The Well-Tempered Ear
Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200 today
2 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
Perhaps the only symphony more iconic than Beethoven’s Ninth is the Fifth Symphony by the same composer (below).
But today we celebrate the premiere of the pioneering Ninth Symphony that took place 200 years ago on May 7, 1824. Below is the original poster announcing the concert program with the premiere, which Beethoven conducted in his total deafness.
Here is a link to an anniversary story, with lots of historical background about the original performance, by the PBS affiliate WETA in Washington, D.C.:
https://weta.org/fm/classical-score/may-7-1824-200th-anniversary-premiere-beethovens-symphony-no-9
The 70-minute-long Ninth — also called the “Choral” Symphony — is a remarkable work in so many ways. It remains perhaps the most universal music ever written, meaningful to many different individuals and cultures.
Unlike most symphonies of the time, the opening does not immediately announce a theme. It seems to drift around until it finds a solid key and recognizable theme and rhythm. And then it takes off. It reminds The Ear of the depiction by Haydn, Beethoven’s teacher, in his oratorio “The Creation.”
The New York Times also has an essay by Daniel Barenboim about the meaning of Beethoven’s Ninth. No doubt that would be interesting and enlightening to read. But unfortunately the Times hides it behind a pay wall. Only subscribers get to see it right now.
Instead, here is a comprehensive look in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Beethoven)
The famous choral setting of German poet Friedrich Schiller’s 1785 “Ode to Joy” of the last movement is also the official hymn of the European Union. This was the first use of a chorus in a symphony but would not be the last.
In Japan, the same “Ode to Joy” is sung en masse with a chorus up to 10,000 in stadiums every New Year’s Day and on other special occasions, as you can see in the YouTube video at the bottom, an event that took place after a horrendous earthquake and tsunami. The idealistic music embodies the journey from despair to hope, and to brotherhood and solidarity with all people and all nations.
Leonard Bernstein directed it in Berlin to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall and the coming of German reunification.
As its theme, the nightly Huntley-Brinkley New Report on NBC used to use the percussive, pounding, rhythmically propulsive Scherzo movement — which is The Ear’s favorite movement.
The Ear also thinks that the soulful slow movement has strong suggestions of the lovely and well-known slow movement of Beethoven’s earlier “Pathétique” piano sonata. But it doesn’t seem to have been used as a theme or in a movie soundtrack. Does anyone know differently?
What does the Ninth Symphony mean to you?
What do you think of the Ninth and how do you rank it among other symphonies?
Do you have a favorite recording or performance?
What is your favorite movement of Beethoven’s Ninth?
What other uses of The Ninth do you know of?
The Ear wants to hear
Tags: #ClassicFM, 1824, 2024, America, American, Android, anniversary, anthem, Apple, Arts, Asia, asian, audience, Beethoven, Beethoven's Fifth, Beethoven's Ninth, Berlin Wall, Bing, blog, Broadcast, brotherhood, CD, celebrate, chaos, China, Chinese, choral music, Choral Symphony, chorus, Classical, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Concert, conductor, culture, Daniel Barenboim, deaf, deafness, depair, different, disability, drift, duckduckgo, earthquake, en masse, European Union, Facebook, fampus, favorite, Fürtwangler, fifth, film, Friedrich Schiller, German, Germany, Google, Google Alert, Google Alerts, Google Search, Haydn, hearing disabled, hope, Huntley-Brinkley, hymn, icon, iconic, ideakistic, idealism, individual, Jacob Stockinger, Japan, Japanese, journalism, journalist, key, Korea, Korean, Leonard Bernstein, link, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, May 7, mean, meaning, Microsoft, Microsoft Bing, movement, movie, Music, NBC, New Year's Day, New York Times, news, ninth, Ode to Joy, official, opening, oratorio, Orchestra, original, OS, pathetique, Pathetique Sonata, PBS, perform, performance, Piano, pioneering, poem, Poetry, Poster, premiere, program, propulsive, recording, remarkable, report, reunification, rhythm, Romantic, Safari, Scherzo, share, solidarity, soloist, Sonata, soul, soulful, soundtrack, South Korea, South Korean, stadium, Student, suggestion, symphony, tag, take off, takeoff, Teacher, Television, The Creation, The Ear, The Well-Tempered Ear, theme, tidal wave, today, Toscanini, tsunami, TV, Twitter, U.S., United States, universal, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, use, vocal music, wander, well-known, Well-Tempered, welltempered, WETA, Wikipedia, Wisconsin, WordPress, Wordpress.com, work, X, you, YouTube
Indiana Jones’ fifth meets Beethoven’s Fifth
Leave a Comment
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
This is the weekend when the fifth, and probably final, installment of the Indiana Jones franchise has opened.
