Well hello! Welcome to the first 'Song of the Week' post of Bloggcerto! Each week I will attempt to say something about a piece of music. This week's song is Beethoven's Fifth symphony. I looked it up and apparently, this song is a big deal! According to wikipedia, the piece was first performed in 1808 and since then has continued to persist within the culture ever since. On a cultural level, this is the type of piece which you can't remember hearing for the first time because it would seem you were born with the memory of its main theme (bah bah bah baaahhhh!!!).
That first motif, only four notes long, seems to connote a general sense of forboding and ill will. It has been described as the sound of FATE knocking on your door. There is no doubting the epic scope, and sound of this symphony but it always interesting to me that a song should inspire the same emotion almost universally between.....well everyone.
So, I found some examples of the theme which, essentially, inspire something else. Hopefully you will find these two examples humorous, but also realize that while this piece is hundreds of years old, it still finds ways into everyday culture which are meaningful.
The first example I would like to present is Walter Murphy's A Fifth of Beethoven. This disco-esque rendition of Beethoven's Fifth combines a clever title with some equally clever musicality. While the piece states the original theme, it then proceeds to combine that theme with a conventional dance groove popular to disco, creating a pretty hilarious contrast between how it is "intended" and how it is actually used.
We have Lil Jon to thank for our next example. The motif enters on the piano, with spoken vocals over the top, then finally gets into the heart of the song. Here's lil jon's Read a Book.
Hope you enjoy
Bye for now
JD
