Beethoven, String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Opus 132, 3. "Heiliger Dankgesang"

[@michael24taggart]

A little fact about this: Around the time this was composed, Beethoven had undergone a surgery in his later years due to the pressing amount of health problems. It can be said that he wrote this movement as a sort of thanksgiving hymn to thanking God for sparing him to continue to compose. If one were to speed up the tempo, you might get something that Bach might write, yet to slow it down gives this serenity that, as far as I'm aware is extraordinary for music at this time.

[@smalin]

www.musanim.com/HeiligerDankgesang/

[@RalphDratman]

That one made both me and my wife cry, thinking about our daughter Miriam Elise Dratman, who died on June 1, 2011, age 25. Miriam, we love you.

[@kaybrown4010]

So very sorry for your loss. Peace. ❤️

[@SP-qi8ur]

May she rest in peace

[@jacobherlihy7226]

May she rest in piece

[@troyarmstrong434]

You will see her, again.

[@RalphDratman]

@@troyarmstrong434 Thank you

[@sama.4471]

The part from 13:14 onwards is like Beethoven staring directly into our souls. Gets me every time

[@orb3796]

From 10:30 until the end ... I have neither words left, nor tears.

[@kenokin8604]

This was the first time I heard this. The BBC had an article about Beethoven's life around this composition so I wanted to hear for myself. I found it hauntingly beautiful. Ethereal, joyful, and back again. Such a beautiful simple motif with seemingly effortless rich tonal fugueish progressions often never quite resolving but constantly evolving. The synchronized score captivated me. THANKS Stephen.

[@smalin]

In case you haven't seen it, there is this page about the animated graphical score: www.musanim.com/HeiligerDankgesang/

[@mariacasemyr]

My heavens ... this is so beautiful.

[@ArtVandelay99]

If only 10 videos were ever allowed to stay on KZbin, this for me would definitely have to be one of them. One of the musical peaks in German and Western culture, beautifully rendered visually. Thank you Stephen Malinowski.

[@smalin]

You're welcome.

[@irvinmartin9259]

How ‘bout the people who performed it?

[@ArtVandelay99]

@@irvinmartin9259 right, of course, sorry, and also while we're at it, the people who created KZbin, the inventor of the world wide web, and of course whoever discovered electricity to make all of the above possible.

[@Ace-su9zr]

I've been watching your videos since the beginning. This is the one I keep returning to over and over again. Beautiful work, smalin. A great visualization for a great movement.

[@smalin]

Yes, thanks, this is a good one. Even if you're Beethoven, you don't write many such pieces in a lifetime, and I'm happy that this one got a treatment from me that I'm happy with.

[@10mimu]

it's like the strings are saying their goodbyes chord by chord.

[@smalin]

Yep.

[@rh001YT]

I think what makes this piece so special is that it is Truth.

[@ProfessorUniverse95]

Hi

[@egoborder3203]

beautiful piece of music, thank you for sharing!!

[@ferrafran98]

El botón "me gusta" no es suficiente para vos. Definitivamente sos el mejor canal de youtube que sigo. Muchas gracias smalin. The "like" button is not enough for you. You are definitely the best youtube channel. Thank you very much.

[@smalin]

Thank you.

[@EnzoLebold]

That video from 7 years ago got an update after all. nice.

[@RichardASalisbury1]

To me, one of the most beautiful and touching movements in all music. Smalin, your animation captures the luminousness and numinousness of the music. But, I have always had the impression that the movement is not really in Lydian mode but, rather, ends on the subdominant.

[@smalin]

Can you give me an example of a piece in Lydian mode that sounds to you like it ends on the tonic (a pre-Beethoven piece, that is, since that's the tradition he's referring to)?

[@RichardASalisbury1]

@@smalin Good question. Probably not. I'll have to think about it.

[@smalin]

I ask because while it's an issue I've thought about (and have lots of ideas about), I don't feel I really know how pre-tonal (pre-functional harmony) composers (and listeners) heard modal music. The power of music is largely based on the learned expectations: if our perception of functional harmony had been innate instead of learned, composers would have been writing tonal music all along --- they wouldn't have been "stuck" in modal harmony. If you don't have functional expectations, what does modal music sound like? Composers using modal scales today have modern ears and are therefore using modal scales within a perceptual framework that includes functional harmony. Beethoven was in the middle (200 years back to the Renaissance, 200 years forward to today). How did he hear music? What's he doing when he's writing in the Lydian mode? My sense is that he's straddling the two worlds, and writing music that is not exactly modal or tonal. But I don't really know. I know examples of today's modal music that doesn't sound ambiguous (for Lydian, you need go no further than The Simpson's), but of course that's written to be unambiguous to people with functional harmony ears. I know pre-tonal music that's also unambiguously centered on the nominal tone, but the examples I'm familiar with are very hit-you-over-the-head-with-the-home-tone about it (e.g. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bKvGmnekoLKdnKc). I'm trying to think of a piece of Renaissance or Medieval music that moves around a bit, harmonically, but that's clearly in the Lydian mode, so that I could see whether my modern ears forced it to sound like tonal music music with a limp or if its modal center seemed unambiguous.

[@RichardASalisbury1]

@@smalin All excellent observations. You inspire me to some research. I add that more than 50 years ago (I'll be 77 this month) I had an LP of Hovhaness's "Mysterious Mountain," which I played so much I wore it out. Lately I've been searching to see whether anyone's every done a one- or two-piano reduction of the score (I've never learnt to read orchestral scores), so that I could study this still (to me) gorgeous and exciting piece, so that I could study his harmonies. The piece is full of cadences that work but are clearly not in Ionian mode.

