If you know me very well at all, you know that I was a music major in college and I taught elementary music for around 30 years. I also was a choir director, bell choir director, and church pianist and organist for several years. In fact, in my baby book there are about three entries total (the joys of being a 3rd child stop short when it comes to reading what is in one's baby book, which is often pretty much nothing). One of those entries states that when I was around 6 or 7, when I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was 'a music teacher.'
I realized today that I have written extensively about my trip to Alaska with my friend Nita, I have blogged about Washington, DC and its amazing history, and I have written about things in my everyday life that I have wanted to share, or that I found interesting and hoped that my readers would also find ... well, if not interesting, then maybe not boring. But I haven't written about music, particularly musicians. And by musicians, I mean the musicians you have heard of, even if you were not a music major and/or music teacher for around 30 years.
I know. *Yawn.*
But if you know me, you already know that I will do my darndest to make sure this isn't a snooze-fest. I hope to regale you with little known facts about the musician I am going to write about, in the hopes that you keep reading and then also want to read the next blog entry, which will be about another musician. And so it will go. I will regale, you will read, I will regale yet again, you will continue to read.
Or that's what I hope will be the case.
Let's get started with the regaling and reading, shall we?
Okay. My favorite composer of all the composers, and if he isn't yours then hopefully he is in your Top Ten list, and if he isn't in your Top Ten list then don't tell me or I shall have to de-friend you and I really don't want to do that, is Ludwig van Beethoven.
I need to back up and let you know that composers all belong to a group named for what period of music during which they wrote. I'm sorry - I rewrote that sentence three different ways and it still reads badly. Do your best to figure out the meaning. For example, there were Classical composers, composers of the Romantic period, composers who wrote during the Baroque era, 20th Century composers, etc.
There will not be a quiz but it is handy to know this.
Beethoven composed music during the Classical period. This period was around 1730 - 1820. It came after the Baroque period and before the Romantic period. During the Classical period, chamber music was a big deal. Also, the harpsichord was out the door and in its place came the fortepiano, which we know simply as the piano. The difference (well, ONE difference) in these two instruments was that the harpsichord volume couldn't be adjusted. The sound came from quills plucking strings and no matter how hard one pounded on the keys, the quills plucked the same each time. So, no volume changes. The piano, however, is different, and if you strike the keys with force, the little leather-covered hammer that hits the strings to produce sound will hit the strings harder and therefore the sound will be louder.
Hit anything hard with a hammer and I vow you will get a louder sound than if you just tap the thing. Fortepiano means, literally, 'loud soft.' So there you have it. A loud soft instrument!
Welp, it seems I have digressed a bit. Back to Beethoven. Tell me what you know about him. What's that you say? What? (That's a little joke there because I'm guessing that what came to your mind first was that he went deaf.) This is true, but oh, there is so much more that should also be in your memory bank about this great man. Here are a few things I find interesting:
He was alive and well (albeit pretty young) during the Revolutionary War. So he was alive when George Washington was alive. Now Ludwig was a young lad when George was crossing the Delaware, but still!
He wrote what is often thought to be the mightiest body of music to ever be written by one person. (The 9th Symphony.)
When he was on his deathbed, it is reported that there was a mighty storm going on in Vienna (where he happened to be actively dying). The thunder and lightning were fierce and magnificent, and it was as though the heavens were declaring that a terrible thing was happening to one of the best. Beethoven raised his hand and actually shook his fist heavenward, which basically was his way of waving the Mr. Middle Digit Hand Puppet at the Almighty.
It takes cajones to give God the bird when you're dying.
...And then he died.
That may have been going to happen anyway, or it might be God giving him the Digit Puppet right back.
(In a manner of speaking, of course.)
(But I'm taking note and I'm not going to wave my fist at the sky when I'm on my deathbed.)
(If I know I'm on it, that is.)
(To be safe, I probably am not going to wave my fist at the skies anytime.)
Debussy (another well-known composer) once said that Mozart displayed his genius tastefully. Beethoven, on the other hand, managed to display his genius while totally dispensing with any taste. Okay, this is a paraphrase but the meaning is the same: He was a composer who wrote loud, angry-sounding music.
Also, he was German.
I don't think this is at all coincidental.
One of Beethoven's most famous pieces was written when he was around 31 years old and was already going deaf: Concerto No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, which is commonly known as the Moonlight Sonata. He didn't call it that, by the way. The worse his hearing got, the more depressed he became and this sonata seems to evoke the emotions of despair and sadness to its listeners. He also wrote Concerto No. 8 in C Minor at the same time. This piece is commonly known as Pathetique. You can interpret the French word easily enough on your own.
The man was not happy, it's obvious.
About the Moonlight and Pathetique Sonatas--you would recognize the tunes if you heard them.
