h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

240 years ago today, Ludwig Von Beethoven came into the world. It would have been fitting if his arrival was as tumultuous as much of his life, but I haven't ever seen any descriptions of his birth. The earliest tales I've heard of his development had to do with his father's determination that young Ludwig should be a child prodigy like Mozarr. [Young Mozart was just shy of 14 years old when beethoven was born, and a lot of powerful people ha dmarvelled at his playing and ear and compositional skills. Why not expect as much from little Ludwig?

We'll never know how Beethoven would have turned out had his father determined that he should be a great pastry chef or architect or wine-taster, but we do know that a number of Beethoven's compositions have never left the standard repertoir since he died.

Actually, posterity has been kinder to his Ninth symphony than were some of his contemporaries. Wagner was supposed to have said that the piece was a tragic but necessary mistake. Clara Schumann's father thought it was pretty bad. A tale is told that when the piece had its premier, Beethoven was so profoundly deaf that he couldn't hear a thing, and thought the audience had not liked it. A friend turned him around in his seat so he could see the cheering audience. He realized then that they had loved it. Or been stunned by it. Or a little bit of both. So much of it goes by at a rapid pace. and the last page or so speeds up (I've sung the piece. I know whereof I speak).

After Beethoven's contemporaries passed away, posterity's judgment has mostly been favorable. Oh, I've known a few people who have dismissed Beethoven as a crazy, ranting old loon. This is not totally unreasonable. When Beethoven gave piano recitals, he would routinely pound the keys so hard that he would break the piano. A piano technician was kept handy to fix the instrument when this happened. Some passges in his symphonies sound like someone being flogged.

One of the more interesting negative views of Beethoven came from Ferruccio Buson (1866-1924), an Italian composer for whom I will have to give you some information in case you haven't ever heard of him. Anyway, Busoni thought that Beethoven did not possess the technique to express his emotions. To me, that criticism seems presumptuous. How did Busoni know what Beethoven was trying to express? Only Beethoven would have known that. All that can cfeibly be said is that Beethoven was able to express things that his audiences wanted to hear, otherwise they would have been listening to someone else's music for the last 200+ years.

I wondered this morning if anyone would remember that this was Beethoven's birthday.

In Bonn, where I studied, Beethoven's birthplace is well-kept:

http://www.lvbeethoven.com/MeetLvB/GermanyBonnBeethoven-Haus.html

He spent a lot of time as a child in the palace, since his father was a professional musician there. This building, of course, is now the main university building, with heroic statues of angels like Michael, etc:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.meinprof.org/files/unibonn_hg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.meinprof.de/unis/nordrhein-westfalen/uni-bonn/portrait&usg=__-Uj9FwJp2Vh_vHWQtDgjl8bZwqM=&h=250&w=375&sz=92&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=ab0KPy0N2-KUbM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=160&prev=/images%3Fq%3DUniveristaet%2BBonn%2BHauptgebaeude%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1436%26bih%3D699%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=636&vpy=115&dur=1266&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=118&ty=116&ei=4XQKTca5EIK88gb7xYWhAQ&oei=4XQKTca5EIK88gb7xYWhAQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0

I've heard that Beethoven's music, being new, wasn't always well-received. (But that Wagner had an almighty nerve, criticising his betters, IMO.)

My favourite scene from 'Immortal Beloved' is one which brings a tear to the eye:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJGESRc3XfY

Beethoven's birthday is a good day to say 'thank you' for the immeasurable gift of his inner vision (and dedication to the principles of the Enlightenment). Dreimal hoch, as they used to say, and danke schoen to one of mankind's great treasures.

'Seid umschlungen, Millionen...' ('Embrace, ye millions...')

Interesting!!!


My favourite LvB piece is 'Moonlight Sonata'

Can listen to that all day!!!



GT

Thanks, Dmitri. In the lobby of Jordan Hall in Boston (at the new England Conservatory of Music), there is a magnificent statue of Beethoven. He probably was not well-liked by his contemporaries, but respect was a different story. Haydn probably wasn't pleased that Beethoven claimed to have learned "nothing" from him. What beethoven did manage to learn about tehcnique and counterpoint was what Albrechtsberger taught him after he left Haydn's classes. Albrechtsberger never made much of a mark as a composer, but he was a first-rate teacher. Haydn didn't have time to do much teaching because his was constantly deluged by resquest for more compositions.

The words "Mediocre" and "Beethoven" rarely fall in the same sentence, but in the case of Beethoven's oratorio "Mount of Olives," they would. Soon after the premier of the piece, Beethoven ran into Haydn on the street, and Haydn said something gracious and encouraging about it. "But it's no 'Creation,'" Beethoven replied. "No, it's not," Haydn said.

