Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[kennyc]

Today is Beethoven's birthday.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

for me his Ninth Symphony is probably the greatest piece of music ever written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3217H8JppI

If you'd like something a bit shorter: Moonlight Sonata.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tr0otuiQuU

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Today is Beethoven's birthday.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

for me his Ninth Symphony is probably the greatest piece of music ever written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3217H8JppI

If you'd like something a bit shorter: Moonlight Sonata.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tr0otuiQuU

I love the Ode to Joy section of that symphony, but the Fifth will always be my favorite. I've heard that so many times I'll bet if you stuck me in front of an orchestra, I could conduct it from memory—which would confuse the hell out of them if they had been told they'd be playing Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Today is Beethoven's birthday.

...for me his Ninth Symphony is probably the greatest piece of music ever written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3217H8JppI

If you'd like something a bit shorter: Moonlight Sonata.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tr0otuiQuU

This is my favorite video clip that includes a lengthy portion of the Ode to Joy. Forgive the poor quality audio in this clip (the original movie has much better fidelity), but by all means grab yourself a copy of Man Facing Southeast; and make sure you grab one that's subtitled, as the original was in Spanish. In this outtake, the man who takes the baton from the conductor mid-movement is a mental patient who claims to be an extraterrestrial. The man looking on with obvious concern is his psychiatrist.

[WT Sharpe]

It has been claimed that Beethoven—in a refusal to perform for some French officers at one of the estates of Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky—told the Austrian nobleman in a letter, "Prince, what you are you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am through my own efforts. There have been thousands of princes and will be thousands more; there is only one Beethoven!"

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

It has been claimed that Beethoven—in a refusal to perform for some French officers at one of the estates of Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky—told the Austrian nobleman in a letter, "Prince, what you are you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am through my own efforts. There have been thousands of princes and will be thousands more; there is only one Beethoven!"

I actually just heard that quote from the Announcer on the local classical station. They are playing and doing special Beethoven things today.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Today is Beethoven's birthday.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

for me his Ninth Symphony is probably the greatest piece of music ever written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3217H8JppI

If you'd like something a bit shorter: Moonlight Sonata.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tr0otuiQuU

whoa! You mean, 12-16?? it's my daughter's birthday too!

hmm, wikipedia says baptised 12-17... could be born any day before that... still, nice coincidence

the man is my favorite composer, but I don't usually delve into that kind of detail from his life... I've read Maynard Salomon's biography in which he seems to prove the identity of the infamous Imortal Beloved.

I'm a hobbyist pianist. I can play at least Moonlight's first movement, plus some of his bagatelles and other minor work it's one of my goals in life to at least reach Appassionata's level... I know Hammerklavier is completely out of reach

as for the symphonies, I think my favorite is 7, but they're all wonderful works, specially 3,5,6,7 and 9, indeed.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

...as for the symphonies, I think my favorite is 7....

The second movement of that one sends chills down my spine.

[BenG]

"The saddest day of your life isn't when you decide to sell out. The saddest day of your life is when you decide to sell out and nobody wants to buy."
— Norman Spinrad, Bug Jack Barron

[covingtoncat73]

"A little while and I will be gone from among you, whither I cannot tell. From no where we came, into nowhere we go. What is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is a breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

-- last words - Chief of the Blackfoot: Ispwo Mukika Crowfoot (1783-1850)

[bfisher]

For me, it's his 5th Symphony and Piano Concerto No 5.

Berlioz admired Beethoven greatly as a composer.

"As far as symphonies are concerned, Mozart wrote 17 of which 3 are beautiful and even then… The good Haydn produced a quantity of pretty things of that kind. Beethoven wrote seven masterpieces but Beethoven is not human. And when you are only a human being you should not pass judgement on the God."

"Now that I have broken the shackles of routine, I can see a huge field opening up, which academic rules were preventing me from entering. Now that I have heard this terrifying giant Beethoven, I know what stage musical art has reached, and the aim is to take it from there and push it further… not actually further, that is impossible, he has reached the limits of art, but as far in another direction. There is a great deal of new work to be done, I can feel it with great energy; and be assured I will do it if I live."

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by bfisher

For me, it's his 5th Symphony and Piano Concerto No 5....

Oh, yes. The third movement of the Emperor Concerto never fails to get my juices flowing in a way few pieces ever have. Pardon the cliché, but what a rush! And the finale of that movement; that sudden burst of energy that explodes like a supernova right on the heels of the final ritardando and diminuendo! It'll knock you slam out of your seat if you're not careful!

Yes, I like it too.

[BenG]

It's now very common to hear people say, "I'm rather offended by that", as if that gives them certain rights. It's no more than a whine. It has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. "I'm offended by that." Well, so f*****g what?

--I saw hate in a graveyard, Stephen Fry, The Guardian, 2005.

[kennyc]

There must be an ability to pass long hours in study and research with pleasure even though some of the effort will inevitably lead to dead ends. Such is the price of admission.
- E.O. Wilson - Letters to a Young Scientist

[kennyc]

"Any planet is 'Earth' to those that live on it."
- Isaac Asimov born January 2, 1920

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right."
— Isaac Asimov (Foundation (Foundation, #1))

[BenG]

We have a saying: If you go to Atlanta, the first question people ask you is, ‘What’s your business?’ In Macon they ask, ‘Where do you go to church?’ In Augusta they ask your grandmother’s maiden name. But in Savannah the first question people ask you is ‘What would you like to drink?’”

— John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil