Here’s a link to the piece in part: Für Elise - Wikipedia
Scroll down a bit and on the right, you’ll see a little “midi” player. Click on it and take a listen and tell me what you think please?
That little “(off-key”?) note has always kinda puzzled me. Like it isn’t supposed to be there, maybe his finger slipped and the note went sharp, he liked it and decided to “leave it in”?
(Musicologists, please note that I am primarily a drummer and all my notes are pretty much “straight across”, which is to say, while I can read some percussion, I cannot read piano, even though it’s a percussion instrument!:rolleyes:), so please forgive me if I’m missing something which should be obvious to me, okay? :))
Okay, so I wouldn’t appear completely dumb, I did some reading and the wiki article links to something called a “pedal point”:
Could this be what I am hearing?
I’ve just always loved that song and wondered what that note was doing in it, and I once dreamed that as he was composing in the heat of Summer ( I don’t think I’ve ever found exactly in what season he wrote it, but in my dream it’s Summer) and a drop of sweat might have blurred the ink so that it created that “note” (I know, I’m a bit of a romantic, sue me! :D), and the next time he saw it, he played it and liked it.
I also like the “mystery” of “Elise” and have done extensive reading on her and him - being that he is my favorite composer, finally concluding (like most everyone else, I guess) that it was originally entitled “Für Therese”. Therese being Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza (1792–1851), one of the women he was involved with romantically (possibly unrequited).
I’d like to read your opinions, and thanks!
Quasi