Richibi’s Weblog

  “Mona Lisa“ ( c.1503 – c.1519) 

 

      Leonardo da Vinci

 

             __________

 

 

the next sonata, Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata 

No 8 in C minor,  Op 13, the ‘Pathétique’“, 

is one that everyone’s heard, if only ever in 

fragments, right up there with “Jingle Bells” 

in our musical repertory, in our cultural DNA,

or, for that matter, Beethoven’s, also, other 

iconic piece, the “Moonlight Sonata“, the 

“Mona Lisa“, nearly, see above, of music 

 

the initial chords are peremptory, have 

resonated, echoed, reverberated, 

throughout the ages

 

this is not, however, the way one should 

be addressing the aristocracy, Beethoven

was speaking for the growing Middle

Classes, who, hungering for the status 

and refinement of the elite, the French

Revolution having just happened, were 

crowding the burgeoning concert and 

recital halls cashing in on that interest

 

the artist was now the main attraction,

where earlier the performer had been

merely decorative, the sponsored

employee of an, however benevolent, 

aristocrat, see Mozart, see Haydn

 

listen to Beethoven strutting, for the 

ages, his revolutionary stuff, thumbing

his nose at convention, demanding

attention

 

enjoy

 

 

R ! chard