My friend took me to a concert and they played Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It drug on forever. And what's up with the choir toward the end? It sounded like a bunch of cats in heat. I mean I know the guy was blind, but was he deaf too? Didn't he listen to what he wrote?
2007-10-23 16:19:11 · 15 answers · asked by Love Yahoo!!! wannabe a princess 3 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music ➔ Classical
Oh Girl, you're now criticizing Beethoven.....LOL
2007-10-24 05:57:55 · answer #1 · answered by ? 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I'm guessing that this wasn't a really good performance, and/or you have little experience with live classical music in a long form. Beethoven 9 isn't the piece I'd start a new listener on. His symphony 1 is actually quite good for a beginner, if you get the chance to hear that go for it. Down the road you'll probably revisit 9 and it won't be so bad. It's a great work but, as you say, it is long and unconventional.
2007-10-23 22:04:09 · answer #2 · answered by Flounder 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
As my fellow contributors below have already said, Beethoven wasn't blind (you're probably think of Bach, who went blind in later life) but had been deaf since his mid 30s.
He himself conducted the first performence of the 9th symphony (goodness knows how!!) in 1824 when he was 53 and profoundly deaf. At the end of the performance, he had to be turned round to face the audience to see the wild applause he couldn't hear.
The Ninth is one of the towering masterpieces of all music but is very long and intense and so if you're not used to going to classical music concerts, it's not the best piece to start with. It sounds like you might have been at a bad performance if it was so boring and the choir sounded like cats. Please don't let it put you off. Try Beethoven's 5th, 7th or 8th symphonies and see if yuo get along with them better.
The 'Ode to Joy' part of the last movement is done to death now severed from the rest of the symphony and that's a sad thing. It undermines its greatness.
A couple of people have attacked you for being ignorant or 'lacking a musical education'. This is a very unhelpful attitude and only serves to help perpetuate the belief among many that classical music is a pompous, snooty and exclusive thing when, in fact, it's possible to enjoy this kind of music without a 'musical education'. It's a matter of tsate, that's all.
2007-10-24 03:27:49 · answer #3 · answered by del_icious_manager 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
A pox on you! May Beethoven smite you with sword, famine and fire! It is Beethoven's most powerful work. Granted, it is his longest symphony, about 65 minutes long, but he had a lot to "say", and when he couldn't say it in music, he turned to Schiller's "Ode to Joy" and scored the words to his music. No, Beethoven was NOT blind. He did go deaf, but in his mind's ear, he could put this together and in music shake his fists at the heavens. Go back to your self-pitying rap music and your "4-F lyrics" if that's the best you can do. Otherwise, learn to appreciate classical music and next time take your shoes off in the presence of this great composer.
2007-10-23 16:48:10 · answer #4 · answered by cattbarf 7 · 8⤊ 0⤋
Did you read what you posted?? Because every single word shows how lacking you are in the general sense of having a basic music education.
Just because most people have the attention span of a flea and no taste for serious choral music doesn't make Beethoven's 9th Symphony terrible.
A person who can not read can't make literary master pieces terrible.
2007-10-24 00:05:11 · answer #5 · answered by tahitipooh 3 · 8⤊ 0⤋
It isn't my favourite Beethoven and to be honest I'm tired of hearing it! However, it shouldn't be draggy and even in the 9th. the choral singing shouldn't sound that bad. Is it possible that the performance you attended just wasn't very good? Or was downright bad?
2007-10-23 18:34:01 · answer #6 · answered by janniel 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Come on, give the people of that era a break....they weren't as fortunate as you and I in their choices of music and didn't have a radio or a video music channel to keep them occupied....they enjoyed going to a theatre and listening to a gifted composer share his music....and by the way, yes by 1820 Beethoven was completely deaf.....shame on you for dissing one of the most brilliant composers the world has ever known, and becoming one with a disability at that...I would like to see you compose a better piece of music....without the gift of your hearing
2007-10-23 16:30:25 · answer #7 · answered by squishy 7 · 6⤊ 0⤋
You obviously have no taste. And Beethoven was deaf. It's one of the greatest symphonies ever written.
2007-10-23 19:40:24 · answer #8 · answered by Mia 5 · 9⤊ 0⤋
Interesting. I've heard people complain about the length before, but I've honestly never heard anyone describe it as sounding like "cats in heat." Either the performance you heard was absolutely terrible (there is nothing in that piece that should sound shockingly dissonant to modern ears) or you're intentionally trying to stir up arguments.
I hope.
2007-10-24 05:57:36 · answer #9 · answered by Cat 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Chuck Norris loves Beethoven. So do I. Great kicking music
2007-10-23 20:54:36 · answer #10 · answered by Cinthia Round house kicking VT 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