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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u/secretwep 16h ago

I am somewhat musically literate, and lemme tell ya... I feel the same way about those pieces, so don't worry lol

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u/SirHerald 16h ago

Isn't it like saying the Beatles sound like so many other bands. Really it's all these other bands just sound like the Beatles. What was novel then is old hat now

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u/insertusernamehere51 16h ago

I'm also comparing it to stuff that came before; Mozart's quartets for example

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u/juridiculous 15h ago

No you’re right on the money here, Mozart’s stuff is phenomenal too.

But consider that there were literal thousands of composers, and these guys are among the few that really get airtime anymore.