PRIDE AND HUMILITY: EXAMPLES

This is a broad subject in which there are a large number of famous people one could cite for each of these two opposite characteristics. So I will just pick two from the world of classical music.

George Gershwin is probably the most famous classical (and popular) composer who comes to mind for most people in America who do not necessarily follow the various trends in that rarified artistic world. And one of his closest friends was Oscar Levant, a prominent concert pianist and sometime bit actor in Hollywood movies. Levant had a reputation for having a sarcastic and biting wit, but those closest to him knew that he was deeply insecure and had a fragile personality.

At one New York cocktail party attended by both Gershwin and Levant, people began clambering for Levant to play something for them. So he went to the piano and chose a piece written by Gershwin. When he was done playing, everyone began clapping and congratulating him on his wonderful performance. Apparently, Gershwin could not stand having the attention taken away from him even for one minute. Therefore, he got up to give a short speech. I am sure that they were expecting him to also applaud his friend's performance. Instead, Gershwin rather cruelly said to them, “Ladies and gentlemen, in this one performance you have just witnessed the difference between mere talent (namely Levant's) and genius (namely his own).”

It is perhaps no coincidence that Levant later spent time in a mental institute. When he was released, Levant had a TV talk show for about a year. They had a piano put on the stage for him, but he would refuse to play more than a bar or two and then quit in disgust.

I share this example to demonstrate, not Levant's insecurities, but Gershwin's pride.

Turning to an example of humility in contrast, let me present Igor Stravinsky for those of you who are not familiar with him. He was a classical composer who grew up in Russia, moved to France, and eventually ended up in America for the last part of his life. A great number of music critics would probably rank him as the greatest composer of the 20^th century. He was in many ways the Picasso of music in that he easily moved back and forth between a number of styles, mastering all of them and inventing new ones as he went along. He was taught orchestration at an early age by the master of that craft, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and went on to compose ballets using music by earlier composers such as Tchaikovsky which he arranged and orchestrated. He composed symphonies, choral pieces, and chamber music. There were no genres which he considered too “lowbrow” for him, and he wrote music for jazz bands and even a circus march for Barnum and Bailey.

Once early television began to take off in popularity, he accepted a commission from a TV network (there were really only three at the time) to write a short ballet to be performed on a variety show. He called it “Scenes from a Ballet,” and it was designed to be played by a small orchestra. After the performance was over, Stravinsky received a telegram from a studio executive which read (and I am roughly paraphrasing), “Great success. Would be even better if you let one of our studio musicians orchestrate it for you.”

I am afraid that if I had been Stravinsky, my reply to that telegram would not have passed the censors. After all, it was like the Pope asking Michelangelo if he minded a house painter being brought in to brighten up the colors on the paintings in the Sistine Chapel. But instead, Stravinsky's brief response to the TV exec was just, “Am satisfied with great success.”

This is a good illustration of the fact that being humble does not mean you have to be a doormat or deny your self-worth. But you certainly do not need to go around trying to prove your abilities by putting down those around you.

In case you are curious regarding Stravinsky's religious beliefs, he was raised in the Russian Orthodox Church, sowed his wild oats while in France, and then re-devoted himself to Christianity in later years. The inscription he is said to have written on all his musical manuscripts read “To the glory of God.”