For what it's worth, Busoni thought Schubert was "a gifted amateur," and Schumann a complete mess. He had the highest praise for Mendelssohn. All because of strength or weakness in technique. I think Busoni was missing something. Technique cannot compensate for a weak imagination. A great capacity for melodic invention is a substantial talent, and may well find itself complemented by a great arranger. Aaron Copland is most famous for a tune that someone else wrote, but he made it his own with excellent arrangement and orchestration.

If by the tune that Copland used, you mean 'Simple Gifts', I have to admit that 'Appalachian Spring' makes me laugh. And not in a kindly way. But that is less about the music than about theology.

You see, that's a Shaker tune. And it's supposed to be, er, simple...an overwrought orchestration of the same sort of proves the point that the song was trying to make...'tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free...BOM, bom, BOM, bom...

I love Haydn. He makes me laugh, but he does not move me. Beethoven moves me, for what that's worth. But his 'Hallelujah Chorus' is not a great composition. Haendel moves me in ways Bach never does (okay, I'm weird, I like Baroque opera) - but, yes, Bach is the more accomplished composer.

Does that demonstrate what we all know already, that what music does to our hearts is not dependent on the complexity and cleverness of its composition? I think we favour the melodic imagination.

Think about how much more influential Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' is in our day than that of any of the composers we've been discussing.

I like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," but it wasn't easy getting a recording of it. Rufus Wainwright sang it quite well in the film "I'm your man," but when I listened to the soundtrack recording from that movie, that song wasn't included.

I like Baroque opera too. I have Caccini's "L'Euridice," published in 1600. It's wonderful. Peri's take on the same Greek myth is something I haven't heard yet, but it encourages me to know that opera had such a strong start. I also have "Griselda" by Alessandro Scarlatti, and a growing collection of Handel operas. "Cleofide," by Hasse, is spectacular, too. In the late Baroque/early Classical, you have "L'Amante di Tutte" by Galuppi, also excellent. I didn't care that much for Cavalli. On the French side, you have Charpentier's "Medee," which is magnificent, and a lot of good operas by Lully. In English, there's "Dido and Aeneis" by Purcell, and some others that are arguably operas. But don't neglect "Venus and Adonis because it was by John Blow rather than Henry Purcell.

That's a great list for listening. Thanks.

Wainwright's singing of 'Hallelujah' is good, I agree. I'm not so fond of Jeff Buckley's, though Buckley is remarkable with his own music.

The weirdest recording of 'Halleljuah' has to be Katherine Jenkins'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvPWGHibaus

From an album called 'Sacred Arias'. I don't think people get tied to kitchen chairs in Ms Jenkins' universe...

I rather like Rufus Wainwright's singing in general. Not a huge fan, but I think he inherited good pipes and had the sense to learn breath control.

For what it's worth, opera started with such great enthusiasm that even Heinrich Schutz wrote an opera, though it has sadly been lost to history.

Another intriguing footnote is that suddenly there were opportunities for divas, now that they had arias to sing. Caccini's daughter was one of the first opera singers, and she eventually took to writing her own operas. There is a recording of arias that she wrote. It would be interesting if we knew what she sounded like.

I'm not really an opera Buff, but I DO have a recording made by the Greatest Italian Tenor, Enrico Caruso.....



GT

Caruso? Cool. I'm a closet fan of Count John McCormick. But more for his singing of classics such as 'Pretty Molly Brannigan' than for opera.

I'm with you, Paul, I wish we knew what they sounded like. The 'Farinelli' film was intriguing, but oh, if we could hear Farinelli himself...

When I hear Beverly Sills singing Handel, I get goosebumps. Ot Leontyne price singing "Summertime." I sang in a college production of Mozart's "Magic Flute," and had a wonderful time. Probably the strangest opera I've heard is Ravel's "L'Enfant et les sortileges" in which a kid talks to furniture and other household items.

Although that sounds strange, I still think it's weird how long opera singers take to die, as in 'Manon L'Escaut' - while singing at the top of their lungs.

i went with friends to an italian restaurant on manhatten where all the waiters and waitresses were studying opera and entertained us guests between serving us. talk about weird. one of them disguised himself as an old lady by using pizza dough as a headscarf

when the owner heard that we were from denmark he proudly showed us a picture of laurits melchior whom he called 'the only tenor wagner did not kill'

anna netrebko is singing in copenhagen today, by the way, but i'm not going, the snow is too heavy

I believe Helge Roswaenge was also Danish. I enjoyed his singing the the 1937 Glyndebourne production of "The Magic Flute" (on a recording, of course!) Born 1897 in Copenhagen, which was then part of Denmark.

copenhagen is our capital. and helge rosvænge is buried there

I have tried to resist the impulse. I can stand anything but temptation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEwdroXuL8A

Do you really have to 'sail up the Skaggerak and sail down the Kattegat'?

no. but you won't regret doing it

Helge Rosvaenge starred in a movie version of Flotow's "Martha" in 1935. I bet he sang "The Last Rose of Summer" beautifully, as that was the big hit from that opera.