Watnick's Influence On Paul Wittgenstein

The world of music is full of many great and talented individuals. While every musician has had to do something different to get to where they are, some have struggled more than others to make themselves heard. In Dr. Bartnick’s music presentation, the focus was on how some musicians, despite adversity, were able to overcome their obstacles and go on to produce some of the best music the world has ever heard. To start things off, Dr Bartnick brought up a man by the name of Paul Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein was an Austrian born pianist who was widely known in the 1900’s for his ability to play the piano with one hand. While serving in WWI the then young Wittgenstein lost his arm to a grenade, and by many standards, he was forever left unfit to play the piano. Fortunately, Wittgenstein was persistent (and wealthy), and despite all its difficulties, he developed the
While Stevie wonder didn’t lose any limbs like other previously mentioned artists, he basically lost everything else. As was explained by Dr. Bartnick, Wonder was born premature and as a result was born blind. Not fazed by his handicap, Wonder took up music at an early age and by the time he was 11 he had mastered the drums, bass, harmonica, and the piano. With so much talent, Wonder was soon picked up by Motown Records and was soon releasing an onslaught of musical hits. Much to Wonders’ detriment, however, in 1973 he was involved in a car accident which took away his sense of smell, and for a while and robbed him of his sense of taste. Despite this huge set back, Wonder quickly recovered from his accident and he went on to record the sound track for a Documentary known as the Secret Life of Plants. As was noted by Dr. Bratnick, the recordings came from Stevie’s imagination of what was happening during certain scenes of the motion