Thread: Talent.........God given or the luck of the draw?

Just the arbitrary arrangement of genes?
Or Divine gift?

That is a false dichotomy (there are many more options and then combinations of those options) and this is not a thread about music!

Quite agree. One thinks of Grey's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

The applause of listening senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their history in a nation's eyes,

Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind,

So it is both a divine gift and the luck of the draw.

I think it is a God-given arrangement of genes. Just a personal view.

It could also be a God-given arrangement of genes and various environmental factors.

Yes, you're right - environment plays a large part in developing talent. But I think the talent is there to start off with.

Originally Posted by Ingélou

Yes, you're right - environment plays a large part in developing talent. But I think the talent is there to start off with.

Totally agree. Wouldn't it have been a tragedy if Beethoven's father was a bank teller and that's what Beethoven aspired to, not even knowing he had God-given musical talent in the extreme.

Well it wouldn't have been a total loss I guess; he may have invented the "Passionata Passbook".

I can't believe Beethoven wouldn't have found that he loved music. He might have ended up a gifted folk musician, I suppose, without the environmental nurturing.

I think you're right.

It's funny to think how unique each of us are - not just a combination of genes that could only have come together after a huge series of wildly improbable events (our parents meeting and falling in love [or whatever but let's settle for euphemism for now] with each other rather than with anyone else, and our grandparent, and so on all the way back - and even after they'd met and fallen in love, in every generation there were a lot of sperm that just missed contributing their own assortment of genes)...

... but then all those environmental cues that led to us developing in some ways and less in other ways. This is really obvious to me as an adopted kid - I got really lucky, but if a different family had adopted me... who knows?

Originally Posted by Ingélou

I can't believe Beethoven wouldn't have found that he loved music. He might have ended up a gifted folk musician, I suppose, without the environmental nurturing.

He may have even tried tuning in Vienna's Classical Music station....except there was no radio...yet.

Definitely agree. The musical talent has to first be there, but just as important, it has to be recognized and then cultivated.

Originally Posted by Ingélou

I can't believe Beethoven wouldn't have found that he loved music. He might have ended up a gifted folk musician, I suppose, without the environmental nurturing.

Yes. Peter, Paul, Mary and Ludwig (on keyboards).