Beethoven's 9th - What's that all about?! (Part 1)

[@Iceland874]

Yes please a second video and also an analysis of his 7th symphony would be nice. Thank you for the wonderful analysis today.

[@DressedForDrowning]

Maybe we can hope of analysis of all of B.'s symphonies, little by little?

[@DressedForDrowning]

Sorry, I became greedy. Ignore my comment. My excuse is that I love this stuff so much.

[@Michael-iw3ek]

First time I listened to the 9th, I didn't realize it even started - sounded like the musicians were still tuning their instruments.

[@themusicprofessor]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGHdYmyQi6esmK8si=LvQ1AKkDfX7WZAM0&t=60

[@dialecticsjunkie7653]

Yes. Absolutely gorgeous and creative concept. Composers like Mahler (1st symphony) took inspiration from that. Really creates this "order out of chaos" image, like something from the primeval birth of the world

[@kerndeorksen5828]

Excellent. We eagerly await episode 2 of "The 9th", the greatest soap opera ever written.

[@themusicprofessor]

OK. The 9th Symphony Soap Opera must continue...

[@michaelgonda8924]

Please please do the whole work, it's one of the most amazing pieces of music in Western history and it deserves a deep dive. Thanks for doing this!

[@clavichord]

Greatest symphony ever written

[@fredblogs6704]

Greatest piece of music written to date along with the late quartets. The 9th always makes me cry with it's sheer beauty.

[@r-bascus]

Really looking forward to the next video. And to the analysis of the second movment. And the first half of the 4th movement. How he starts with an explosion of sound with the whole orchestra. Like he's bashes himself in the head to get some melody, and the other movents try to squeese in, like "try me, try me" until the double basses takes command, and says; "How about this little tune" 😄In fact, I have different stories in each movement running in my head when I listen to them.

[@themusicprofessor]

All true. It's fascinating isn't it!?

[@jaydenfung1]

This is just brilliant! Brilliant! Thank you! Can't wait for the next parts. Those fifths are chilling.

[@mcrumph]

Yes, yes, yes, please do continue. Simply wonderful. & the sound was spot on,

[@johnboyd9854]

Thank you Professor for another fascinating video! The reaching back of composers to baroque influences/styles reminds me of how Rock musicians so often refer back to and invoke the Blues and also how Rock itself emerged out the Blues by continually expanding its vocabulary.

[@DressedForDrowning]

As much as I love Schubert and Mozart, Beethoven will always be my number 1. "He did a lot of crazy stuff to break up expectations" - and he did well.

[@joebloggs396]

All of the best composers break up expectations.

[@JW-ue1xg]

Very well presented. Thank you, and I'm looking forward to the next 'episode'.

[@nikhilr-q]

Loved it. Looking forward to the whole series. Analysing and presenting the entire 9th definitely won't be an easy task, but I'm certain you'll be able to pull it off.

[@petaterry1730]

Yes! More please! As an elderly novice, just learning to play "Fur Elise" but one who has loved the Nineth for decades, your analysis goes right over my head but is utterly thrilling - & somehow opens my mind in a mysterious & wonderful way. Thank you.

[@rayati2284]

As someone who has learned to play violin, the opening of the 1st movement also invokes violins being tuned, which does add to the "primal" nature of the piece. And yes, I do want a 2nd episode, and more subsequent episodes until the final note of the symphony, one of my favorite pieces ever.

[@mattieu8123]

This channel is arguably one of the best things KZbin enabled

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@jackvanderheijden375]

GEWELDIG...MANY THANKvS TO KZbin❤‼❤

[@ChristopherHH74]

perfect pronunciation!

[@OmarTravelAdventures]

First I appreciate how you identified that style as Toccata, I knew it was provoking something in me when Beethoven gets into that "mood," now I know it is resonating with Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Second, 14:09 I would say in the first movement he is retesting the past...with the intent to rejecting it in the beginning of the 4th movement then reincorporating it in a much more sublime way with the fugue of the 4th movement

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes - that's a very interesting thought.

[@stevenklimecky4918]

I love that cabinet!!! Probably would cost over 10 thousand to get something like that these days. Haven't even seen one like that in the U.S. You have an office furniture treasure there.

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you. It use to belong to my parents. I think it was originally an apothecary's cabinet.

