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Albert Einstein: Scientist, Artist, Violinist, Humanitarian
Albert Einstein is one of the greatest minds of modern times and one of my biggest inspiring heroes, not only because of his science, but as an artist and humanitarian, but I’ve never heard Einstein speak before. In this rare and remarkable audio interview you can listen to him talk. Some really juicy stuff, especially at the 6:30 mark where he talks about the equal importance of science and art in shaping this world.
He says, “Science itself is not a liberator….Scientists and artists, through their work, have enduring influence . Gifts to influence people and actions directly. This is a matter of arousing and using emotions and personal confidence…..”
Einstein was a very competent violinist and when he worked on writing his famous “Theory of General Relativity”, he use to play/practice his violin during his breaks in between working on mathematics formulas. His appreciation for the importance of art and music just as much as the science is quite inspiring. He says both Scientist and Artists have the gifts to influence people and actions directly! How powerful is this.
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32 Replies
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“Einstein was six when his mother Pauline, herself an accomplished pianist, arranged for him to take violin lessons. But the instrument was a dutiful chore until he discovered the violin sonatas of Mozart at age 13. … In those pre-iTunes days, Einstein took pains to carry his music with him in physical form.Feb. 3, 2017”
“Einstein started taking violin lessons at age five, but the drills were so trying that he threw a chair at his teacher. It was Mozart’s violin sonatas that finally had him hooked at age 13. “Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe,” he said. He also learned how to play the piano from his mother, Pauline Koch, an accomplished pianist in her own right.”
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Very interesting. Thanks for posting. I’m a big fan of Albert Einstein. I enjoy reading physics and learning more about our universe. Michio Kaku’s book “Einstein’s Cosmos” is a good read if you haven’t read it.
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Hi Jerry, Einstein is the best, and when I learned he was just as much an artist as he was a scientist and for him in essence they are both equally important in understanding our universe and humanity, he became even more special. I’ll make not of that book “Einstein’s Cosmos”. Sounds like an interesting read, thanks.
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Gee Jung,
i’ve never seen old Al away from his chalkboard.
Great find.Jerry thanks for the book recommendation.
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Fascinating tidbit. All school administrators with budgetary influence should be forced to watch this.
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Roger, I’m with you. Have you seen the movie, “Dead Poets Society”. I highly recommend it if you haven’t.
I think this gets to the heart of what Einstein said:
“Science itself is not a liberator….Scientists and artists, through their work, have enduring influence . Gifts to influence people and actions directly. This is a matter of arousing and using emotions and personal confidence…..”
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Wow, I’ve never heard recordings of Einstein speaking or fiddling, although I knew he was rumored to do both. Thanks for the find, Jung!
I’ve often encountered admonishments to writers not to quote experts outside of their field, with a quintessential example being “why should anyone care what Einstein had to say about economics?” But after seeing that first video I believe that he had a great deal of wisdom outside of his field.
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David, it seem Einstein had an uncanny perspective and insight on things, which arched across all disciplines: physics, math, philosophy, arts and humanities, politics, economics….etc.
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True, Albert Einstein, was a keen violinist with a love of Mozart, but should not be confused with the musicologist ALFRED Einstein, who had a special interest in Mozart and was editor of the 1st major revision of the catalogue of Mozart’s works (the K numbers).
Albert and Alfred may have been distant (6th) cousins, but this is disputed even within the family. They did once meet at Princetown Uni, but did not acknowledge or more likely even realise that they might be related.
I still have a copy of Alfred’s book on Mozart bought about 45 years ago, well before I really understood much about Albert (and still understand Alfred’s work much better :)).
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Alan, I remember coming across Alfred Einstein years ago. At first I did confuse the two and soon learned they were different individuals with Alfred being a musicologist. It was only years later I learned about Albert Einstein being an accomplished musician as well as the scientist. Interestingly the greatest artist of all time Leonardo Da Vinci was a mathematician, scientist, engineer and inventor too.
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Da Vinci was the ultimate renaissance man.
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Indeed Thomas, and he also created the Mona Lisa painting.
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Bring the list of notable polymaths a bit more current (and still alive), Brian May of Queen is also recognised as an Astrophysicist and was a science team collaborator with NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission. Perhaps following in the footsteps of the astronomer Sir Patrick Moore (who I briefly met in the 1970’s), who was also a self-taught xylophonist and pianist, as well as an accomplished composer.
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Alan, this was touched upon on another forum thread a while back, but I don’t think Einstein and his love of playing the violin was just coincidence. You might find this article interesting.
“Mathematicians emphasise the aesthetic aspect of their work. Both mathematics and music are dominated by patterns. The mathematician’s patterns, like those of the composer, must be beautiful; the ideas must fit together in a harmonious way. As G H Hardy put it, “Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics”.”
Here is a link to the article.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/the-mathematician-s-patterns-like-those-of-the-composer-must-be-beautiful-1.3096020
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There’s a cartoonist by the name of Sidney Harris who specializes in clever and humorous drawings related to physics, many of which have eventually appeared on tee shirts and coffee mugs. Here’s one of his best:
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David, LOL, I like the middle cartoon. If had to draw Einstein, mine would look more like the one on the right.
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It looks to me as if he is proceeding from Special Relativity to General Relativity.
Just saying.
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Jung,
Seriously – forget about the violin – i really didn’t know what an inspiring philosopher Einstein was.
A very uplifting two minutes – especially now.Thanks
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Thomas, he was an inspiring philosopher indeed, a great mind. It seems music had a great part in his genius. I didn’t realize until now just how passionate Einstein was for music, as much as his science. Music and physics was one in the same for him in understanding the universe as the following brilliant video illustrates.
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“When his theory of General Relativity was confirmed in 1919 by photographs of a solar eclipse, he celebrated by buying himself a new violin”
In this little video it makes me believe music may have helped Einstein to better perceive the underlying harmony of the universe that Bach and Mozart felt through music and Einstein perceived through physics and math. Perhaps the music gave him the insight he needed to discover the General Theory of Relativity. After all he completely immersed in music in between working on formulating the mathematics behind the General Theory of Relativity.
“Music provided Einstein with a connection to the creative genius of great composers and to what he perceived as the sense of harmony underlying the universe. The beauty of harmony in physics as well as in music, filled him with awe.”
“To Einstein, music was a key part of his thinking and creative process. He would often play his violin late at night, improvising melodies while he pondered complicated problems. Then suddenly in the middle of playing he would announce excitedly “I’ve Got it” , as if by inspiration the answer to the problem would have come to him in the midst of music”.
https://youtu.be/JpkIKYfwkkg?t=1
Maybe scientists and artists are one in the same. The former expresses the beauty and harmony of the universes through math formulas and theories and the latter by feelings and emotions. Einstein bridged between the two disciplines going back and forth to become one of the greatest scientists of all time, as did Leonardo Da Vinci the greatest artist of all time.
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