Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Beethoven was ahead of his time

Nah, it's hatred. It's cool though. I understand how most classical fans get nauseous at a contemporary cover. (even if it is great)

Of course Beethoven was way ahead of his time. The Gross Fugue sounds like it was written by an Shostakovich or beyond... It far exceeds what is being written in metal music today in terms of it being modern. There are people today who find it modern. And this is a bit less than 200 years before it was written. So I guess it is safe to say that Beethoven was ahead of his time. But using the moonlight sonata as example doesn't present your argument very well as pieces like it were being composed within a decade.

This, from the comments section...

" It's almost like Beethoven knew it was meant to be played on electric guitar before the instrument was invented."

Just brilliant eh?

The funny thing about heavy metal music (or as a friend of mine one said, stainless steel music), once you remove the distortion, it's still unbearably loud.

It's a little known fact that Beethoven originally scored the Moonlight for electric guitar, drums and bass. Definitely ahead of his time. Unfortunately, his audiences didn't quite "get it" - so in desperation he reworked it for solo piano. Nice to hear the original version.

I thought the original scoring was for glockenspiel, ondes martenot and Hammond organ. But maybe that was for the Appassionata.....

You're correct - definitely the "Appassionatasonata."

That was awesome.

I am awestruck everytime I hear Beethoven. I'm constantly making new discoveries in his music, even with pieces I've been listening to for years. I listened to the Hammerklavier today in my car and it just made me stop in the parking lot until it was done.


Also, I don't like metal music, but I thought the guy with the guitar did a pretty good job.

I'm not a metal fan but wow, nice playing and amazing tempo. Didn't know that this was possible on electric guitar. As said, this fits electric guitar amazingly well and yes I guess Beethoven would have liked it . I'm a bit less convinced about the background stuff but I think the style needs 'something' there and that backdrop was okay

>The funny thing about heavy metal music (or as a friend of mine one said, stainless steel music), once you remove the distortion, it's still unbearably loud.

Huh? Just turn down your volume knob??

More than pretty good !!!

I was referring to a live performance of heavy metal music. It's loud.

I lasted a little over a minute, before the total silliness of it just got to me and I had to shut it down. I've got a healthy sense of the absurd, but that's asking too much...

For fast electric guitar playing, I'd rather listen to Jeff Beck doing original stuff, or old Mahavishnu Orchestra tracks, or any number of other virtuosi of that ilk - there are lots of them, just like in classical piano. There may even be too many of them, just like classical piano.

And too, standard rock, or prog rock, cover versions of classical music are almost invariably pretty lame, musically. IMO. Oddly enough, I've actually been thinking about doing a synth/electronica version of the Prokofiev Toccata, and I kind of know in advance that if I do it, it will suck. Just because stuff like that always does.

That's great. Remember these guys?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH9kiOZ9u_k

I agree 100%, and I've always been baffled by this. I like prog rock. I love Pictures at an Exhibition. Put them together, and the result is the worst of both worlds.

-J

Depends on how far away you are.. if you're in the pit, bring earplugs for sure.