Final Idea : How Did "The Eroica" Symphony No 5 Make You Feel?

Ok, So today I started to interview people about what emotions they felt after they listened to Eroica Symphony by Beethoven. My aim was to interview as many people as possible so that I could obtain a variety of responses that I could then record by eithar filming them or by taking some pics. I was able to get about twenty poeple to take part.....and even that turned out to be a bit of a mission. Some people just weren't interested as they thought I was trying to sell a product....or too get them to sign up to a charity or something ! However, Those that were willing were really co-operative and friendly. After moving about from place to place I decided that the best place was probably going to be around Soho/Covent Garden and the galleries. I just think people have more time for each other around there as lots of tourists often stop to watch the Public performances and to take a break etc. After finding someone that would take part I got them to listen to the Symphony. I then asked them to explain how they felt whilst listening to the track which I filmed. If they had some more time to spare afterwards, I asked them if they could choose one emotion to write down whilst I took a photo. I found the different responses really interesting as each person had something different to say. It also seemed that what they wrote and how they wrote it represented something about them. I think this clearly illustrates that people feeling's vary when they listen to Music. So what's up next?......Editing down the photo's and film clips by choosing which ones are the best for the presentation.

Here is the link to the "Eroica" Symphony No5:

"The Eroica", Symphony No5

Here is the link to a picture slideshow:

My Picture Slideshow

Here is the link some film clip's:

Movie_01.mov
Movie_02.html
Movie_03.html

Deconstructing the Moonlight Sonata On Garageband:

After viewing Rebbeca Horns sculpture " Concert For Anarchy" I was inspired by the way in which such an iconic instrument such as the Grand Piano can be deconstructed to an extent where its contextual meaning can be viewed in different ways. As Beethoven constructed many of his most famous on a Grand Piano I started to wonder if there was a way in which to deconstruct one of Beethoven's symphony to an extent whereby it could be appretiated in other ways. Beethoven had a unique method in composing many of his works by writing and constructing a composition for each instrument in seperate layes.....It would be interesting to see if this works out.

After searching the net for MIDI soundfile's I decided to choose to deconstruct the Moonlight Sonanta. This is one of Beethoven's most famous and emotionally driven pieces of work. I was inspired by the way in which Beethoven composed music in layers and wanted to represent this more evidently. So here's a screenshot taken when I was working in Garageband by seperating each layer individually which I woud then save and export as an MP3 file format. I had to originally work with MIDI files which is a shame for such a complex piece of music as the soundfiles aren't great for quality in comparison to MP3 files.

So here are the links to the finished files: There is one file of the original version and the others are the deconstructed layers.

Moonlight Sonata 01.mp3
Moonlight Sonata 02.mp3
Moonlight Sonata 03.mp3
Moonlight Sonata 04.mp3

Some Initial Outcome Ideas:

Ive started to become interested in the way in which Beethoven evoked a sense of emotion through his writing and the delivery of his performances. I find it interesting how poeple are emotionally affected by Beethoven's symphony's in different ways. Beethoven's intention was to interact and evoke the emotional senses of his audience during a performance.

After conducting my Research on Beethovens life I found out that during the Premiere of the Eroica Beethoven's his deafness was so bad that it resulted in him not being able to hear the applause of his own audience. As his disability worsened the only way poeple could communicate with the composer was by writing thing's down. I think it might be interesting to take this concept further and look into ways of representing music and how an audience feels about the music they are listening too in visual term's.

As music communicates different messages and emotions to different people I think it is will be important to interact with the audience by going outside and interviewing as many people as poss. I might be interesting to play them the Eroica Symphony by recording how people feel about the music today.

Beethoven and his Power to Evoke Emotion:

A picture showing Beethoven's audience felt different emotions whilst listening to him play one of his many Piano Cincerto's .

An Interesting Article:

Professor Robert Greenberg Writes:

"Beethoven possessed a unique gift for communication. He radiated an absolute directness that makes his music totally accessible. The sheer emotional power of his music is readily understood. His revolutionary compositional ideas are easily appreciated and his nine symphonies are among the greatest achievements of the human spirit. They were revolutionary on every level: harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, formal, dramatic, self-expressive, and emotional. Beethoven led the charge to a totally new era. He threw out the restraint of 18th-century classicism and ushered in romantic self-expression. His symphonic offspring were the first statesmen of this new, musical democracy."

I also came across some Beethoven quote's:

"My heart is full of many things.....There are moments when I feel that speech is nothing after all"

" I wish you music to help with the burdens life, and to help you release your happiness to others"

" I have thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out: That is the reason why I compose"

The Dictionary Meaning of Emotion:

• An affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness.

• Any of the feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, hate, love, etc.

• Any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear, etc., and usually accompanied by certain physiological changes, as increased heartbeat or respiration, and often overt manifestation, as crying or shaking.

• An instance of this.

• Something that causes such a reaction: The powerful emotion of a great symphony.

Beethoven and the 21st Century: Download Sales.

I came across an article on the net relating to the internet download sales of Beethoven's music which were recorded after the BBC played all of his complete symphonies during Beethoven week in June. The final figures realised by the BBC show that the complete Beethoven symphonies were downloaded from the website 1.4m times, with individual works downloaded between 89,000 and 220,000 times. After coming across this article I started to become interested in the ways in which Beethoven formed a direct relationship between his audience and the music he composed. This maybe an interesting area to research and develop ? When studying the statistics it is clear that Beethoven's music still remains popular indicating that his music has become a set of timeless masterpieces which still connect and communicate to different people in different ways. It would be interesting to investigate these stats further by collecting some primary research maybe through eithar a questionnaire or a set of interviews, It might even require finding out whether poeple still recognise his music when it is played to them and then filming thier answers or reactions, All I know is that it requires going out and interacting with the public......Im not sure quite how Im going to develop this just yet.

Here are the stats based on Beethoven's download sales.....Im suprised to find the Eroica (Symphony No 3) is in at No 8 considering this was one of his most recognisable work's, Its wasn't all that popular at the time of it's premiere but deos these stats prove that it seems to remain that way even today? :

Symphony No 7

185,718

Symphony No 1

164,662

Symphony No 9 (Choral)

157,822

Symphony No 2

154,496

Symphony No 8

148,553

Symphony No 5

139,905

Symphony No 4

108,958

Symphony No 3 (Eroica)

89,318

Total

1,369,893

Weblinks:

Here are some weblinks I found really useful throughout
my research into Beethoven, I will definately use these links for future referencing:

www.beethovenshair.ca
www.lvbeethoven.com
www.raptusassociation.org
www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de
www.madaboutbeethoven.com
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/beethoven

Rebecca Horn's Concert For Anarchy, 1990:

Concert For Anarchy, 1990.

Painted wood, metal and electronic components
sculpture.

After visiting the Tate Modern I discovered this scultpture by Rebbecca Horn called "Concert For Anarchy". The Sculpture has a mechanism within the piano which is timed to go off every two to three minutes, thrusting the keys out of the keyboard in a cacophonous shudder. The keys, ordinarily the point of tactile contact with the instrument, fan disarmingly out into space. At the same time, the piano’s lid falls open to reveal the instrument’s harp-like interior, the strings reverberating at random. This unexpected, violent act is followed between one and two minutes later by a retraction as the lid closes and the keys slide back into place, tunelessly creaking as they go.