Happy 250th, Beethoven!

Today (December 17) marks the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's birth in Bonn. I'm pretty sure he needs no introduction from me, and I doubt I can say anything that hasn't already been said about this famous master of classical music, so I'll just note that Beethoven has long been one of my favorite composers, ranked up there next to Handel for music I love. As a teenager some of the first CDs I owned (yes, I'm old enough to have had them) were his nine symphonies, and while I've become acquainted with much more of his work in the past few years, those will always remain etched into my memory.

Beethoven wrote quite a few sets of variations on tunes, both original and from others (he wrote a set on the tune for "God Save the King/My Country ‘Tis of Thee", for instance), and while most of them aren't well known, they showcase to a particular intensity his propensity to experiment with tunes or motifs throughout his music, poking, prodding, stretching, inverting, mirroring, and just generally wringing every last drop of music out of a simple set of notes that he could. It's one of the things that I quite enjoy about his music, and which makes it unique.

There's a concept called frisson (from the French “to shiver”), which is the feeling of euphoria (often accompanied by feelings of chills and goosebumps) some people feel when listening to music. I only came across the term recently, but I've been familiar with the concept for a long time. I primarily enjoy classical music because of the various musical genres I've been exposed to it consistently has the largest fraction of works which induce frisson, and my ongoing quest to expand my horizons in classical music is ultimately all in pursuit of more works that cause it. In that quest, Beethoven is possibly the composer with the largest number of pieces which can provide that feeling of chills (though as mentioned Handel is right up there too), especially his works for strings; partly his many string quartets and piano trios (which have some sublimely frisson-inducing movements), but most especially in his sonatas for violin and piano, all ten of which have at least one movement capable of bringing goosebumps to my skin.

It's a bit difficult to discuss frisson, as it's an intensely personal feeling (and is apparently different for every person); merely discussing it feels like baring a part of my soul to public scrutiny. I read recently (in a study on the topic which pointed to the pleasure coming at least in part from being able to correctly predict remembered patterns) that only about 50% of the population feels it at all, so this post may not make much sense to half my readers; though perhaps even for my readers who can enjoy it, the individual nature of it may make trying to describe the exact notes and cadences that induce it like trying to describe a rainbow to the color-blind. Anyway, if you, like me, were familiar with the sensation but didn't know the name of it, I hope this post has been helpful, and I'd love to hear of any pieces that induce frisson for other people if you feel like sharing. A hui hou!