[@TheGloryofMusic]

Nice observation about the dotted rhythms of the Maestoso section of the Opus 111. C. Rosen wrote that the 1st movement of the Sonata is a "combination of fugue and sonata form" and that the Allegro con brio "starts with what is evidently a fugue theme". Thus the whole movement resembles a French overture.

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes, that's right. Op 111 does the neo-Baroque thing a bit more strictly, but the two pieces are connected.

[@renatochacon289]

I would love a second episode :)))

[@MegaAlan54321]

This is fantastic. Please do the subsequent movements.

[@laurencestaiff7338]

Very interesting analysis, thank you. I really would like to hear this series continue. My favourite part of the first movement is the beginning of the development where he starts to shift the key of the opening, just before the bassoon solo.

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes! That's an inspired passage - with those magical shifts of harmony and the pp off-beat timps

[@TGMGame]

please do another episode. this is amazing!

[@themusicprofessor]

OK - I will eventually. The trouble is, although people enjoyed it, it hasn't been one of the more popular episodes on the channel...

[@waltersboxx]

The beginning is like quantum fluctuations at the beginning of the cosmos.

[@m.walther6434]

I recommend reading the so called Heiligenstadt Testament, witch is a letter, written 1802, from L. v. Beethoven to his brother Carl. The letter of a tormented soul, very moving.

[@WayneKitching]

I'm not a formally trained musician, but the beginning sounds to me like the strings tuning, which creates a sense of anticipation that something great is about to start.

[@MC-hx6xn]

Exactly what I thought

[@alexgrimsson6143]

wonderful exposition via theory analysis .........of some of beethoven's mid-late compositions

[@fredflintstone904]

I always love listening to your insights (and the music, of course.)

[@KidBlitzer]

Please keep going...

[@johannsebastianb4ss]

great video, Mathew is an very nice professor and personally this symphony is the one that made me realise that I wanted to be an orchestral conductor and love classical music, so it is very special to me. And about the "open primal 5th", that's a think that Mahler wanted to comunicate in his first Symphony "Titan", with the pianissimo intensity, the birth and growing from the nothingness.

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes indeed - Mahler 1 is an amazing opening isn't it!? If it's influenced by Beethoven, I'd say it's more like the opening of Beethoven 4...

[@Bethos1247-Arne]

I remember listening to this symphony for the first time. Music appeared, out of nothing. Like a big bang. Later I imagined stars forming. The second movement has wonderful parts, like distant memories. Later, we are almost an hour in, man appears in the universe (with the singers) now being able to steer the fate of the cosmos, reaching out to god. The piece ends in rejoicing, in the now.

[@richardgriffiths4791]

I've always considered the first movement of the ninth Beethoven's greatest symphonic achievement.

[@jeffreyjeziorski1480]

Yes, it is quite the tone poem

[@CerebrumReality]

Nice Video😀

[@jamesboswell9324]

Of course we like it. It's Beethoven's 9th. What's not to like? ;)

[@GyulaSzaboM.-zx6qv]

And just not to forget: Beethoven is the Mozart of music! So I am eagerly waiting for the second theme (and your next +22 episodes about the 9th symphony! :) )

[@MikeU128]

Speaking of Liszt's Beethoven symphony transcriptions, Konstantin Scherbakov's performance of the entire cycle is worth checking out IMO.

[@edwardtutman196]

The 9th can be called Genesis....Being mysterious is not the same as romantical... Thank you.

[@maximilianosotomayorga4977]

Thanks to Loki ❤❤

[@thomasr.jackson2940]

I look forward to the next episode (and more?).

[@cocoacrispy7802]

Thank you for taking a fresh look at the Ninth. Funny, but the beginning reminds me of the Matrix's Red Pill vs Blue Pill; the red pill (1st theme) and blue pill (2nd) being metaphorical terms representing a choice between the willingness to learn a potentially unsettling or life-changing truth ( taking the "red pill") or remaining in the contented experience of ordinary reality with the "blue pill" (the pleasure principle). I'd also like to hear how Beethoven transforms these themes, because so often we're preoccupied with ‘materials,’ i.e., chords, rhythms, instrumentation. These things matter, of course, but in the hierarchy of music, they are nowhere near the top. The most important thing, in my view, at least, is not the materials, it’s the transformation of those materials over time. It’s the story. That’s what listeners respond to. Where Beethoven exercises his individuality and produces a distinctive piece of music is in the trajectory of his materials: what happens. So could you cover a little of that, too, please?

