How does Beethoven do this? (See details)
Asked by
ETpro (
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February 27th, 2011
At the end of tonight’s Oscars, they ran a sound clip form Best Movie The King’s Speech while they flashed a montage of the ten nominated movies on the screen. The music, from the 2nd Movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony had me weeping like a baby. It is so powerful and soaring. I am old enough now to hear what the composer is saying.
How does Beethoven reach out from 1815, take control of an orchestra today, and grab hold of my heart like it’s a raggedy ann doll? Does it affect everyone, or am I just so old and grizzled by life’s experiences so that I now hear what his music is saying?
Anyway, if Hollywood needs an old wizened looking guy who can honestly bawl like a baby, not hide his face in his hands and do a laugh/cry sound, but really tear up and cry openly, facing the camera; just put one of those tiny speakers in my ear and play the right piece of music. I can even tell the director what piece of music for a specific emotional outburst. What’s my chances at 67?
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22 Answers
I’ve been a composer for 40 years. There’s no emotional “formula” to tug a person’s heart with. But I can tell you this of my experience in that regard as a composer; that there are pieces that I’ve written that just seem to do that. And at this point some of those pieces have been performed somewhat consistantly for up to 20 years! It’s a terrific question. One I’ve thought often of. No doubt there’s a lot that has to do with culture. In our case, western music. But aside from that, I don’t know. I wish I could give you a better answer!!
@guitbox Any clips online so I can hear some of your work?
“Music is… a dreadful thing. What is it? I don’t understand it. What does it do?”
“It… it exalts… the soul?”
“Utter nonsense. If you hear a marching band is your soul exalted? No, you march. If you hear a waltz, you dance. If you hear a mass you take communion. It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer. The listener has no choice. It is like hypnotism.”
(I really love how this “conversation” is set to the Kreutzer, perfectly timed.)
@hiphiphopflipflapflop It’s like communication. Something the above indicates to me you need to work on. But thanks for the opinion.
It was good, but didn’t do anything for me. Weird. The latest thing that is catching my attention is a song from the end of an old video game, Portal. I find the lyrics mesmerising. That’s weird too. BTW – THE CAKE IS A LIE!
This has to do with the brain’s limbic system and the reward centers in particular. Music can be very powerful. Some fMRI scans reveal a certain resemblance to having intense sexual fantasies or experiences.
It looks like I owe @hiphiphopflipflapflop a huge apology. He was patient enough with my impetuous answer last night to PM me and simply ask, “Did you try the link?” I had not. I had reacted only to the quiets he lifted from the link. Today, I listened to the link. And what a reversal. If ever there was a great answer, @hiphiphopflipflapflop deserves it.
@ETpro It goes into your ears, vibrates your drums and, if it resonates with you, it tickles your hypothalamus, which then initializes feelings of awe, love, and euphoria. From what I’ve read, that is the part of your brain that gives you these feelings and also triggers memories when you hear or smell something which is pleasing to you.
Have you ever heard a piece of Beethoven and gotten that weird, head-crawling, spine-tingling sensation? I love that. It makes me feel that I am really alive. Now I am inspired to go listen to this piece you speak of. Thanks!
Edit: It might be the amygdala, not the hypothalamus.
@ladymia69 I hope you enjoyed the piece. And yes, I have gotten that spine tingling feeling from a number of Beethoven’s works. He is among my favority classical composers. Here’s an interesting article on new research into what happens in the brain when you first experience that sweeping rush of falling in love with someone. The same emotions seem to be in play in falling in love with music. I would guess it’s the same parts of the brain, and if that is the case then it is a pretty widespread, all-encompassing happening.
I get it from lots of classical pieces nowadays, like parts of the opera Carmen, and especially during certain arias. By the way, have you seen the movie “Aria”? It is from the 80s and involves several well-known directors directing visual min-films to go along with famous arias. It is well worth checking out! And I enjoyed this piece very much! I have not heard the Seventh Symphony in a long time, and Beethoven is a great favorite of mine also. He is sort of like a rock star to me.
@ladymia69 I will have to see if Comcast has Aria on its play-list. If not, I’ll get it from the Library’s film archive.
The finale of Shostakovich’s 9th string quartet is particularly special to me, for the sense of struggle through internal strife that it conveys to me. I was surprised to see it tackled so well by such young musicians.
@ETpro It is not easy to find, so see if maybe you can get it on interlibrary loan. Let me know what you think!
@ladymia69 The Boston Public Library has a pretty complete collectin of their own, and they can tap into the local University libraries and such through Inter-library loans. I use ILL all the time because my reading tastes include a lot of stuff on cosmology, the nature of time, politics, etc. I’m also researching cults and cult leaders right now, and some of the better titles on that topic are now out of print. So ILL.
@ETpro This is off-topic, but can you PM me some of the most interesting ones that are lesser known (cult leaders, i mean)? I mean, besides Jim Jones and that Heaven’s Gate dicksplash?
PM me to remind me and I will tomorrow. I’ve got a bunch of unanswered posts for tonight and the hour is late. :-)
And now for something completely different
She gets rock ‘n roll in a rock ‘n roll station
And a rock ‘n roll dream
She’s making movies on location
She don’t know what it means
And the music make her wanna be the story
And the story was whatever was the song what it was
The previous song raises some good points which are actually on topic. We can readily set own our own internal imagery to music that moves us. At the same time, in modern culture we are continually bombarded by imagery that is already set to music: movies, television shows, music videos, advertisements… This is a reinforcing two-way street.
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