# I like Beethoven! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448 "2006-03-15T14:34:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/41 "2006-03-16T20:57:04Z")
> [@Figaro](#): > > It makes me all fuzzy inside to see a Beethoven thread! Figaro? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in the Mozart thread? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/42 "2006-03-16T21:16:50Z")
Beethoven gives great aural sex. ---
**Author:** ![bclouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@bclouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bclouse)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/43 "2006-03-16T22:13:59Z")
Was listening to his 5th just the other night. It’s a little bombastic but I love it, especially the quieter moments. The swirling strings in it really are magic. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/44 "2006-03-17T03:15:20Z")
Trivia: the Beatles did a version of “Ode to Joy” (a short snippet in “A Hard Day’s Night.”) Though I love the 9th Symphony, I’m become a big fan of the 7th, too. I also love the violin concerto; I’ve heard Itzhak Perlman play it twice, live with the Philadelphia orchestra. The first time, he broke a string . . . . (No, really. But he just turned to the concertmaster and asked to borrow his violin, then played the rest of the first movement beautifully on an unfamiliar instrument.) ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/45 "2006-03-17T04:41:50Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > I sang in the chorus for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony a few years back. It still gives me goosebumps to listen to. By any chance was this with the Fort Worth Symphony in the late 80s? If so, I was in the chorus for the same performances. An amazing experience. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/46 "2006-03-17T11:43:07Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Trivia: the Beatles did a version of “Ode to Joy” (a short snippet in “A Hard Day’s Night.”) Actually, it’s in _Help!_ It’s where the “famous Beethoven’s famous 9th symphony” quote comes from. They do it to calm a tiger menacing Ringo, IIRC, and half of London joins in. It’s a very oddly Pythonesque moment… odd because it predates Monty Python by several years. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/47 "2006-03-17T13:39:18Z")
I know I’m going to suffer for this… but what the heck, in it goes. A visitor to Beethoven’s grave near Vienna was perplexed to hear music coming from out of the tombstone - he leaned over and listened carefully, and he realised it was Beethoven’s symphonies, all being played backwards; first the 9th, then the 8th, and so on. Completely baffled, he asked a local what was going on, and the man said… Oh, don’t worry - he’s just decomposing. I’m sorry! I truly am! But my fingers seemed to move of their own free will! 😃 To get back to the point, I’ve always loved Beethoven’s music for the enormity of the emotion that it creates - I delight in Mozart’s delicate interplay of interwoven harmonies, but for sheer spine-tingling power, Ludwig gets my vote every time. Astounding stuff. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/48 "2006-03-17T13:47:25Z")
> [@Miss Mapp](#): > > … odd because it predates Monty Python by several years. [Everyone forgets _The Goon Show_.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7205490#post7205490) ::sigh:: ;j ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/49 "2006-03-17T14:05:56Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > [Everyone forgets _The Goon Show_.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7205490#post7205490) ;j I’ve heard of it, but never seen it. Hasn’t been broadcast on PBS since the mid-70s, the way Python has. So tell me, did they ever have a sketch similar to the MP “Jerusalem/Buying a Mattress” sketch and the aforementioned Beatles Sing Along to the famous 9th scene in _Help!_? (my 1000th post!) ---
**Author:** ![Figaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Figaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Figaro)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/50 "2006-03-17T16:29:58Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Figaro? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in the Mozart thread? 😛 Well…yeah 😉 But I’ll take what I can get! If we’re talkin’ opera, I’m a heavy-duty Mozart fan. But once you get into the symphonies, stirng quartets, piano music, etc., sign me up for Beethoven every time. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/51 "2006-03-18T00:08:21Z")
Don’t forget the Russians! Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky… ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448/52 "2006-03-18T12:22:29Z")
> [@The Chao Goes Mu](#): > > Beethoven: The real father of rock n roll. I concur. The guy seems larger than life, romantic, perhaps arrogant; his work feels so innovative, daring: Beethoven made music that is poignant as well as powerful. Me, I’ll take the Sonata #8 (the Pathetique)…the Emperor Concerto…Fur Elise. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-beethoven/348448.md?page=2)