Sunday, February 10, 2008

Walter and Clarisse are a great example of a dysfunctional marriage. They are only able to communicate through the common language of music; however, their communication is completely scripted for them. Together, they sit at the piano to play Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy" as a duet. When they play the piano it is the ONLY time that they connect. I would never want to be in a relationship where it would be so easy to refuse myself to my husband because he simply played a piece of Wagner. This is totally manipulative and wrong (although, after years of having this thrown in his face, Walter now enjoys making Clarisse mad by playing Wagner); it is so sad.

It would also be hard to live in a society where dissonance was rejected. To me, I feel as if Beethoven would be halting society with the thoughts of perfection being reached with his 9th symphony. As discussed in class, yes this was a great work, and would be hard to top; but I am so thankful that other musicians came along and realized that so much more could be created and continued to work even though a large part of society had thought perfection had arrived. Could you image what the music scene would be like today? A bunch of Beethoven copy cats sitting and trying to continually thrive off of the energy created in Beethoven’s works... totally boring after 100 years of listening to it. I for one am extremely thankful we moved on! I also feel sad for Clarisse for not wanting the ‘new’
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