On a cold day in Bonn 250 years ago today, The Creator gave humankind a wonderful gift that would last as long as itself. Ludwig van Beethoven was born and with him the most beautiful music ever composed. More than pleasing him with his divine gift to compose, the intention was to award humans with a treasure that would enrich their existence for centuries and millennia, as long as we or some other form of intelligence still exists.
Usually, when the subject of globalization and its benefits is analyzed, there is a tendency to ignore that one of its oldest and more important manifestations -long before the concept of telecommunications, much less the internet-, was the intercontinental extension of classical music. The scores -such invaluable treasure- would enable musicians worldwide to perform the compositions of the great masters, conceived thousands of miles away, perhaps in another century.
Those scores, besides representing the first universal language, when performed, give rise to another one, understood by everybody all over the world: music, that essential way to communicate emotions, situations, and ideas, or as experts say: “music and language constitute complementary components of the human communicative toolkit.” *
Many people and businesses have profited from Beethoven’s talent and increasingly continue to do it. Live performances, Copyrights on printed scores, recorded performances, and movie soundtracks, etcétera. For sure, had he been with us today, he would undoubtedly be included in the Bloomberg and Forbes lists of the wealthiest individuals.
Here, we celebrate the 250 anniversary of Beethoven’s birth by sharing with our subscribers a few links to great performances of some of his works. Enjoy.
* “Music as a communicative medium” Ian Cross, Ghofur Eliot Woodruff.
Centre for Music & Science, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge
West Road Cambridge CB3 9DP UK