Einstein, the Physicist and Violinist

 Einstein, the Physicist and Violinist

"A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?" Einstein 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com)

Also open Naturalism -the Eighth Sense

The Violinist Albert Einstein is rarely given as much attention and as the physicist 

Search and listen to  Albert Einstein NEVER BEFORE HEARD: Plays Violin - Mozart Sonata in B-Flat .  (YouTube)

At the height of Albert Einstein’s popularity, the public knew him not only as the world’s foremost theoretical physicist, but also as an enthusiastic sometime violinist. 

Einstein himself seems to have favored the musician over all of his other “parts.” “Life without playing music is inconceivable for me,” he once said, “I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music… I get most joy in life out of music.” The famous scientist never traveled without his beloved violin, “Lina.”

Why Mozart and not Beethoven music?  According to historians, Einstein had a particular interest in  Mozart because it revealed to him a universal harmony expressed in simplicity of nature which is reflected in Einstein's simple mathematical expression, his famous E=MC2, the equation that changed man's thinking of the nature of universe. 

   

Wolfgang Amadeus did not “create” his beautifully clear music at all, but simply 
discovered it already made - unlike Beethoven, the experimenter, the discoverer, although he was also influenced greatly by nature. 

Einstein's perception of Mozart's music was very much ahead of the discovery of the so-called "Mozart Effect," which is claimed to have therapeutic effect to man as well as  animals - and even to plants. Mozart music is used in hospitals for faster recuperation of patients, in geriatrics centers and nurseries. Pipe-in music in offices and factories prefer Mozart. The effect has also been found to increase production on the of farm for both animals and crops.  

  

Einstein occasionally played in public; to him playing the violin is primarily personal. He once said, “Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music… I get most joy in life out of music.”

Brian Foster, also a physicist, points out that part of Einstein’s legacy is his push for beauty, unification, and harmony in our physical understanding of reality, a push that Foster credits to the scientist’s musical mind. Einstein, the scientist and artist, is wrapped up in a world of harmony in simplicity, conservatism and realism.  

Einstein’s philosophy can be gleamed from his quotations:

•  “Imagination is more important than knowledge."
• "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
• "A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?"
• "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
• "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
• “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
• "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
• "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
• "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."

Famous Men with Special Gifts    

Dr Jose Rizal - Philippine national hero was a sculptor, a poet, an essayist, athlete (swordsman), novelist, and linguist - more than his career as ophthalmologist.  He shaped the thinking of the Filipino as a people and of the islands as one nation deserving of justice and freedom. 

Dr Albert Schweitzer - Devoted his life to missionary work in Africa. A medical doctor, minister and musician rolled into one, he was the first white man to set foot inside the then Black Continent, putting up a hospital for the natives, and "civilizing" them. Dr Schweitzer is also known for his philosophy of reverence for life. 

   

 Sir Winston Churchill - his favorite pastime was on-the-spot painting by the Thames River, a hobby that led him to a clearer view of the on-going war then in which Great Britain was at the verge of defeat by Nazi Germany.

Vincent Van Gogh - a minister propagating the faith among the poor in remote areas in Holland, before deciding to devote fully his life to painting, founding a new movement - expressionism, the gateway to modern art. 

    

*Albert Einstein E=MC²

The speed of light in a vacuum is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second. Light reaches all objects from all directions at the same speed, regardless of their motion. Even if you travel at 240,000 metres/second, light approaches you head-on at the same speed it reaches you from behind. So, regardless of the speed of light sources and receivers, light always travels at the same speed. It also follows that light has no concept of time, because (to light) all distances are zero, and therefore it would perceive that it reaches its destination instantaneously. It was this thinking which led Einstein to his theories of relativity.

 (Reference:  The Musical Mind of Albert Einstein: Great Physicist, Amateur Violinist and Devotee of Mozart, in Music, Physics | June 25th, 2013)