Beethoven was a master at portraying emotion in music. That is why the Romanticists loved him so. He was intense, emotional, and dramatic and he had the genius ability to portray those emotions in ways that still astound. Most fans of Beethoven have probably seen this video of an empathic toddler hearing Moonlight Sonata for the first time. I can so relate!
At a time when the world is still enveloped in suffering and sadness, Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14, Op. 131 embraces and expresses all the anguish that we are enduring. Completed in 1826, months before his death, this astounding work of art is so just everything. It is endurance, pain, confusion, questioning, despairing and yet hopeful in a dark time. I can imagine Beethoven, suffering, ill, facing his final months and questioning, “Is this all there is?” It is as if he faces this hardship with open eyes, love, pain, but refuses to give you an easy answer. He refuses to resolve anything here. But yet, there is love dwelling in every note, every rest, all the harmony mixed with discordance.
In this amazing dramatization by Music Animation Machine and Stephen Malinowski, it feels as if we are actually peeking inside the brain of Beethoven while he created this masterpiece.
Each color represents the note and style of each individual instrument. Our hero was fully deaf when he composed this, and it makes me wonder, is this how he heard the music in his head? Is this what he saw in his mind’s eye? The beginning is subtle, but by the time we reach the end we are seeing continents of color and explosions of music. We are experiencing raw genius and beauty made manifest.
No surprise that this same touching string quartet was used in the docu/series “Band of Brothers”, an epic exploration of the story of the “Easy Company” of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army in WWII. This short clip will give you a feel for both the music and the series.
To partner with this music is a poem that attempts to capture the essence of Beethoven’s musical intentions in this string quartet.
“The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned”
by Melanie Faithful
Dec 31, 2020
Cold wind,
white flecked
grey day
We drove past them
The cemetery
old enough for big trees
but young enough to
welcome you
They stood, 4 men
Bundled in
bulky coats
unfancy hats
circled round
the mound
As we sat at the light,
I watched them pass
the bottle
ritual like,
and thought of longing
January 1, 2021
A frozen blue noon, stark
above the Sangre de Cristos
on our regular road to home
We drove past them
The cemetery
old enough for big trees
but young enough to
welcome you
They stood
Cold congregants
with bright balloons
shoulder to shoulder,
ritual like
An unbroken circle
in the same place where
men share bottles
As we passed
I watched
and thought of love
Listening, going through this intense process seems to lighten the darkness of today. It does for me, and I hope it does for you. And especially, I hope it did for Beethoven. Until next time we meet, enjoy music, dive into poetry, and thanks for visiting thetonepoet.com.
Beautiful. Thanks.
Thanks for reading!
You continue to bring Beethoven alive for me…and to bring him into the 21st century. Your poem haunts and grieves.
Thanks so much for reading, and your kind comments!