- moab wrote:
--For those of you into music, I'd like to hear your comment.
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Lessons From Beethoven and Life
By STUART ISACOFF
NEW YORK -- Beethoven is forever contemporary. In his own time, he pushed artistic boundaries so far that the formidable pianist and composer Muzio Clementi once asked him if he really considered a set of string quartets to be "music." "Oh," replied the indomitable composer casually, "they are not for you, but for a later age."
贝多芬的风格多异,敢于尝试前人未竟的禁区,很大原因在于他是历史上第一位“签约”作曲,不用为五斗米发愁,更不用担心自己的作品眼下没有听众:))
"Consider the so-called 'Moonlight Sonata,' " he says. "Beethoven never called it that, and the popularity of this piece actually irritated him. He thought his F Sharp Major Sonata was better, but it was not embraced in the same way. I hate the name myself -- it's a kitsch name. However, this is a fantastic sonata. The first movement is playable by amateurs, but they tend to think of 'moonlight' instead of actually reading the score, in which Beethoven asks the player to hold down the pedal for the entire movement. Most players ignore this, saying it is not practical on today's instruments. But they never really give it a try. Beethoven was inventing sounds and sonorities that no one thought of before. Using the pedal -- raising the dampers so that the strings continue to vibrate -- allows sounds that do not traditionally belong together to blend into a cloud. He's going against the textbook."
月光奏鸣曲最初取名Quasi Una Fantasia, Number 14, Op 27, No.2, 当初写给他暗恋的女学生Guicciardi,据说是一夜之间完成(类似于上网通宵聊天:))。 三十年后诗人Ludwig Rellstab听到此曲,立刻联想到Lake Lucerne的月色,于是擅自改名为月光奏鸣曲。不过我有怀疑,piano pedal的出现已是贝多芬的晚期,而这首早年作品不应有此要求。