Johanna
01-02-2001, 06:50 PM
I had a musical epiphany the other day watching my orchestra conductor brother-in-law playing Vince Guaraldi's famous theme from A Charlie Brown Christmas on the piano. It is built using the same three notes at the beginning--that ascending figure that uses the "horn intervals."
"Horn intervals" are so called in music theory because they were traditionally played on a pair of French horns using the overtone series. They go sixth-fifth-third. The most famous use of them is in Beethoven's "Lebewohl" Sonata ("Les Adieux") in E-flat, Op. 81. There, Beethoven used them in a descending figure. Guaraldi played the exact same figure -- in reverse.
Do you suppose he deliberately jazzed Beethoven? Considering that the soundtrack for the Charlie Brown show had Schroder playing that tune. The well-known Beethoven fanatic.
"Horn intervals" are so called in music theory because they were traditionally played on a pair of French horns using the overtone series. They go sixth-fifth-third. The most famous use of them is in Beethoven's "Lebewohl" Sonata ("Les Adieux") in E-flat, Op. 81. There, Beethoven used them in a descending figure. Guaraldi played the exact same figure -- in reverse.
Do you suppose he deliberately jazzed Beethoven? Considering that the soundtrack for the Charlie Brown show had Schroder playing that tune. The well-known Beethoven fanatic.