[@madelync7753]

What a perfectly lovely piece. This is the first time I'd heard it, but it certainly won't be the last! And you did a wonderful job on the animation, it was beautifully choreographed

[@smalin]

Thank you. If you haven't already, you might want to read this: www.musanim.com/HeiligerDankgesang/

[@madelync7753]

That was really interesting, thank you

[@JoshyG]

Easily my new favorite video of yours, this rendition does the piece justice.

[@smalin]

I worked on this animation for several months, and although I don't feel I'm anywhere near doing it 100% justice, I am happy that I've done a better job with it than I did last time. My wife Christine watched the drafts of this animation as I completed them, but when she watched this version, she was in tears. It's a remarkable piece, and I'm humbled to participate in it.

[@Jonahman10]

Its lovely to see this movement again now that we have a contextual relationship with the other movements now.

[@TimondeNood]

Thank you so much! Extraordinary beautiful, the music, the performance as well as the animation...

[@williaml872]

I know it is in the Lydian mode, but even so, this harmony is pretty radical for its time.

[@TheGloryofMusic]

H. Schenker, who thought modal music to be inherently inferior, claimed that this movement is actually tonal.

[@treeskates]

So beautiful.

[@blintscav]

One of your best yet. Merci!

[@rogerstill71]

Thank you, Mr. M. This is superb in every way. The animation is top notch.

[@Jaydoggy531]

The approaching dots in the slow theme seem like they're racing up to be part of this piece. Every chord is its own entity.

[@smalin]

I think of the notes in the slow sections as being groups of performers (one group per phrase) who are coming onto the stage to say their lines (just one note, but hey, you've got to start somewhere).

[@Jaydoggy531]

That's the perfect image that comes to mind!

[@gwynhigginson4871]

Apparently played if on piano... only on white keys of piano..gives that should be more sound. Rachel Scott explains on bbc 3 Fred thinking programme

[@gwynhigginson4871]

Free thinking

[@jhanbury1968]

I love the chord changes, the best of early romanticism.

[@adamgulley1399]

I was fine until around 13:00 then all of a sudden tear just started streaming down my face

[@smalin]

Ah, good ... that shows it's working.

[@nkeuphonium]

I have work I need to be doing, but wow, this visual is mesmerising! Thank you! :)

[@judithwhitehouse2149]

If I was asked to explain this greatest of all music to a student, I wouldn't attempt analysis but just show them this...

[@thekillerfroggy]

You're reading my damn mind. I haven't been able to stop listening to this movement all week. Thank you so much for this.

[@smalin]

I've been listening to it since the early 1970s, and I finally feel like I'm starting to get it under my belt.

[@Threetails]

Seriously? I was looking at the date this was posted and it's just 11 days after I first heard this piece of music! I wonder if anyone else discovered it around that time?

[@jonguirl3942]

It has hooked me - music from the heart and mind of an absolute master. The only thing I can say is I know every time I listen to it I will hear it again for the first time. Seems crazy and I know my way around LvB's music but this is a special corner of it :-)

[@subtle0savage]

Beautiful work this time Smalin. Great interpretative conveyance.

[@smalin]

Thanks. I put a lot into this one. www.musanim.com/HeiligerDankgesang/

[@alancrabb]

@@smalin : indeed you must have. Fireworks, clouds of emotional intensity. Beethoven's neurons at work. Bravo.

[@jonnsmusich]

One of your most inspired animations

[@smalin]

If you haven't, you might want to read about it: www.musanim.com/HeiligerDankgesang/

[@marcosmcm86]

What is that chord at 15:08? It sounds amazing

[@smalin]

In jazz terminology, it's G7/C.

[@marcosmcm86]

@@smalin thanks

[@marcosmcm86]

@@smalin It sounds like the floor disappeared under my feet.

[@RilkRogerStudio]

I love all your videos!!!!

[@PanopticonPlus]

What do the note colours and the line seperation distance represent?

[@smalin]

See this ... www.musanim.com/HeiligerDankgesang/ ... and then post any questions that are still unanswered.

[@PanopticonPlus]

@@smalin That's the good stuff. Sometimes I can't see the weighting between artistic and mathematical choices. That's not a bad thing, but it makes me curious. I really appreciate what you do. Thank you.

[@smalin]

@@PanopticonPlus The thing is: there's no "right" weighting, because for every design tradeoff, there are people who would benefit more from each alternative. And, likewise, there's no alternative that I'm automatically in favor of. Even if I could explain the virtues of a choice I've made, there would be the question: why did I focus on those virtues? In the end, it comes down to: whatever looks best to me at the time.

[@Ian24s]

Superb

[@smalin]

Thanks! (n.b. www.musanim.com/HeiligerDankgesang/ )

[@Ian24s]

@@smalin I keep coming back to this. With the care and attention you've given to this piece it must be special to you also. Superb! ... again

[@smalin]

@@Ian24s Yes, it is very special to me.

[@coroner1985]

Amazing! Thank you for this! Just wondering, are the musicians able to keep the time so precisely that it stays in perfect sync with the graphics for the whole 17 minutes, or did you have to make slight adjustments to the graphics here and there?

[@smalin]

www.musanim.com/ProductionNotes/synchronization.html

[@davidmehnert6206]

Bedankgesang!

[@johnsavard7583]

So that's where they got the conductor's name from in "New Horizons in Music Appreciation".

[@jungastein3952]

Are they random musings or are there correspondences in nature upon which they are founded or describe? I would ask the same of almost every composer, excepting Bach

[@ProfessorUniverse95]

Good thing this doesn't have any dislikes yet, but I wonder if people will dislike this video because of my comment....