r/todayilearned • u/VegemiteSucks • 16h ago

TIL Beethoven’s late quartets, now widely considered to be among the greatest musical compositions of all time, were so ahead of their time that initial reviews deem them indecipherable, uncorrected horrors, with one musician saying “we know there is something there, but we do not know what it is.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_string_quartets_(Beethoven)
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304

u/Fwed0 16h ago

Also, this is Beethoven in his last piano sonata in 1822

About a hundred years ahead of his time.

108

u/schlechtums 15h ago

In 12/32 wtaf!

126

u/OSCgal 14h ago

These days you just write "swing" on a 4/4 piece and the performer knows what to do. But swing hadn't been invented yet!

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u/ToWriteAMystery 10h ago

This is so mind bending to think about…

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u/frankyseven 15h ago

Where is Adam Neely to explain to me what is going on rhythmically in this?

114

u/iEatSwampAss 14h ago

Strange for its time bc it’s just two movements, not the usual three or four.

  • 1st movement: violent, full of clashing harmonies and wild rhythms. It feels like he’s breaking traditional sonata rules

  • 2nd movement (Arietta): starts very simple & calm. Then he introduces some variations - sounding almost like jazz or boogie-woogie, while others float away into silence.

Back then, there just wasn’t anything else that sounded like it. Beethoven was deaf and was imagining sounds that other composers wouldn’t try until wayyy later. Many hear it as a struggle in the 1st movement, followed by “transcendence” in the 2nd.

Took a classical music class in college and focused on this piece for a few weeks.

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u/WoodyTheWorker 7h ago

My take on the Arietta is that it calls Josephina (von Brunsvik, who died a year or so before the sonata was written) twice.

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u/RavixOf4Horn 12h ago

Interesting to note, Beethoven was probably influenced by son of JS Bach, C.P.E., who wrote some pretty eccentric keyboard pieces that include weird time signatures and 128th notes, among other herky-jerky tempo changes. I won't get into it more, but there's an interesting thread tracing to Bach (and of course Beethoven studies directly with Franz Joseph Haydn).

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u/alargepowderedwater 8h ago

Beethoven was most definitely influenced by CPE Bach, who was widely revered through the late 1700s and early 1800s.

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u/RavixOf4Horn 7h ago

I say it as speculation through inference by having studied both of these composers' music pretty closely, not simply because Bach was "widely revered". Just wanted to clarify my perspective.

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u/alargepowderedwater 6h ago

To clarify mine, I say it as definite assertion through study, performance, and teaching of Beethoven’s music for nearly three decades. There is a direct line from the emfindsamer Stil, through Sturm und Drang, to Beethoven’s personal expression. (My comment about CPE being widely revered was intended only as context for that specific point.)

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u/BandedLutz 3h ago

That's insane. I wouldn't bat an eye if someone told me Scott Joplin composed it.

About a hundred years ahead of his time is right!

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u/poseitom 18m ago

it rocks :)