How did Beethoven do it?

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Topic started by Phil Has Gone West (philn)

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A topic from Music: Classical

philnSun 08/07/07 19:20

I've just been listening to Beethoven's A Minor String Quartet (Op 132) and it reminded of something which has always amazed me

For most artists (classical/pop musicians , painters etc), their music reflects something about their lives - whether it is happy or sad, gentle or angry, usually says something about their personal lives at the time of writing (a bit of a gneralisation I know, but its usually so)

But with Beethoven, especially in his later years, there seems to be a massive disconnect between the type of music he was producing and his life. He was, by that time, profoundly deaf, constantly suffering from painful ill health (including various unpleasant digestive problems), and living in a state of (mostly self-imposed) squallor. He had antagonised most (though not all) of his friends,and had been locked for years in bitter legal disputes with his family.

In many ways, his life was a complete mess. And yet, in the last 10 years of his life he was producing some of the happiest, most serene, most sublime music that has ever been produced by anyone. Just look at the Trio of the 9th Symphony, or the slow movement of the Op 132 Quartet, or the Fugue from the Opus 131 Quartet - and there are many other examples

Its astonishing really. Maybe he had completely disconnected from the real world and was practically living through his music, which would explain its increasingly other-worldy character

Just listening to this music makes me happy, in a quiet & contemplative way. Its hard to imagine how he was capable of writing it. But let's just be glad that he was

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