It is called “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
The film has not received great reviews from the critics, but The Ear bets it will still draw big audiences and record holiday box office.
After all, it has Harrison Ford (below), a legendary star and Hollywood icon at 80, and an evil Nazi as well as a thrilling adventure plot.
It also has Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
How?
Why?
To find out, read the story on Classic FM website. Here is a link:
And here is the official trailer for the film:
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ClassicFM, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #YouTubevideo, adventure, Arts, audience, Beethoven, Beethoven's Fifth, blog, box office, CGI, Classical music, composer, Concert, critic, evil, Facebook, fifth, final, franchise, George Lukas, Harrison Ford, Holiday, Hollywood, icon, Indiana Jones, installment, Jacob Stockinger, legend, legendary, link, Ludwig van Beethoven, Music, Nazi, official, Orchestra, plot, review, share, special effects, star, story, symphony, tag, The Dial of Destiny, thrilling, trailer, Website, Wisconsin, YouTube
This ‘body percussion” version of Beethoven will make your day!
2 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is something that easily outdoes Bavarian thigh-slapping in Lederhosen!
It features 157 school children playing the opening theme of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony using “body percussion.”
That is, they use their hands, feet, knees and chests with various pressures and degrees of loudness, rhythm, speed and dynamics.
It is a performance practice and method of music education that has roots in folk music.
It was performed in 2020 — hence the covid masks — and was recently posted on Instagram by ClassicFM.
Here is a fuller definition from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_percussion
The kids are amazing. They are so synchronized and precise.
It took five months of practicing and rehearsing, so the persistent music teacher who organized and executed this must be amazing too.
It all seems very French in its combination of the physical and the emotional.
Take a look and listen. Here is a link to the one-minute video:
Does anybody else wonder if an American parent might have protested or even filed a lawsuit alleging inappropriate touching by classmates?
What do you think of this “body percussion” Beethoven?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ClassicFM, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FolkMusic, #InstagramPost, #InstagramVideo, #MusicEducation, #OpeningTheme, #TheEar, #YouTubevideo, American, Arts, audience, Bavaria, Bavarian, Beethoven, Beethoven's Fifth, blog, body percussion, chest, children, Classical music, classmate, composer, COVID19, degree, dynamics, Education, emotional, execute, Facebook, feet, folk, Folk music, France, French, hand, hands, human body, inappropriate, Instagram, Jacob Stockinger, knee, knees, lawsuit, link, listen, look, loudness, Ludwig van Beethoven, mask, method, Music, Music education, music teacher, opening, organize, Parent, percussion, physical, play, practice, pressure, protest, rehearsal, rhythm, share, slap, slapping, speed, Student, symphony, tag, The Ear, theme, tight, touching, use, volume, Wikipedia, YouTube
Classical music: Artificial Intelligence will complete Beethoven’s 10th Symphony
1 Comment
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The timing of the announcement and project couldn’t be more perfect as we are now about the enter The Beethoven Year.
2020 will see the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (below).
And word is that hi tech in the form of AI will come to rescue of art through a powerful computer program.
That is, artificial intelligence will be used to complete the drafts and sketches of an unfinished 10th symphony by Beethoven. (Below is Beethoven’s manuscript for the opening of the iconic Fifth Symphony.)
It will not be the first time. You can hear a well researched if less rigorous and less technological version of Beethoven’s 10th, assembled by Barry Cooper, in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Whether we end up with a piece of music that can be performed or that we want to hear remains to be seen. After all, how many times do you hear — or want to hear — live performances of completed versions of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony or Mahler’s unfinished 10th?
