Brentus Esotericus and the return of Esoterics.

Brent Peters  September 24 2009 12:47:18 PM

I had the pleasure of doing the keynote at PowerSphere, in Paderborn, Germany, once again this year. While I was there, Ingo Erdmann asked me "Why did you stop blogging on your website?", I said "well,  busy traveling, ... plus many people (Nathan) said my blogs tended to be esoteric." Now in fairness, Nathan also said "But that was a good comment, reading you is like reading 'James Joyce' ...". So I promised my good friend Ingo, that I would write something when I returned.

I, in not knowing exactly what to write, as I was leaving one of my favorite lands in the world, Germany, something dawned on me. I had one dream from my childhood period, that had completely laid unfulfilled, and I had just fulfilled this dream.

Those that don't know, I am a pianist. I started in 1968, at the age of 6. I was a good pianist. When I was 11,  I was playing Chopin Etudes (Revolutionary op.10 nr 12), and op.10 nr 3. The very first piece that my father taught me was by Bach. I strictly played classical music. I love classical music. I live classical music. It has form, character, structure, complexity, and depth. Anyone that plays extensive classical music for the piano, cannot avoid the German composers. So in my studies, I spent a great deal of time playing Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert (ok, some were from German-speaking lands :) )  ... just to name a small few. Point is, growing up in Texas, I had a fascination very early on with German classical music. As a result, I developed a passion in understanding German culture and German history. My family ancestry (Peters) tracks back to an area in Germany called Pfalz (Rheinland). My grandmothers side (Holtz, later named Holt in US), tracked back to near this early  as well as in Switzerland.
When I was a child, I always wanted to visit Germany. Visit the homes of these composers. Look at what these composers looked at when they would write their works. When you think of some of the magnificent religious (sacred) pieces that Bach wrote, when you stand and look at the cathedrals you can understand why he would write the dedication pages that he would for those works, .... (anyone care to guess what Bach's dedication would be?).

So for some years now, I have had the glorious pleasure of visiting some of these places in Germany. Including Bach and Beethoven's birthplaces. These were all childhood dreams. There are not very many children that are under the age of 10, that dream of art, culture, history, music, and visiting these places. However, I was one of those children.

The dream that laid unfulfilled, I always dreamed of playing the Piano in Germany. After College, where I attended on Scholarship for Piano Performance at TCU,  I had considered studying Piano in Germany, but never did. So since I had been a child, I always dreamed of just playing in Germany. My good friends from Pavone at PowerSphere, did me an honor of hosting their dinner event at a location and had a Yamaha Grand Piano there. They "put me on the spot", ok, I am a ham and enjoyed it, and so I did play several pieces of music there. No music with me, so all from memory, which is a little old and rusty. I missed a few notes here and there, but it didn't matter, I enjoyed it. So when traveling through the airport, leaving Germany, I realized later that this was always a dream, I had forgotten it, and it actually was fulfilled.

My mom, who passed away last December, always knew this was a dream of mine. Just to say "I had experienced it.", and she was surely looking down and listening. So many times later in life, did I want to quit music, but she REFUSED to allow me to quit, some may remember my facebook note to my mother. My Dad, passed away when I was 9, but my mom was always the strength in the family. So I dedicate that fulfilled dream to her, a single working mother, dedicated to her kids, teaching them never to stop dreaming, and never to stop chasing your dreams, no matter how old we get. I thank Juergen Zirke, Ludwig and Pei Nastansky, for allowing me to do the keynote, and the chance to perform.

I use Music more in my working professional life than anyone could possibly imagine. It is inseparable. I view software, math, abstract thinking with a complete understanding of Music. For interest, a simple Binary form, component-ized, modular, echo'd, .... I found interest in a composer's simple form, his name is Scarlatti. As a result, I have viewed the way that we build products, in a much more simplified manner towards the future.

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