A Sunday Morning With Beethoven

[Jim Klag]

I was listening/watching a video taped performance of Beethoven's Eroica symphony this morning and I was struck by this. About halfway through the final movement the whole orchestra, every single instrument, is playing and there are about a half dozen different things going on - different sections playing different melodies and rhythms. Listening, I could barely make out the different parts as they all blended together. It then occurred to me that at a point about 220 years ago, all that beautiful, intricate melodious noise only existed in the mind of a single bat crap crazy German. What a glorious mind it must be that can conjure up that beauty!

That's my weird thought for this Sunday morning (or afternoon for you folk on the eastern side of the big pond).

 

[rittmeister]

 

[Jim Klag]

I love the "Proms" concerts. That's not a bad rendition of the Eroica.

 

[5fish]

Chopin Funeral March...

 

[5fish]

@rittmeister and @Wehrkraftzersetzer

Have you all heard of Beethoven was of Moorish blood...

Lovely, lovely Ludwig Van lived from 1770-1827. ... Beethoven's mother, Maria Magdalena Keverich, was likely Moorish, being born in the area that was under the direct control of the Moors. Beethoven's father, Johann Van, was half-Flemish, with Belgium also being within the Moorish territory.

A least favorable consideration for Beethoven’s African heritage could also be that he was an illegitimate child, as some research suggests. Beethoven has been referred to as a ‘kammermohr,’ a German word describing the offspring of relations with a servant of black skin.

Snip... https://www.demandafrica.com/travel/culture/was-beethovens-african-heritage-whitewashed/

It’s important to reference how Beethoven was considered in the public eye. Many texts have been uncovered that refer to Beethoven as a “Moor.” In this era, ‘Moor’ translates to ‘negro,’ before the term was extended to include Arabs in later times. The German translation for ‘negro’ is also ‘mohr.’ A renowned Beethoven Historian, Alexander W. Thayer, can be quoted stating “Beethoven had even more of the Moor in his features than his master, Haydn.” Many people suggest that Moors introduced the classical music style to Europe, evident by the hint that Beethoven’s musical master was also of Moorish descent.

 

[5fish]

Here an opposite view... https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...nd-why-might-be-wrong-question-ask-180975159/

“This theory, however, is not based on genealogical studies of Beethoven’s past, which are available to the public. Rather, it is based on the assumption that one of Beethoven’s ancestors had a child out of wedlock,” writes the Beethoven Center at San José State University on its website. “[…] t is important to note that no one called Beethoven black or a moor during his lifetime, and the Viennese were keenly aware both of Moors and of mulattos, such as George Bridgetower, the famous violinist who collaborated with Beethoven.”

snip...

Many scholars of black studies and musicology, meanwhile, have found no substantial evidence exists that Beethoven had African ancestry. In addition to de Lerma, musicologist Donald Macardle and novelist Darryl Pinckney have also disputed the claim, Rinehart notes.

snip...

But the argument has sticking power, in part because it’s a provocative one. German historian and musicologist Kira Thurman studies black musicians in Europe (and has a book on the subject coming out in 2021.) “I am less interested in if that question is true, and more interested in the history of it,” says Thurman in a phone interview. “It really comes out of a place in the 1930s when a lot of African American intellectuals and journalists and artists and musicologists were starting to really research and write books on the black past.”

 

[Wehrkraftzersetzer]

heared a lot of Ludwig van's family but not that

 

[5fish]

lot of Ludwig

And @rittmeister ... Here is a story of Beethoven's death mask... Many say these mask add to the argument he had Moorish blood.... 5 masks...

Will the real Beethoven please stand up?

Within the Laurence Hutton collection of life and death masks, the largest number of a single person are of Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 17 December 1770–26 March 1827). There are two from the ca…

graphicarts.princeton.edu

 

[5fish]

@rittmeister , @Wehrkraftzersetzer , what is the truth? What does the Smithsonian think???

Was Beethoven Black? Probably Not, but These Unsung Composers Were

A music scholar examines the history of the decades-old theory, and what its permanence tells us about who is considered 'canon' in classical music

www.smithsonianmag.com

Those who argue in favor of Beethoven’s black heritage point to contemporary accounts of his likeness that describe the composer in ways stereotypically associated with people of African descent. In just one example, a 1969 article in the Chicago Daily Defender cites Frau Fischer, an acquaintance of Beethoven’s, who described the composer as “Short, stocky, broad shoulders, short neck, round nose, blackish-brown complexion.”

Many scholars of black studies and musicology, meanwhile, have found no substantial evidence exists that Beethoven had African ancestry. In addition to de Lerma, musicologist Donald Macardle and novelist Darryl Pinckney have also disputed the claim, Rinehart notes.