So Beethoven’s 10th may end up being more a curiosity than a work of art.
But at least we may get an idea of where Beethoven was headed after his unconventional and revolutionary Ninth Symphony that influenced so many later composers.
You can learn more about it by going to the homepage of Classical FM, an important British radio station. Here is a link:
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/news/computer-completes-unfinished-tenth-symphony/
Tags: #ArtificialIntelligence, #BarryCooper, #BeethovenYear, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChoralMusic, #ClassicalFM, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FifthSymphony, #FranzSchubert, #GustavMahler, #HighTechnology, #HomePage, #InstrumentalMusic, #LiveMusic, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #NinthSymphony, #RadioStation, #UnfinishedSymphony, #VocalMusic, #WorkofArt, #YouTubevideo, AI, anniversary, announcement, Art, artificial intelligence, Arts, Barry Cooper, Beethoven, Beethoven Year, Beethoven's Fifth, birth, birthday, blog, British, choral music, Classical FM, Classical music, composer, computer, curiosity, curious, draft, Facebook, Fifth Symphony, forward, Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, hi tech, high tech, iconic, idea, influence, instrumental music, Jacob Stockinger, like, link, live music, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mahler, manuscript, Music, Ninth Symphony, Orchestra, perfect, performance, project, Radio, radio station, reader, rescue, revolutionary, Schubert, share, sketch, subscription, symphony, tag, technology, time, timing, UK, unconventional, unfinished, Unfinished Symphony, United Kingdom, United States, version, vocal music, Wisconsin, work of art, YouTube
Classical music: Founder and conductor Mikko Utevsky discusses the concert of music by Vivaldi, Haydn, Beethoven and Madison composer Jerry Hui this Friday evening by the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) that also features the two Norris brothers, also from Madison, as soloists.
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Loyal readers of this blog know well the name of Mikko Utevsky. The young violist this fall will be a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin School of Music, where he studies with Pro Area Quartet violist Sally Chisholm.
Utevsky, who has won awards and impressive reviews for his performances and his work in music education, is the founder and conductor of the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (below and at the bottom conducting MAYCO in the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in a YouTube video), which will perform this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall on the UW-Madisob campus. (You can check out his many honors and projects by typing his name into the search engine on this blog site.)
Utevsky offered The Ear a short essay about the concert, and I immediately took him up on the offer. After all, he is a fine and perceptive writer who, you may recall, blogged for this post as he was on tour last summer with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras‘ tour to Vienna, Prague and Budapest.
Here is the essay by Mikko Utevsky (below in a photo by Steve Rankin):
By Mikko Utevsky
This Friday evening, the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) will present an eclectic and, I hope, compelling program.
The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall (below), on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the foot of Bascom Hill. Tickets are $5 at the door; student admission is by donation.
The concert’s centerpieces are two masterworks of the Classical period, written only a few years apart: Beethoven‘s Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21, and Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E flat. These two pieces, alongside a fantastic new work from Madison-based composer Jerry Hui that was commissioned for the orchestra, form the justification for the title “New Horizons.” Each work is a first in its own way.
The reasoning behind performing the work by the young Beethoven (below) is obvious: It is the composer’s first and strikingly mature essay into the symphonic form, which he would go on to revolutionize not once but three times in his career (his Third, Fifth and Ninth symphonies).
This relatively early work shows the depth of his debt to his teacher, Haydn, in its wit and formal clarity, though signs of the mature Beethoven are visible in the impetuous “sforzandi,” or sudden dynamic changes, and prominent wind writing.
The work by Haydn himself (below top) on the program is less obviously groundbreaking. It is one of his late works, composed when he was 64 for an old friend, trumpeter Anton Weidinger.
Its novelty lies in the instrument for which it was written: Weidinger (below middle) had developed a chromatically-capable trumpet (below bottom), intended to replace the natural trumpet that had been in common use up to this point. That instrument was incapable of chromatics, and even of stepwise melodies and scales in all but its highest register. Haydn exploits the new instrument to its fullest capacity in the most ingenious ways in this compact but brilliant concerto.
