CDOQ

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) was one of the most innovative figures in the music history. I recently finished taking a class on Beethoven at Stanford taught by a brilliant music scholar, Stephen Hinton . The class was a fascinating journey into Beethoven's nine symphonies and into his life.  Beethoven played a key role in evolution of symphonies from classical period (1760 - 1820) to Romantic period (1820 - 1918). Following are a few key innovations he was responsible for:  1. Movements : A classical period symphony has three or four movements. They are usually in the sequence of Fast -> Medium -> Dance -> Fast tempo . The three-movement classical period symphonies follow Fast -> Medium -> Fast tempo. Beethoven experimented with and popularized the following in the Romantic period:  i) Changing the order of movements. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is an example  ii) Expand the number of movements. Beethoven's Sixth Sym...

Is it possible for anyone not to like waltz ?

Why is it that most songs in all cultures are about Love or God? What is about Love and God that makes people sing? And, why is there not much else that makes people sing?

I received overwhelming response from people re my previous post Discovery of Music and Visual Arts. All respondents disagree with what I learned from Dennis Russell Davies . Hence, the argument that generally, people fall in love with music "at first sight" does not stand. It is a good idea to validate what one learns from the "experts":-) Thanks for your feedback!

I listened to Liszt's "Dance of Death" live with Marc Andre Hamelin on piano for the first time yesterday at the Seattle Symphony. It was beautiful! In the Q&A session, I learned something very interesting from Dennis Russell Davies. Discovery of music is very different than discovery of visual arts (paintings). When you see new art in a museum, you may or may not like it. However, you can think about what you saw and go back to the museum a few times, look at it again and make up your mind if you really like the painting or not. On the other hand, when you hear new music for the first time - on radio, TV, or at a concert - if you don't like or don't understand it then chances of you thinking about it are very low. It is because you don't know if and when you will hear the music again. In addition, if you did not like the music you would not purchase it. It is possible that you may hear the music again by chance and start liking it enough to purchase it...

Why is music pleasing to our ears? How did the the trend of listening to music start? Why do people have different tastes in music? Why music is part of all propaganda? Why are the tunes from hundreds of years ago still popular today? Growing up, I always studied with music, went to bed with music, celebrated with music, shared my sorrow with music. Why is music so important in our lives?