The Fifth Symphony is known as, well, the Fifth Symphony, or Beethoven's Fifth.
You would know that tune if you heard it. "Ta ta ta DUN, ta ta ta DUN, ta ta ta DUN ta ta ta DUN ta ta ta DUN..."
The Sixth Symphony is known as the Pastoral Symphony.
You would know the tune if you heard it.
Towards the end of his life, he wrote the Ninth Symphony, which is often considered the greatest symphony ever written by anyone, period. And yes, this is the symphony that, at the conclusion of the first public performance, which he himself conducted, someone had to signal to him to turn around to look at the audience because they were giving him a standing ovation. Because he was stone deaf he had no idea that there was such a rousing reaction to the piece.
"Joyful, joyful, we adore thee..."
That one.
Obviously you would know that tune if you heard it.
Beethoven's father was a drunkard, a mean one, who was prone to fits of violence. He forced Beethoven to take music lessons at around he age of 4, and by the time he was 12 or so, he was taking lessons from the court organist. (Side note: Kings would employ musicians, such as a court organist, to compose pieces of music to perform, or have performed by others, for the royal crew at dinners and parties and, I guess, whenever their hearts desired. I'm jumping ahead here, but this is the job that Haydn got and ultimately grew to hate, resulting in him writing a few pieces that pointed out his unhappiness to the king. More on that in another blog entry.)
Also, at age 12, Beethoven wrote his first piece of music worth remembering. I don't actually remember what it was, but I know that he did write one.
Mozart, who was older than Beethoven by around 16 years, told people to keep an eye on this guy because he was good and was going to make something of himself someday.
Mozart was right.
When Beethoven died (hang on, this is big), 30,000 people - that's THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLE, came to his funeral.
His tombstone simply has on it the dates of his birth and his death, and the word 'Beethoven.'
Because what more should it say?
In his lifetime of a mere 57 years, almost of half of which he was deaf or nearly deaf, he wrote:
9 symphonies (5 are considered in the top 12 in history)
5 well-known piano concertos
1 violin concerto (commonly considered the best ever written)
16 string quartets (some of which are considered to be music's finest)
32 piano sonatas
2 masses (one of which is tied for best alongside Bach's Mass in B Minor)
10 overtures
10 sonatas for violin and piano
5 sonatas for cello and piano
a lot of other instrumental music
1 opera (considered a masterpiece)
And so, now, dear reader, if you are still awake after all of this, let me pose this question to you: What have you done today that is noteworthy?
I don't know about you but I think I need to get up and do something, even if it is just, I don't know, clean the house.
I realized today that I have written extensively about my trip to Alaska with my friend Nita, I have blogged about Washington, DC and its amazing history, and I have written about things in my everyday life that I have wanted to share, or that I found interesting and hoped that my readers would also find ... well, if not interesting, then maybe not boring. But I haven't written about music, particularly musicians. And by musicians, I mean the musicians you have heard of, even if you were not a music major and/or music teacher for around 30 years.
I know. *Yawn.*
But if you know me, you already know that I will do my darndest to make sure this isn't a snooze-fest. I hope to regale you with little known facts about the musician I am going to write about, in the hopes that you keep reading and then also want to read the next blog entry, which will be about another musician. And so it will go. I will regale, you will read, I will regale yet again, you will continue to read.
Or that's what I hope will be the case.
Let's get started with the regaling and reading, shall we?
Okay. My favorite composer of all the composers, and if he isn't yours then hopefully he is in your Top Ten list, and if he isn't in your Top Ten list then don't tell me or I shall have to de-friend you and I really don't want to do that, is Ludwig van Beethoven.
I need to back up and let you know that composers all belong to a group named for what period of music during which they wrote. I'm sorry - I rewrote that sentence three different ways and it still reads badly. Do your best to figure out the meaning. For example, there were Classical composers, composers of the Romantic period, composers who wrote during the Baroque era, 20th Century composers, etc.
There will not be a quiz but it is handy to know this.
Beethoven composed music during the Classical period. This period was around 1730 - 1820. It came after the Baroque period and before the Romantic period. During the Classical period, chamber music was a big deal. Also, the harpsichord was out the door and in its place came the fortepiano, which we know simply as the piano. The difference (well, ONE difference) in these two instruments was that the harpsichord volume couldn't be adjusted. The sound came from quills plucking strings and no matter how hard one pounded on the keys, the quills plucked the same each time. So, no volume changes. The piano, however, is different, and if you strike the keys with force, the little leather-covered hammer that hits the strings to produce sound will hit the strings harder and therefore the sound will be louder.
Hit anything hard with a hammer and I vow you will get a louder sound than if you just tap the thing. Fortepiano means, literally, 'loud soft.' So there you have it. A loud soft instrument!