I am delighted to welcome as our soloist Madison native, former “Final Forte” performer, “From The Top” guest, and two-time National Trumpet Competition winner Ansel Norris (below).
Finally, Madison composer Jerry Hui’s tone-poem “Glacies” will receive its world premiere on Friday.
The performance of new works is an important part of MAYCO’s educational mission, and whenever possible we seek out music from local composers for the ensemble. New music challenges us as performers in many ways, introducing us to new styles and daring us to find joy and excitement in the unfamiliar. Working with Jerry is always a pleasure, and I sincerely hope the orchestra and audience enjoy his music as much as I do.
“Glacies’” is a wonderfully colorful work that should be both exciting and accessible to all audiences.
I’ll let him introduce it. Here are comments by composer Jerry Hui (below):
Mikko, founder of MAYCO, was a former composition student of mine, studying counterpoint and harmony with the support of the Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth (WCATY), and I’m glad to compose a piece for his wonderful ensemble.
“Glacies is a orchestral tone-poem commissioned by Mikko Utevsky for the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO). Mikko, the founder of MAYCO, was a former composition student of mine, studying counterpoint and harmony with the support of the Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth (WCATY), and I’m glad to compose a piece for his wonderful ensemble. Glacies is the Latin word for ice, signifying my original inspiration for the work.
“As a Madisonian living near the lake for the past five years, I have become fascinated by the serene mystery of morning mist rising from the large frozen body of water, as well as the first spring day when the ice breaks–which sometimes can become an exciting and violent event known as an icequake.
“Glacies” does not attempt to tell a narrative; rather, I try to convey an impression of it through various sound and color of the orchestra.”
–Jerry Hui
Rounding out the program is a short double concerto in B-flat major by Antonio Vivaldi (below), originally for oboe, violin and string orchestra with basso continuo. The oboe part will be played on the trumpet, as recorded by the inimitable Maurice Andre, as an encore for our soloist from the Haydn concerto.
Ansel Norris will be joined by his brother, violnist and MAYCO’s concertmaster Alex Norris, himself a graduate of the UW-Madison School of Music. (Both brothers are pictured below, Alex on the left and Ansel on the right, in a photo by their mother Kathy Esposito.)
As for MAYCO’s future plans: While a lack of foreknowledge about instrumentation and the dates of competing summer offerings prevents me from providing concert dates or program details for next summer, I can give a few general hints about what is to come in the orchestra’s fourth season:
– Two varied concert programs featuring Classical masterworks and lesser-known gems.
– The world premiere performance of a work written for the orchestra by a local composer.
– The showcasing of local artists as soloists, including both younger performers and established older musicians.
More specifically, I hope to program the orchestra’s first piano concerto, and have been eyeing the prospect of working with vocalists again since I heard UW-Madison graduate student Shannon Prickett’s marvelous singing of Verdi and Puccini last summer, perhaps in the context of a concert performance of some opera scenes. But neither of those are promises. Stay tuned! (Shannon Prickett is shown below.)
Finally, I am planning to extend some of MAYCO’s offerings into the school year. We will be holding at least one outreach and reading session on a Saturday afternoon, at which current WYSO members will be invited to read some of the Classical repertoire that the orchestra specializes in and learn about the program we offer.
(Editors note: For more background information, read the entry of the UW School of Music’s outstanding blog “Fanfare”:
http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/mayco-four-seasons/
Tags: Anton Weidinger, Antonio Vivaldi, Bascom Hill, Beethoven's Fifth, chamber orchestra, Classical, Classical period (music), concertmaster, Franz Josef Haydn, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Jerry Hui, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, MAYCO, Mikko Utevsky, National Trumpet Competition, Oboe, Orchestra, Trumpet, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, Wisconsin, WYSO, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | Brian Jefferies on Classical music: A major reass… |
 | welltemperedear on What made Beethoven sick and… |
 | rlhess5d5b7e5dff on What made Beethoven sick and… |
| welltemperedear on Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200… |
 | Robert Graebner on Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 