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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: Vocal quintet version of Beethoven's 5th. posted by Rick W on December 28, 2014 at 09:09:30:
With the rapid advance of technology, it's difficult for us to keep things in perspective. The breathtaking innovations and unique achievements of a prior age become absorbed by its successors, and further advancements make them look quaint, or even comical. One generation's science fiction movie sensation becomes passe in the next, and forgotten altogether by the third.
In attendence at the premier of the Fifth was a man with his son. At some point during the first movement, the child looked at his father and said, "Daddy - I'm scared!".
So much's been written about the Fifth over the centuries, that there's really nothing you can say that hasn't been said before [and much better said]. But, I think it's important to realize a special point about the Fifth. And that's how horribly violent the music was. Vehement and almost relentlessly violent.
And, there was no real precident for it. Nothing like it before; at least not in any extended symphonic movement. No piece of music had gone so far, with such pounding force. If you step back and really think about that, and all of the implications, you begin to grasp how startlingly original and powerful the Fifth really is.
Of course, I don't even need to go into how Beethoven wove in the 4 note motive into all 4 of the movements, transforming both the rhythmic and pitch profiles of his motive so ingeniuously so that it's almost unrecognizable, and yet still felt and recognized on some subconscious level. And so on. But, the violence and brutal force of the music, appearing in 1808, when much of society still adhered to powdered wig decorum, can't be overstated. And, once you've realized that, then the originality of the piece really becomes clear.
No polite, over-inflated performances of the Fifth allowed!
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Follow Ups
- Some Thoughts about the Fifth - Mike Porper 12:59:08 12/31/14 (0)
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