What is the most famous four-note melody in the world? One where three of the four pitches repeat the same note?
Now that’s a toss-up: either the opening of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, a.k.a. “Fate Knocking at the Door” (dah-dah-dah dum) or . . . ready?. . . “Happy Birthday!” (dah-dah-de-dah).
But today, December 16th, you don’t have to choose. It’s Beethoven’s birthday! He’d be 239 years old today, not an anniversary that sparks commemorative festivals, but still a date to note.
Beethoven lived a tumultuous life of 57 years (1770-1827), a reasonable lifespan for his day. Subsequent generations took this restless, reclusive composer and turned him into the standard-bearer for Romanticism. And those portraits of his, the ones with rushes of hair and dark eyes piercing your soul [Joseph Carl Stieler]—well, they serve today as icons of “Artistic Genius.”
Beethoven would find all of this astonishing.
As it turns out, Beethoven’s music outlasted 200+ plus years of stylistic change. It still speaks to vast numbers of people. And although we consider Beethoven the quintessential “genius-rebel” today, he had little choice but to bow and scrape continually. It was customary, then, to write in self-deprecating prose to achieve every objective. Trying to learn in 1823 how King George IV responded to his gift of a score of Battle of Vittoria, Beethoven couldn’t simply ask. He had to write:
In thus presuming, herewith, to submit my most obedient prayer to Your Majesty, I venture at the same time to supplement it with a second [letter]. . . . For many years the undersigned cherished the sweet wish that Your Majesty would graciously make known the receipt of his work to him; but he has not been able to boast of this happiness. . . .
In other words “Hey, King George, what about that piece I sent you?”
Beethoven might have preferred our modern age, where celebrities’ personalities rise up flamboyantly and, if there’s enough media attention, give them leave for seemingly any action. But it’s highly unlikely our present age would inspire the depth, intensity, and originality found in those impassioned note he scribbled on paper.
Happy Birthday Beethoven!
