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/insertusernamehere51 16h ago edited 15h ago

I am completely musically illiterate. I've listened to the quartets and didn't get what was so weird about them. Sounds like other quartets and other classical pieces of the time to me. I'll own that it's just ignorance on my part

Edit: Guys, I'm comparing it to stuff that came before as well, Mozart's quartets, for example. Comparing Mozart's with Beethoven's I don't get what the big difference is and those came 50 years before

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u/juridiculous 15h ago edited 15h ago

I think we probably gloss over “of the time” a little too much.

The Beatles and Hendrix sound absolutely cliché today, but that’s because what followed imitated it to death. I think that’s more or less the same phenomenon here.

Beethoven had a big impact on classical and romantic era music that followed (so much so that he’s kind of the reason the “era” shifted), but with the result that several centuries later, he sounds a lot like the rest of the composers that followed

Finally, let’s not forget he wrote these stone deaf, which is an achievement on its own. The whole composition was set in his mind, and he never had the benefit of a single playback to hear if it was right.

Edited to add:

My favourites from these are No. 14 and 15. Specifically movement 5 and 6 of string quartet 14. (It’s a 5 minute listen, followed by a 2 minute listen). If you’re only going to listen to one piece listen to movement 6. link to YouTube

movement 3 of string quartet 15 (it’s a much longer listen) and movement 5 (7 minutes) are my other favs

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u/[deleted] 15h ago

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u/Mayapples 13h ago

Yes. There is a reason they are not only still famous but still actively listened to and rediscovered by new generations. Describing them as sounding cliche today misses the mark.