores?
Tell me why
your Beethoven, your servant whose hearing once surpassed all others in
sensitivity and degree, must suffer such humiliation and torment?
Are the
crowds laughing? Ja oder nein? Yes or no. I know not. Am I such a failure, such
a disgrace to be shoved off the stage without your mercy or compassion?
As surely as
the warmth of summer vanishes and the leaves of autumn crumble beneath the
crush of winter, has all hope been stolen? Can I escape this fate? What path
must I travel? What tasks of redemption are to be mine and mine alone?
Come death;
am I to meet your shadow with courage? Must I depart in this winter of anguish
before the renewal of spring?
Can I not
find release from this cycle of sufferings like a saint or a Hindoo holy man
following the dance of Shiva or a Bodhisattva, back bent upon the path of the
great Buddha?
The last
echoes of joy inside my heart are already fading. Will I never hear or feel
those vibrations again? Never? Nein. Forever. Lost for
eternity in the fog on the road to Elysium; that is too hard, too harsh.
But surely a
loving father must dwell in the starry canopy above. Are you there, oh sweet
Isis, my goddess of compassion? Help me, help guide me.
Please Providence; grant me this, my final wish… Grant but one day, just one
day, one day of pure joy to your poor Beethoven.
Is this
too much to ask before I embrace darkness forever? Oh, to be in her arms once
again.
Would you say it’s been a rocky
road for you in regards to getting your book written and published or pretty
much smooth sailing? Can you tell us
about your journey?
Writing and researching “Beethoven
in Love; Opus 139” has been a five year journey, every moment of which was an
absolute pleasure. I have been working
as a professional writer, screenwriter, teacher and executive in Hollywood and elsewhere for almost four decades. All of my teachers from years past, John
Irving, Tim O’Brien, Toni Morrison and John Gardner, all won National Book
Awards or something similar. When I
first set out to do a novel on someone as famous and well known as Beethoven, I
knew I had to first have it thoroughly researched and be accurate or I would
have been shredded by the music world.
Given the enormous amount of material on his life, including dozens of
major biographies, six volumes of letters as well as his diaries, I quickly
realized the scope and size of what I had taken on. I told myself that I would proceed with this
project only if I felt the quality of the writing was at a level that the final
draft could conceivably be in the discussion for a National Book Award. When I was ¾ done, I began showing it around
to my friends in the writing community and their response was, “Yes, you’re
there.” Since that time, the reviews
from critics in the literary world, the music world and more specifically, the
world of Beethoven scholars and devotees has been wonderful – and gratifying.
If you had to summarize your book
in one sentence, what would that be?
At the moment of his death,
Beethoven must find a way to come to peace with all of the failings of his life
in order to order to enter Elysium and be rejoined with his Immortal Beloved.
What makes your book stand out
from the rest?
Beethoven was a man of great
brilliance, passion and pain, who conveyed those emotions through his music and
his love affairs. My novel is a journey
through the trials and triumphs of his life that is not only equally
passionate, but is also composed with a literary grace and structure that
matches the magic of his music.
If your book was put in the
holiday section of the store, what holiday would that be and why?
Valentine’s Day. What else?
Would you consider turning your
book into a series or has that already been done?
No, there is only one life for Beethoven, but
my next project is not too far afield, it is a novel about Mozart and the man
who wrote the lyrics for his three most famous operas, Lorenzo Da Ponte,
entitled simply: “Mozart, Da Ponte,
Scandal!”
What’s next for you?
“Mozart, Da Ponte, Scandal!”
And one final note:
Zak Smith first came to prominence at the Whitney Biennial with his mammoth work 'Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow.' Smith's paintings and drawings are held and/or have been exhibited in major public and private collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Saatchi Gallery in London, the Contemporary Museum of Art, Baltimore and the Carnegie Mellon University Museum. The son of the author, he lives and works in Los Angeles. He is represented by the the Fredericks Freiser Gallery in New York.
For more information about Zak, please go to: http://www.fredericksfreisergallery.com/artists/zak-smith
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