Admiration and inspiration are what come to mind while listening to legendary Ludwig Van Beethoven’s symphonies. December 16 marks the birthday of the legendary composer who, along with Mozart, Schubert, J.S. Bach and their contemporaries, created the base of Western Classical music. Bengaluru musicians share their experiences of Beethoven’s music with us.
“Moonlight Sonata, to me, is something which has a unique scale, a unique structure and an enchanting melody. The irony of my life is that I teach my students how to play a Beethoven song but I have never played an entire symphony myself. When I first learned to play Für Elise, I figured out that a Beethoven song can help you evolve as a musician and explain a lot of technicalities about music,” says Jason Zachariah, pianist of Allegro Fudge.
Even guitarists learn to play Beethoven’s music for their Western Classical training. Geeth Vaz, guitarist of Lagori, says his first memory of Beethoven is when he heard about him composing his toughest symphonies after he turned deaf. “I think no one alive can just put his head close to a grand piano and compose music by just feeling the vibrations. This fact is so inspiring that I have decided to play his 5th Symphony on my guitar for his birthday,” he says.
It’s clear that Beethoven resides in every budding musician’s knowledge. Neha Ahmed, a piano teacher at Nathaniel School of Music in Bengaluru, says, “Recently, when my six-year-old student played Für Elise with absolute perfection, I was thrilled, stunned and overwhelmed. At that moment I realised that maybe that was my greatest achievement as a music teacher. That incident also made me realise that there is still hope for Western Classical music in this world,” says Neha.
