| There was a short, pocked-faced, plain-looking man | | | | been a few people fluent in both languages, most |
| walking the streets of Vienna in the early 19th | | | | music geniuses have not been great mathematicians |
| century. No wonder all women he proposed to | | | | and vice versa; Beethoven often struggled with basic |
| rejected him and so he remained single all his life. The | | | | arithmetic. |
| poor thing! As a boy, much to the chagrin of his | | | | Furthermore Joseph Haydn, the father of the string |
| father, he showed no signs of being a child prodigy; | | | | quartet, considered it as great conversations with |
| he was often crying, as he was forced by his father | | | | nature. And many scholars consider the string quartet |
| to play the piano. | | | | as the pressure cooker of music, the most |
| And yet most scholars, musicians, and music lovers | | | | demanding musical genre, the brightest jewel in the |
| worldwide would agree with this statement: "A | | | | crown of music. It is by far the best medium to |
| universal genius widely regarded as the greatest | | | | write absolute music. |
| composer who ever lived, Ludvig van Beethoven | | | | Moreover Beethoven spent the last two and a half |
| dominates a period of musical history as no one else | | | | years of his life writing nothing but string |
| before or since." (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 14, | | | | quartets-Opuses 127, 130, 131, 132, and 135-when he |
| p 737a) | | | | was totally cut off from society because he was |
| Music scholars and composers consider these music | | | | stone-deaf. Doesn't this fact tell us something? He |
| genres as the main ones: piano sonata, piano | | | | was sensing that his life on this gorgeous planet was |
| concerto, violin concerto, opera, mass, symphony, | | | | coming to an end; he loved nature deeply and took |
| and string quartet. Most scholars would agree with | | | | long walks to gather musical ideas, which he jotted |
| my evaluation here: | | | | down using a carpenter's pencil. So he zeroed in on |
| Best piano sonata ever: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No | | | | the most beautiful medium, the string quartet, to |
| 29 in Bb, Opus 106, "Hammerklavier" (1817-18) | | | | express abstract, concise, beautiful musical ideas. |
| Best piano concerto ever: Beethoven's Piano | | | | Therefore "The five late string quartets contain |
| Concerto No 5 in Eb, Opus 87, "Emperor" (1809) | | | | Beethoven's greatest music, or so at least many |
| Best violin concerto ever: Beethoven's Violin Concerto | | | | listeners in the 20th century came to feel." (The New |
| in D, Opus 61 (1806) | | | | Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second |
| Best opera ever: Mozart's Don Giovanni. But | | | | Edition, 2001, Volume 3, p 106a) |
| Beethoven's Fidelio, Opus 72 (c1803-05; 1814), follows | | | | Thus to me Beethoven is the greatest composer |
| very closely. | | | | ever and his String Quartet No 14 is the greatest |
| Best mass ever: Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D, | | | | piece of music of all time. "...Beethoven next wrote |
| Opus 123 (1819-23) | | | | the most closely integrated of all his large |
| Best symphony ever: Beethoven's Symphony No 9 in | | | | compositions. From this point of view, the Quartet of |
| d, Opus 125, "Choral" (1822-24), or his Symphony No | | | | C# minor op. 131 may be seen as the culmination of |
| 5 in c, Opus 67 (1807-08) | | | | his significant effort as a composer ever since going |
| Best string quartet ever: String Quartet No 14 in c#, | | | | to Vienna. The seven movements |
| Opus 131 (1826). | | | | [c#-D-(b)-A-E-g#-c#] run continuously into one |
| The string quartet is my favorite music genre | | | | another, and for the first time in Beethoven's music |
| because it's the most concise and elegant of all music | | | | there is an emphatic and unmistakable thematic |
| genres-it expresses deep thoughts and ideas in a | | | | connection between the first movement and the |
| few phrases, just as mathematics expresses the | | | | last-not a reminiscence, but a functional parallel which |
| deep secrets of the universe using a few symbols. | | | | helps bind the whole work together. A work of the |
| The languages of music and mathematics have the | | | | deepest subtlety and beauty.... |
| same ground of being. But even though there have | | | | |