Welp, it seems I have digressed a bit. Back to Beethoven. Tell me what you know about him. What's that you say? What? (That's a little joke there because I'm guessing that what came to your mind first was that he went deaf.) This is true, but oh, there is so much more that should also be in your memory bank about this great man. Here are a few things I find interesting:
He was alive and well (albeit pretty young) during the Revolutionary War. So he was alive when George Washington was alive. Now Ludwig was a young lad when George was crossing the Delaware, but still!
He wrote what is often thought to be the mightiest body of music to ever be written by one person. (The 9th Symphony.)
When he was on his deathbed, it is reported that there was a mighty storm going on in Vienna (where he happened to be actively dying). The thunder and lightning were fierce and magnificent, and it was as though the heavens were declaring that a terrible thing was happening to one of the best. Beethoven raised his hand and actually shook his fist heavenward, which basically was his way of waving the Mr. Middle Digit Hand Puppet at the Almighty.
It takes cajones to give God the bird when you're dying.
...And then he died.
That may have been going to happen anyway, or it might be God giving him the Digit Puppet right back.
(In a manner of speaking, of course.)
(But I'm taking note and I'm not going to wave my fist at the sky when I'm on my deathbed.)
(If I know I'm on it, that is.)
(To be safe, I probably am not going to wave my fist at the skies anytime.)
Debussy (another well-known composer) once said that Mozart displayed his genius tastefully. Beethoven, on the other hand, managed to display his genius while totally dispensing with any taste. Okay, this is a paraphrase but the meaning is the same: He was a composer who wrote loud, angry-sounding music.
Also, he was German.
I don't think this is at all coincidental.
One of Beethoven's most famous pieces was written when he was around 31 years old and was already going deaf: Concerto No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, which is commonly known as the Moonlight Sonata. He didn't call it that, by the way. The worse his hearing got, the more depressed he became and this sonata seems to evoke the emotions of despair and sadness to its listeners. He also wrote Concerto No. 8 in C Minor at the same time. This piece is commonly known as Pathetique. You can interpret the French word easily enough on your own.
The man was not happy, it's obvious.
About the Moonlight and Pathetique Sonatas--you would recognize the tunes if you heard them.
The Fifth Symphony is known as, well, the Fifth Symphony, or Beethoven's Fifth.
You would know that tune if you heard it. "Ta ta ta DUN, ta ta ta DUN, ta ta ta DUN ta ta ta DUN ta ta ta DUN..."
The Sixth Symphony is known as the Pastoral Symphony.
You would know the tune if you heard it.
Towards the end of his life, he wrote the Ninth Symphony, which is often considered the greatest symphony ever written by anyone, period. And yes, this is the symphony that, at the conclusion of the first public performance, which he himself conducted, someone had to signal to him to turn around to look at the audience because they were giving him a standing ovation. Because he was stone deaf he had no idea that there was such a rousing reaction to the piece.
"Joyful, joyful, we adore thee..."
That one.
Obviously you would know that tune if you heard it.
Beethoven's father was a drunkard, a mean one, who was prone to fits of violence. He forced Beethoven to take music lessons at around he age of 4, and by the time he was 12 or so, he was taking lessons from the court organist. (Side note: Kings would employ musicians, such as a court organist, to compose pieces of music to perform, or have performed by others, for the royal crew at dinners and parties and, I guess, whenever their hearts desired. I'm jumping ahead here, but this is the job that Haydn got and ultimately grew to hate, resulting in him writing a few pieces that pointed out his unhappiness to the king. More on that in another blog entry.)
Also, at age 12, Beethoven wrote his first piece of music worth remembering. I don't actually remember what it was, but I know that he did write one.
Mozart, who was older than Beethoven by around 16 years, told people to keep an eye on this guy because he was good and was going to make something of himself someday.
Mozart was right.
When Beethoven died (hang on, this is big), 30,000 people - that's THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLE, came to his funeral.
His tombstone simply has on it the dates of his birth and his death, and the word 'Beethoven.'
Because what more should it say?
In his lifetime of a mere 57 years, almost of half of which he was deaf or nearly deaf, he wrote:
9 symphonies (5 are considered in the top 12 in history)
5 well-known piano concertos
1 violin concerto (commonly considered the best ever written)
16 string quartets (some of which are considered to be music's finest)
32 piano sonatas
2 masses (one of which is tied for best alongside Bach's Mass in B Minor)
10 overtures
10 sonatas for violin and piano
5 sonatas for cello and piano
a lot of other instrumental music
1 opera (considered a masterpiece)
And so, now, dear reader, if you are still awake after all of this, let me pose this question to you: What have you done today that is noteworthy?
I don't know about you but I think I need to get up and do something, even if it is just, I don't know, clean the house.
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