Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 17:13:56 12/22/05
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On December 22, 2005 at 18:53:34, Tord Romstad wrote: >On December 22, 2005 at 17:47:00, Dann Corbit wrote: > >>This last remark is very odd to me. Beethoven's music is [to me] very simple >>patterns. [Fur Elise and the 5th Symphony are obvious and clear examples of >>it]. > >The frequency of my off-topic posts is now so high that I will probably >soon receive a life-time CCC ban, but I can't resist taking the risk >once more: > >I was mainly thinking about Beethoven's late music, which is the >only part of his work which holds any great interest for me. Early >Beethoven sounds like charming, but somewhat clumsy attempts to >imitate Haydn or Mozart, while middle Beethoven is pompous, noisy >and repetitive (like the 5th symphony). > >The Hammerklavier sonata is the perfect example of what I was >thinking about. It is one of the most impressive pieces of music >I have ever heard. It is staggeringly complicated and ingenious, >clearly a work of phenomenal genius, and yet it leaves me >completely cold. Great fun to analyse and pick apart, but I don't >hear any beauty. > >"Für Elise" can hardly be seen as representative for Beethoven's work. >It is a very simple and unambitious little piece which was not published >at all in Beethoven's lifetime, and which was probably only composed >for pedagogical reasons. Right, it was a student exercise for Elise. But it is my favorite work by Beethoven. I like simple and repetitive things sometimes. I think that they allow the one performing the music to put more of their feelings into it. A really great performer can make you feel powerful emotions by playing these simple, repetitive bits. Most Bach stuff makes me think of old people, sitting in rocking chairs. So I probably have musical tastes that are too simple. >It is ironic that several of the most famous >pieces by the greatest composers are not really characteristic for the >composer at all (two other notable examples of this are Ravel's Bolero >and Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor). I have noticed that programmers tend to be interested in music (and many have some musical training). I wonder if there is some kind of connection.
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