Beethoven was black?

Africa within ^

[Doctor Raoul]

Explains a few things...

[Doctor Raoul]

Gasp! That means Orson Wells was black, too!

Ever notice his Martians were DARK green?

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Freepers rule!

I learn more from Freep than anywhere else..what a bunch of brilliant ones!

[arthurus]

When they dug him up in 1986 to restore his grave they opened the casket and found him with an eraser and his final unfinished symphony. He had been decomposing.

[Pharmboy]

Death Mask of Ludwig van Beethoven (1827)

I have been reading Beethoven biographies since I was in high school, and remember hearing about him "being black" perhaps 20 years ago. Nonsense.

A few generations before his birth, Dec 16th, 1770 in Bonn, Germany, his Flemish ancestors came from Belgium. He did not have much German blood, and certainly no Austrian. This whole flap reminds me of the German joke:

"Name the two greatest 20th Century achievements of the Austrian."
Answer: "To have convinced the world that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler was German."

Click here for Beethoven's genealogy.

[Tijeras_Slim]

He got his skin lightened after Symphony # 10, also called the “Thriller” symphony.

[bannie]

It just keeps increasing!

[PistolPaknMama]

That is a legitimate word. Sort of like when LOL isn't enough you use ROFL. It is the ROFL of "snicker".

Too much sensitivity! :-)

[Sawdring]

Jimmy Hendrix and that guy who did all those things with peanuts were actually white. But whites aren't claiming Oprah and only half of Obama.

[Borges]

Classical Music PING

[OneWingedShark]

>That is a legitimate word. Sort of like when LOL isn’t enough you use ROFL.
>It is the ROFL of “snicker”.
>
>Too much sensitivity! :-)

Indeed, or too much ignorance from a limited vocabulary... and you know what’s REALLY disheartening? My vocabulary is much smaller now than 6 or 7 years ago. (Thanks Army! [/sarc]) ;)

[bigheadfred]

Since Beethoven was Black

and his hairstyle resembles that of another famous person

We can only conclude one thing!!!

*SNIGGER*

[tomkat]

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Didn’t you get the memo? We’ll all be at least half black by the end of the next four years, no matter our current race or ethnic make-up. ;)

[bigheadfred]

Didn’t you get the memo?

Told my boss that while he was at the paint store to choose an appropriate stain so we could beat the crowds...

[EggsAckley]

Heheheheh. Now THAT’S funny!!

[Emperor Palpatine]

This brings to mind a classic "SNL" skit from their first season or so. John Belushi played Beethoven sitting at a piano playing the "Moonlight" sonata in an 18th Century Viennese drawing room......



Then after Gilda Radner as one of the Contessas asks him to "liven things up - this is boring!", Belushi puts on some dark shades and starts rocking back and forth doing a killer impression of Ray Charles' "Hey, What Did I Say?" - complete with the female trio behind him, hehehe.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Actually, “Beethoven’s Tenth” is also known as “Brahms’ First”

[Emperor Palpatine]

Maybe White people should claim Scott Joplin....after all, although his rags are heavily syncopated, they follow the same form as both Sousa's marches and Chopin's scherzos. Besides, that massively strided bass is a form of basso ostinato, not unlike Scarlatti.

Plus he wrote an opera with music as exquisite and a plot as implausible as Verdi's "Il Trovatore"

[Emperor Palpatine]

No, that was Schoenberg with his Sprechstimme".....or Meredith Willson with the "Trouble In River City" number from "The Music Man"