| There was a short, pocked-faced, | | | | of music and mathematics have the same ground |
| plain-looking man walking the streets of | | | | of being. But even though there have been a |
| Vienna in the early 19th century. No wonder | | | | few people fluent in both languages, most |
| all women he proposed to rejected him and so | | | | music geniuses have not been great |
| he remained single all his life. The poor | | | | mathematicians and vice versa; Beethoven |
| thing! As a boy, much to the chagrin of his | | | | often struggled with basic arithmetic. |
| father, he showed no signs of being a child | | | | |
| prodigy; he was often crying, as he was | | | | Furthermore Joseph Haydn, the father of the |
| forced by his father to play the piano. | | | | string quartet, considered it as great |
| | | | conversations with nature. And many scholars |
| And yet most scholars, musicians, and music | | | | consider the string quartet as the pressure |
| lovers worldwide would agree with this | | | | cooker of music, the most demanding musical |
| statement: "A universal genius widely | | | | genre, the brightest jewel in the crown of |
| regarded as the greatest composer who ever | | | | music. It is by far the best medium to write |
| lived, Ludvig van Beethoven dominates a | | | | absolute music. |
| period of musical history as no one else | | | | |
| before or since." (Encyclopaedia Britannica, | | | | Moreover Beethoven spent the last two and a |
| Volume 14, p 737a) | | | | half years of his life writing nothing but |
| | | | string quartets-Opuses 127, 130, 131, 132, |
| Music scholars and composers consider these | | | | and 135-when he was totally cut off from |
| music genres as the main ones: piano sonata, | | | | society because he was stone-deaf. Doesn't |
| piano concerto, violin concerto, opera, mass, | | | | this fact tell us something? He was sensing |
| symphony, and string quartet. Most scholars | | | | that his life on this gorgeous planet was |
| would agree with my evaluation here: | | | | coming to an end; he loved nature deeply and |
| | | | took long walks to gather musical ideas, |
| Best piano sonata ever: Beethoven's Piano | | | | which he jotted down using a carpenter's |
| Sonata No 29 in Bb, Opus 106, "Hammerklavier" | | | | pencil. So he zeroed in on the most |
| (1817-18) | | | | beautiful medium, the string quartet, to |
| | | | express abstract, concise, beautiful musical |
| Best piano concerto ever: Beethoven's Piano | | | | ideas. |
| Concerto No 5 in Eb, Opus 87, "Emperor" | | | | |
| (1809) | | | | Therefore "The five late string quartets |
| | | | contain Beethoven's greatest music, or so at |
| Best violin concerto ever: Beethoven's Violin | | | | least many listeners in the 20th century came |
| Concerto in D, Opus 61 (1806) | | | | to feel." (The New Grove Dictionary of Music |
| | | | and Musicians, Second Edition, 2001, Volume |
| Best opera ever: Mozart's Don Giovanni. But | | | | 3, p 106a) |
| Beethoven's Fidelio, Opus 72 (c1803-05; | | | | |
| 1814), follows very closely. | | | | Thus to me Beethoven is the greatest composer |
| | | | ever and his String Quartet No 14 is the |
| Best mass ever: Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in | | | | greatest piece of music of all time. |
| D, Opus 123 (1819-23) | | | | "...Beethoven next wrote the most closely |
| | | | integrated of all his large compositions. |
| Best symphony ever: Beethoven's Symphony No 9 | | | | From this point of view, the Quartet of C# |
| in d, Opus 125, "Choral" (1822-24), or his | | | | minor op. 131 may be seen as the culmination |
| Symphony No 5 in c, Opus 67 (1807-08) | | | | of his significant effort as a composer ever |
| | | | since going to Vienna. The seven movements |
| Best string quartet ever: String Quartet No | | | | [c#-D-(b)-A-E-g#-c#] run continuously into |
| 14 in c#, Opus 131 (1826). | | | | one another, and for the first time in |
| | | | Beethoven's music there is an emphatic and |
| The string quartet is my favorite music genre | | | | unmistakable thematic connection between the |
| because it's the most concise and elegant of | | | | first movement and the last-not a |
| all music genres-it expresses deep thoughts | | | | reminiscence, but a functional parallel which |
| and ideas in a few phrases, just as | | | | helps bind the whole work together. A work |
| mathematics expresses the deep secrets of the | | | | of the deepest subtlety and beauty.... |
| universe using a few symbols. The languages | | | | |