[Pyro7480]

This is a non-political subject that could start a flame war. ;-)

[pnome]

Beethoven is the single best writer of music ever. EVER.

[kennyo]

Shades of this nut; http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/Susan_McClary

[annalex]

Men of substance must form a small coven
So they could concentrate on Beethoven
Things do not get much hotter
Than a piano sonata
With hope, grief and triumph interwoven

[shhrubbery!]

In A Clockwork Orange it is the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that echoes in the mind of Alex whenever he indulges in one of his orgies of violence. Alex's reaction may be rather extreme, but he is responding to something that is already there in this dark and frenzied setting of Schiller's Ode to Joy; the joy it invites one to feel is the joy of madness, bloodlust and megalomania.

Aha! I've never seen A Clockwork Orange, but I've always hated Beethoven's 9th as not only dark, but a heavy-duty burst of shrieking bombast.

There's something of a humanistic spirit that inhabits Beethoven's music. It is the very opposite of the spirt of God that emanates from J.S. Bach.

[hosepipe]

If the Guardian printed it, there is something wrong with it..
-or- they would not have of printed it at all..

[kennyo]

[Billthedrill]

It was much more than Beethoven that describes this cultural arc and more than he who were responsible for it. Not for nothing is he considered the cusp between the classical and the romantic in music - his era was the cusp between classical and romantic culture in general.

The motion was already in place during Mozart's time, as anyone listening to the 41st (God, why did they name it "Jupiter?") can readily discern. Since we're already playing with abstractions here I'll advance one - that the general motion was from music as representative of an interrelationship between intellectual ideas to music as representative of an interrelationship between broad passions. Neither Bach nor Mozart nor anyone in between is passionless, of course, but the sensation of a struggle between titanic forces is very different between these composers. It can go too far, IMHO - music as an expression of pure passion and no intellect at all is essentially structureless and unsatisfying except to brutes. That describes a fair slice of modern culture, not just modern music.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I always say that Beethoven's 9th is proof to me that God exists. I would be full of myself if I was Mr. B as well!His was a talent directly from God, IMO.

[rcocean]

When are people going to stop stealing Beethoven's music?! Do you know that people download his music without paying his great-great-great-grand niece one penny?!

I hope these these thieves are ashamed of themselves.

I bought a Michael Jackson CD yesterday, rather than stealing it off the net. I feel good about myself, because Michael needs the extra money to pay off his legal bills, and buy a new mansion in Australia.

[SamAdams76]

It could be said that Beethoven was the first "rock star." Egotistical, temperamental, etc. If Beethoven was around today, I can imagine him throwing tantrums - stipulating that the blue M&M's be removed from the bowl in his dressing room and throwing a latte on the floor because it wasn't to his liking and so on.

Before Beethoven, most composers were nothing more then hired hands at the King's court, treated as servants and such. Beethoven was the first composer to establish some degree of independence from all of that. It is in large degree due to Beethoven that musicians today are treated like royalty (instead of the other way around).

I'm not sure where the author was going with this article. While his music is more dissonant, it is as perfect as that of Mozart or Bach. I wouldn't change a note.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[hershey]

Well!

[eddie willers]

I'll take George Gershwin.