Everything I Know About Music

Don't worry--this won't take long.

During a Music for Poets class that I took years ago, when our teacher played for us Beethoven's 7th Symphony he explained to us that in the 2nd movement, in the 85th measure, the tympani--after going boom -rest-  boom -rest- , goes -rest- boom--which from what I gathered was supposed to be an indication of Beethoven's ingenuity and sense of humor.

With that handy bit of info, I can now participate in any conversation about music--something that I have done on average about once every ten years since then.

Here are the measures in question (click to enlarge--you can get the complete sheet music for the movement here, in PDF)


and here is the second movement by the Amarillo Orchestra on August 18, 2007. I set the video to begin a few measures before. Once you hear the timpani, just follow the score above.



Now, when you are caught in a conversation about classical music, you can talk about Beethoven's ingenuity and sense of humor too.

BTW, that same teacher also taught us the words to Schubert's Unfinished Symphony:

This is the symphony, that Schubert wrote but never finished,
This is the symphony, that Schubert wrote but never finished
No never,
No never...

(According to Google there are about 1,740 websites that have this or some variation)

Here, try it out for yourself, it starts at 1:44 into the piece:



One final note: my 15 month old son has learned how to turn on our CD/tape player. The other day, he turned it on--and out came Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor--and he came running. He ended up traumatizing himself and will probably be turned off to classical music for life:



End of lesson.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and Schubert's Unfinished Symphoney and Bach's Toccata and Fugue and Classical Music.