...Beethoven. 7th Symphony, 1st movement. You can watch the whole symphony here, but the important part is the first 11 minutes. Don't bother unless you can really blast it, something like that should never be played quietly.
Beethoven might have been the happiest person who ever lived.
16 comments:
Mom loves the first movement, too, and she has always wondered whether Beethoven actually felt the extraordinary range of emotion in his music before he composed, or whether, like the rest of us, he discovered that such feelings exist by experiencing the music.
Personally, I love the second movement of the Seventh -- the Allegretto -- most of all. Play it on something with good speakers so that you get the full range of sound. Play it loud. I think it might be the best music ever written.
I just learned from Wikipedia that the haunting deep five-note rhythmic pattern that sounds throughout the second movement is called an ostinato. It seems that the tah-tah-tee-tah-tah pattern is based on Dactylic hexameter, from the poetry of Ancient Greece. But it doesn't matter. Listen to the melody that enters late and plays against the five-note rhythm, first on the low strings and then climbing up through the higher strings to the wind instruments and finally exploding into the full orchestra. I don't think I've ever heard music that promises so much and then delivers so fully.
Oh heck, who can write about music? If words could do it we wouldn't need sound. Just go listen to the whole thing.
So downloaded.
I forgot to say in my post, great Christmas present Mom!
Oops that was supposed to be Luke, not Mom.
I mean from Luke, not from Mom.
Are we supposed to say in our posts Great Christmas Present Mom?!
When did this rule get started?
Nobody tells me anything.
Wasn't Beethoven seriously depressed? Or was that only after he became deaf?
Great Christmas present Mom!
Dad said, "Are we supposed to say in our posts Great Christmas Present Mom?!"
Well, of course. Duh. Just when I think I've got him trained . . .
And Luke, you're welcome.
And Laura. ;-)
Knowing nothing about Beethoven, I could offer my own theories about what would make a person who writes music like that become seriously depressed. My guess would be that it would have little to do with Beethoven, but a lot to do with moochers around him. Just a guess.
The happiness that he had to have had within him in order to write the music that he did, however, was one helluva happiness.
It's beautiful, inspiring and though-provoking music; it tells a story. Perhaps, what is as amazing as his writing is the profound and direct influence he has on so many musicians over the last couple centuries. To leave that kind of legacy..
Finally. BINGO!
Who's anonymous at 9:25 PM?
'tis but Beethoven himself, blogging from beyond the grave.
Yeah. Did you know he was entombed in the pyramids? And he's blogging from there at an internet cafe owned by Santa Claus.
Hmph. Beethoven forgot to say "Great Christmas Present, Mom!"
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