[@themusicprofessor]

Interesting thought!

[@mertybaby]

Yes, please! It must be a lot of work, and it would take perhaps a dozen more to cover the rest of the symphony, but I find that your videos have the right amount of technical detail for me (rather rare, I’m afraid). Your style is effortlessly fluent, so perhaps it wouldn’t be too daunting…. Either way, thank you!

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@matthewrippingsby5384]

I think the reason Beethoven plays with musical structure is, it only becomes structure if it's conventional. By choosing to adjust cliché, you make music less accessible, but more individual. Regulating this experiment, I think, is the soul of classical style. 'Late' style doesn't give a flip about listener expectations: it knows what works. Holds true for Rachmaninov, too. Nice work, Professor: thank you!

[@richardscoates6835]

Bravo! I look forward to the sequel!

[@samaritan29]

This 'indepth analysis' is excellent, for those of you out there who want to watch some content more similar to this informative video, i recommend the beethoven symphony analysis series on '"Chairat Chongvattanakij" channel on youtube.

[@tommysterling69]

It’s a sin! Using Ludwig van like that! He did no harm to anyone. Beethoven just wrote music!

[@jameshannan367]

Yes! Please do a deep dive on the entire work. I often felt the very beginning with the 5ths reminded me of Creation itself, open to all possibilities, then the thundering theme is the voice of God full of terrifying and towering judgement as the unfathomable awesomeness of being is created. We mere humans can only bow in humility. And I’m not even religious!

[@jeffreyjeziorski1480]

There is this guy named Bach who is said to write a pretty good stick . His Mass in B Minor is considered a crowning achievement in Western Music.

[@jonathanirvin2201]

To paraphrase Oliver Twist "Please, sir, may I have some more?"

[@luisfelipegoncalves4977]

Could you do something discussing Bruckner's music Mathew?

[@themusicprofessor]

...Eventually yes. It's a BIG topic!

[@luisfelipegoncalves4977]

@@themusicprofessor Nice, specially since his symphonies are strongly inspired by Beethoven's 9th, and this year will be the 200th birthday of Bruckner

[@robertmueller2023]

I wonder how vital undamaged sound hearing is to a musician's career? I'd say very much so. It determines how high up in the harmonic series they are able to operate on, creating those luscious tone colors & harmonies. Of course Beethoven was already a master musician when his began to fail.

[@DeflatingAtheism]

What I want to know is how Beethoven managed to coach his nephew’s piano practice with failing hearing.

[@lukasfrancis4567]

Absolutely please for the love of god part 2

[@themusicprofessor]

OK! It shall be done!

[@BestFitSquareChannel]

Well done. Thank you. Best wishes.

[@Chirokelley]

Wonderful insight.

[@brianbuch1]

Yes, please. More of your great analysis.

[@rogeriomelofranco]

A second video would be excellent 👌🏼😀

[@willsober7161]

Excellent video. I would love to see future parts of it. The 4th movement so often steals all the attention, so I love to see the rest of the work get the credit it deserves.

[@DaninMaine]

Thanks, it's a nice symphony

[@dippadai]

I would appreciate a full playlist of the 9th :)

[@miguelgirao1079]

Great video! Please do a second episode!

[@edwardlloyd9468]

It's an A5 power chord used often in blues and rock. Bruce Springsteen may be the Boss, Elvis may be the King, Ludwig van Beethoven is the Godfather of rock n' roll!

[@MrChrisimpala]

Yes please make a second episode 🙏🏻

[@jamesboyd4912]

Very good. Thanks! Several revelations for me.

[@georgeharteman4083]

Yes please continue. But.. please slow down the speed of your explenations. For me as a non acedemic music lover it is difficult to follow although I understand to listen to the music professor. Thanks for your great piece of work.

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you. Sometimes the speed is regulated by the fact that I try to fit everything into about 20 minutes which isn't always easy!

[@vittoriodamico9079]

Yes please part 2 would be great!

[@Tolstoy111]

Please do a 2nd episode!

