Beethoven - String Quartet No. 15 in A minor (3 of 6)

[LiberationTrail150]

Ich kann mir keine andere Zusammensetzung, die größer ist in Wahrheit als dieses Meisterwerk ist zu denken.

[manthasagittarius1]

This is the music used in the film "The Soloist" when the schizophrenic Nathaniel Ayers first puts his hands on a cello again and begins to play, and you realize that the perseverating lines he has been playing on the violin are only the cello part, and that he can hear the other lines even though no one listening to him can. Hence the sad irony of his being a "Soloist" -- he's an ensemble man all the way, but he is trapped in his own head by his disorder into playing and being always alone.

[VariationsOnNoTheme]

Fidelio and this Heiliger Dankgesang are my absoulute favorite works of Beethoven!!! Oh, as an aside, this movement was arranged for men's chorus in 1894 for the funeral of the pianist-conductor-composer Hans von Bulow(1830-1894).

[auerstadt06]

Does it really matter if there is a god when men can produce something as heavenly as this?

[erika64F]

@auerstadt06

I agree with you, this sublime music is a gift from Beethoven and the rest no matters.

a french one.

[amadeus9man]

@PhysicalsimForever I'm pretty positive that he did believe in God. We know from records that he didn't attend church services, but he did seem to profess an individual belief. Apart from this movement with "thanks to the Godhead" we also have the wonderful Missa Solemnis, which seems as good a marker as any for sincere faith. The Klemperer version on EMI is wonderful, fully recommended.

[soulsbreaker]

can somebody plx tell me wtah beethovel song is this?

/watch?v=08YlXflIoNM&feature=p­layer_detailpage#t=77s

[spinoza1111]

The thing to remember is that the Nazis listened to this. Which means that at some point in prehistory, art and religion stopped being one thing (a nameless awe in the forest) and went their separate ways, and need to find each other. Imagine there's no heaven.

[nsimington]

@spinoza1111 - no, the Nazis appropriated classical music to glorify and justify their political program. And they did so in much the same way as they appropriated science: with violence and incomprehension. Far from fostering music's growth and appreciation, in truth, the Nazis chased most of the best living musicians out of Germany when they came to power, often for racial reasons, just as they drove out scientists. Specifically Nazi art and music was banal and bad and is justly forgotten.

[spinoza1111]

Emily had the faces right: eyes not meeting

Mourning in the evening of the world.

Audience members thinking in their black

“It’s so strange that Joe won’t be coming back”

From "Heilige Dankgesang Dec 1945", by Edward G. Nilges.

[spinoza1111]

After great pain a formal feeling comes--

The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;

The stiff Heart questions--was it He that bore?

And yesterday--or centuries before?

Emily Dickinson

[Snezhinka9]

so much pain in this. It makes me think of an empty house on a sunny day, of a hotel full of strangers you dont know, of a sunset above a still lake. I know all of this sounds cheesy, but that's what I imagine, because its so bittersweet, and tragic in a calm, accepting way.

[logofatubaldovin]

...this is as close as one can get to divinity Here is a place of disaffection Time before and time after In a dim light: neither daylight Investing form with lucid stillness Turning shadow into transient beauty With slow rotation suggesting permanence Nor darkness to purify the soul Emptying the sensual with deprivation Cleansing affection from the temporal. Neither plenitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker" Ts Eliot, First Quartet

[spinoza1111]

@logofatubaldovin Excellent linkage.

[goggyli]

@logofatubaldovin in my begining is my end

[JCarter3000]

The artwork is the icing on the cake.

[goggyli]

4:06 - 4:10...what else can Humanity ask from one and only Man...he was the one...

[dabarnes]

Best string quartet ever. Even better than Haydn's Emperor.

[silverknight169]

There is no other piece in the world that will ever match what Beethoven has composed and this is the only evidence I need

[spinoza1111]

@silverknight169 I think, with all respect, that it's wrong to say "this music is so great that it shall never be surpassed". Why? Because if humanity is to survive, this music must be surpassed. We need another Beethoven, not necessarily musical, far more than iPad 2. I'm not saying it has been surpassed. I'm saying that we need to save our ass. God ain't coming unless he comes, like a thief in the night, and through our own small efforts to be kind and to be thankful.

[Captain0Pi]

Thumbs up if you think this is better than Justin Bieber!!

[kyla2112]

@Captain0Pi Duh! lol

[arlongan]

@Captain0Pi Stop saying nonsenses -- Everything is better than her.

[alarihos81]

@Captain0Pi Ok, I imagine your intentions were good, but do you understand how insulting it is to even think to compare one with the other and invite people to think the same way? This piece defined and still continues to define WHAT ART IS and according to that definition bieber's and every single mass market pop bullshit song addressed to half-conscious consuming mall dwelling primates is as artful as a fart-noise. So what you said is: "Thumb's up if you think this is better than a fart noise"

[alarihos81]

@Captain0Pi If Beethoven could hear that comment I'm pretty sure he would demand satisfaction (that is challenging you to a duel to the death). Believe me he could not stand people comparing his music to farts..... And nor can I, so since Beethoven is not around: DON'T DO THAT AGAIN. It is an insult to (some) people's intelligence, to Beethoven's art and memory and evem to yourself. Some things simply CANNOT be turned into a fucking popularity contest. No comparison. None. End of discussion.

[Resalberto]

@Captain0Pi That was the name that should have not be mentioned just here... ;)

[AuntGert5]

This to me is the most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard.

[tractotus]

@AuntGert5 ...guess what? you are right!!!....it may be the greatest masterpiece of all western music

[jbbui]

god the cadence at 2:24 is so amazing.

[IIIXPCIII]

is this in lydian mode?

[amadeus9man]

@IIIXPCIII - You are correct, sir.

[ThreesecondHero]

Once again, thank you! Another piece I just really needed to hear again - and I've been hoping to hear the Takasc recording for a long time. You wouldn't happen to have a good recording of the last Beethoven piano sonata, would you? (I mean, you're 2 for 2 already...)