[@jacksonelmore6227]

Would you consider analyzing Wagner’s symphony in C? He wrote it when he was 19 apparently and it’s not fully flushed out or perfect, but I can’t stop listening to it would love to hear what you had to say of it given that context I repeatedly come back to rewatch your vids, so many insights!

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you. By an interesting coincidence, I 'completed' a symphony Wagner was sketching at the end of his life (kzbin.info/www/bejne/rp6VdWSkorSEd5Ysi=YyrwYQxy57x9Xo-j). I'll have a listen to the C major symphony - I know he was very fond of it.

[@jacksonelmore6227]

@@themusicprofessor I’ll check it out! 🙏

[@themusicprofessor]

The style is very different from the early symphony in C! Wagner's style travelled a very long way from the beginning to the end of his career!

[@jacksonelmore6227]

@@themusicprofessor wow pleasantly surprised and appreciative you took the time to listen and get back to me! But you’re right! Very Beethovenian

[@HJG0630]

Please, sir. I want some more.

[@markpogson3799]

Yes, yes. Encore, encore. 😅

[@anthonymorris2276]

Just a week ago, Australia’s ABC (the antipodean equivalent of the UK’s BBC) announced the results of a listener poll of the top 100 “feel good” works, spanning compositions from the baroque, classical and romantic eras, as well as opera, film scores, and some from popular and non-Western musical traditions. Beethoven’s 9th symphony was voted in first place. Is it a coincidence that Beethoven was born in 1770 - the same year that James Cook became the first European to set foot on the Eastern Coast of the Australian Continent?

[@themusicprofessor]

Interesting coincidence!

[@anthonymorris2276]

if anyone is interested, you can get the full list by searching Google for “abc classic fm top 100 feel good”. The top 10 (in reverse order) were:: 10. Leo Delibes: Lakmé 9. George Frideric Handel: Messiah, HWV 56 8. Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op; 36 7. Karl Jenkins: The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace 6. Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending 5. George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue 4. Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 'Emperor' 3. Georges Bizet: The Pearl Fishers 2. Gustav Holst: The Planets, Op. 32 1. Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral'

[@DeflatingAtheism]

It’s funny, I watched another video on Beethoven‘s 9th recently that discussed the “der ganzen Welt” part of the libretto while showing a globe with Australia front and center. My first thought was, “Did Beethoven know Australia existed?”

[@joebloggs396]

Beethoven was part of the enlightenment period which was optimistic, so were Bach, Mozart, Haydn.

[@anthonymorris2276]

@@DeflatingAtheism The existence of the Australian continent (or “great Southern land”) - though not its exact size and shape - was certainly known in Europe before Cook’s voyage, since the Dutch discovered the West coast of Australia centuries earlier, and had even reached Tasmania (Van Diemen’s Land, as they called it.) But the real question is whether Beethoven’s education was sufficiently broad to cover world geography. We tend to assume that, because Beethoven was a musical genius, he was probably also well-read and well-informed in other fields of knowledge. But his formal education was negligible, and it is doubtful whether he ever read a book that was not a musical score, or an anthology of poetry which could be set to music.

[@620Ramsey]

Beethoven fans (and otherwise) of this channel should check out a rather strange film called Lecture 21 - great cast including John Hurt - it’s about an eccentric Music Professor giving a lecture (which is also an allegorical death ritual involving the secrets of ice?) on how Beethoven’s 9th is overrated (and one of the main characters is as outraged as you). It has low ratings because there’s not much for people who aren’t music nerds, and it takes its small audience and infuriates them with some pretty wild claims. A few other issues are handled clumsily as well. But I think there’s a bizarre diamond in the rough there that appreciators of this channel will enjoy. It’s stranger than I’ve described. Happy musicking comrades xx

[@themusicprofessor]

Thanks for the recommendation. I've not seen it.

[@620Ramsey]

The author has done some fantastic fiction writing on music before, perhaps most obviously with a kind of play called: Novecento: pianist. But in another book, Ocean Sea, he structures a chapter like a rondo. Doesn’t call attention to it, but music people know. Interesting chap, Alessandro Baricco. Thanks the these amazing vids. I love them very much. Feel like I’m at yours on Boxing Day having a chat. :)

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you. Lovely comment!

[@YKLWEF]

Very nice. Your enthusiasm, combined with depth of knowledge, makes an irresistible presentation. More, please! I was delighted that you spoke of the harmonic series, something many skilled musicians know nothing about. Do you have any experience with music tuned in Just Intonation?

[@themusicprofessor]

I do, and I'm fascinated by these issues as a composer, although I don't consider myself in any way an expert on intonation.

[@philonymous]

More please!

[@DN-kz7xl]

Thanks.

[@jihanjoo]

Thank you so much, Professor, for this in-depth analysis with insights and information that will enhance my understanding and enjoyment of this extraordinary piece of art.

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@llanitedave]

I really enjoyed this. I've always thought that even if the choral movement had not been included, the parts preceding it still would have been among the greatest music ever written.

[@mikechad27]

21:49 i thought the tritone sub was a b2, because its a tritone away from the dominant. in this case C would be the b2 of B. but it went to Gb instead. hmmm.

[@themusicprofessor]

The progression is from C to F but instead of a standard perfect cadence, Beethoven then slips down to G flat (a tritone away) before approaching F chromatically.

[@yomibraester5063]

Lovely presentation! I'm looking forward to the next installment(s)!

[@ChristopherHH74]

Would love to have another episode on the 9th! Ta´hank you very much indeed anyway.

[@HavenDee28]

More! More!

[@huberth.2605]

so nice, thank you

[@markmmv]

I'm going to the 9th today, I've never listened to it live!

[@themusicprofessor]

Enjoy!

[@donovansnyder2898]

Please do the entire 9th! Love your presentation.

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@xeens6s]

Yes please with a second! Love your videos!

[@carbonmonoxide5052]

I would love a full series breakdown on it!

[@bobe5710]

Fantastic! Please make more.

[@elmerglue21]

Every piece doesn't start the same...but he does like to start pieces with a big, loud chord. Like the missa solemnis, 7th symphony, and 5th piano concerto all seem to start in a similarish way. 3rd symphony as well sort of.

[@belindadrake5487]

BEETHOVEN IS GOD! 😈✨👊🏾🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹

[@oliverpeters7485]

Great presentation and analysis - thanks to your very active assistant;-) Looking forward to the next part!

[@manco828]

The 1808 concert also featured the 4th piano concerto.

[@jeremykeller211]

The Tondichter! He knew the last wonder before the grave, he led captivity captive, and his courage and refusal to despair have saved countless numbers of those of us who have had to suffer.

[@danielliang9266]

I really like this. It felt like a very informative and entertaining class. Subscribing in hopes that more of this content is made!

[@lebannerfan65]

Very much looking forward to the rest of this series! Your videos are my favorite part of the week.

[@themusicprofessor]

Wow! Thank you!

[@the_eternal_paradox]

such a great video! I attended a performance of the liszt transcription on the day of the anniversary, but of course it was impossible to catch the little moments like that "tritone substitution" you talked about here! the soap opera format is great, if it gives you the time to go into such detail like this. looking forward to more :)

[@isaacbeen2087]

I think perfect intervals are called so because their inversion results in the same quality. Whereas imperfect intervals invert to the opposite quality, i.e. a *major* third becomes a *minor* sixth when inverted, and vice versa...does that make sense? whereas a perfect fifth becomes a perfect fourth when inverted-the quality is unchanged.

[@themusicprofessor]

That does make sense.

[@isaacbeen2087]

@@themusicprofessor Just something I remembered! Great video. Please make more! and good job with the Liszt transcription!

[@OmarTravelAdventures]

@isaacbeen2087 Thank you for the explanation. If you have time can you explain what quality means in this context? (I am a non-musician).

[@isaacbeen2087]

@@OmarTravelAdventures Brad Harrison has a great video on intervals that might enlighten you!

[@OmarTravelAdventures]

@@isaacbeen2087 Thank you. I will look for it.

[@William.Driscoll]

Thank you. Fascinating and moving.

[@ido9988]

Brilliant presentation. Hope you continue with this!

[@RudieVissenberg]

Thank you for the insight into one of the greatest musical works of all time. Makes it even more awesome.

[@ScottSV1VrV2]

Yes. Please continue. Fascinating

[@Chrisranthony]

Did I spot a bit of Bach creeping into the 2nd sentence? Sounded like the D minor toccata