Seiji Ozawa - Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92: II. Allegretto

Enjoy!

(239) Seiji Ozawa - Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92: II. Allegretto - YouTube

Lise Davidsen - Beethoven: Fidelio, Act 2: "O Gott, welch ein Augenblick!"

Enjoy!

Rumble strips play Beethoven's Ode to Joy in the United Arab Emirates when cars travel at 60 mph

Maybe you have to be born in the desert to come up with something like that! 😊

Was that the reason why Beethoven became totally deaf by about age 40? Just kidding!

"A stretch of highway in the United Arab Emirates now plays Beethoven’s Ode to Joy through rumble strips, using road grooves to create music when cars travel around 60 mph."

Wednesday, July 9, 2025 - Join The Flyover

What would he say if he was still alive?

Chinese and Japanese children hold a joint choir concert in Japan

Recommendable! Of course, they were singing Beethoven's Ode to Joy!

Beethoven: 8. Sinfonie ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Paavo Järvi

Enjoy! I can never get enough of Beethoven! This concert was performed in the concert hall the Alte Oper, which is located in the neighborhood I grew up in.

Beethoven’s DNA reveals he just wasn’t that musical. He had a low predisposition for beat synchronization. Really!

Maybe something is wrong with this genetic analysis study! Maybe beat synchronization is a poor indicator for musical genius!

"... The first genomic analysis of Beethoven’s DNA, focused on possible genetic predispositions to his health, didn’t investigate the composer’s most famed traits because, at the time, there wasn’t an informative genome-wide association study (GWAS) of musical talent. However, a subsequent GWAS involving 606,825 individuals identified the specific locations (loci) of 69 genes significantly associated with beat synchronization ability  ... A follow-up family study showed that polygenic indices had a small but significant effect on several music-related skills and traits.

Polygenic indices (PGIs) or a polygenic score (PGS) is a number that summarizes the estimated effect of many – hence, ‘poly’ – genetic variants on the physical manifestation of an individual’s genes. In the current study, the researchers calculated Beethoven's PGI and compared it with two population-based datasets of thousands of modern-day individuals for whom they had musical achievement data.  ...
“Interestingly, Beethoven, one of the most celebrated musicians in history, had an unremarkable polygenic score for general musicality compared to population samples from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Vanderbilt’s BioVU repository.”"

"... An international team of researchers analyzed Beethoven’s DNA to investigate his genetic musical predisposition, an ability closely related to musicality, by using sequences from a 2023 study in which the composer’s genetic material was extracted from strands of his hair. ..."

From the abstract (this is a very strange abstract, more like a teaser):

"Rapid advances over the last decade in DNA sequencing and statistical genetics enable us to investigate the genomic makeup of individuals throughout history. In a recent notable study, Begg et al. used Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair strands for genome sequencing and explored genetic predispositions for some of his documented medical issues. Given that it was arguably Beethoven’s skills as a musician and composer that made him an iconic figure in Western culture, we here extend the approach and apply it to musicality. We use this as an example to illustrate the broader challenges of individual-level genetic predictions."

Beethoven’s DNA reveals he just wasn’t that musical

Beethoven’s genes reveal low predisposition for beat synchronization (original news release) What the exceptional composer’s DNA tells us about genetics

Notes from Beethoven’s genome (open access)

Symphony No. 8: A tribute to Haydn | Gardiner and the ORR on Beethoven's Symphonies

Very recommendable!

Symphony No. 7: Dithyrambic abandon | Gardiner and the ORR on Beethoven's Symphonies

Very recommendable! Great storytelling by John Eliot Gardiner! Great imagery!

What Beethoven's DNA reveals about his death, health and family

Amazing stuff! What if it still was the wrong hairs?

"... A comprehensive DNA analysis conducted by an international team of researchers challenges longstanding beliefs about Beethoven’s health, his death, and even his lineage. Notably, a famously documented lock of Beethoven’s hair, celebrated in literature and film, was proven not to be his, but rather from an Ashkenazi Jewish woman. ...

You may have heard about the theory that Beethoven suffered from lead poisoning, but this too was dismissed by the genetic analysis Moreover, the research disassociated Beethoven genetically from a Flemish family in Belgium, who had long claimed kinship. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• Eight locks of hair attributed to Ludwig van Beethoven underwent genomic analyses

• We deemed five of these authentic and sequenced Beethoven’s genome to high coverage

• Beethoven had a predisposition for liver disease and became infected with hepatitis B

• We also discovered an extra-pair-paternity event in Beethoven’s paternal line

Summary

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) remains among the most influential and popular classical music composers. Health problems significantly impacted his career as a composer and pianist, including progressive hearing loss, recurring gastrointestinal complaints, and liver disease. In 1802, Beethoven requested that following his death, his disease be described and made public. Medical biographers have since proposed numerous hypotheses, including many substantially heritable conditions. Here we attempt a genomic analysis of Beethoven in order to elucidate potential underlying genetic and infectious causes of his illnesses. We incorporated improvements in ancient DNA methods into existing protocols for ancient hair samples, enabling the sequencing of high-coverage genomes from small quantities of historical hair. We analyzed eight independently sourced locks of hair attributed to Beethoven, five of which originated from a single European male. We deemed these matching samples to be almost certainly authentic and sequenced Beethoven’s genome to 24-fold genomic coverage. Although we could not identify a genetic explanation for Beethoven's hearing disorder or gastrointestinal problems, we found that Beethoven had a genetic predisposition for liver disease. Metagenomic analyses revealed furthermore that Beethoven had a hepatitis B infection during at least the months prior to his death. Together with the genetic predisposition and his broadly accepted alcohol consumption, these present plausible explanations for Beethoven’s severe liver disease, which culminated in his death. Unexpectedly, an analysis of Y chromosomes sequenced from five living members of the Van Beethoven patrilineage revealed the occurrence of an extra-pair paternity event in Ludwig van Beethoven’s patrilineal ancestry."

What Beethoven's DNA reveals about his death, health and family Research explores Beethoven's heritage through his DNA.

Genomic analyses of hair from Ludwig van Beethoven (open access)

Graphical abstract

Symphony No. 6: Pantheism and camaraderie with John Eliot Gardiner

Enjoy!

J. S. Bach-Stiftung - Beethoven - Symphony no. 3, opus 55 “Eroica”

Enjoy! "Live Recording. Performed on period instruments"

Beethoven's Hair: Unlocking Ludwig's DNA

Amazing stuff!

Ode an die Freude

Habe es gerade mal wieder gelesen nach einer Weile! Wahrscheinlich eines der schönsten und gewaltigsten Gedichte in deutscher Sprache! Jedesmal wenn ich es lese oder höre ein wahrlich "schöner Götterfunken"!

Alle Menschen werden Geschwister!

Original German Text by Friedrich Schiller | Carnegie Hall

World premiere of Beethoven X. Symphony – The AI Project

Enjoy! Beethoven's unfinished X. symphony recreated with the aid of artificial intelligence! It premiered on October 9th, 2021!

"The master left behind around 200 fragmentary sketches of the Tenth Symphony, presumably in four movements. A human composer in 1988 completed two movements, for which more source material was available, so the team set out to compose two more.

Matthias Röder, director of the Karajan Institute, which promotes uses of technology in music, led musical experts in deciding how the sparse contents of the remaining sketches might fit into a symphonic format. Meanwhile, Rutgers University professor Ahmed Elgammal built an AI system to expand the sketches into a fully orchestrated score.

Elgammal adapted natural language models to music, he told The Batch. The system included components that generated variations on melodic themes, harmonized the results, created transitions, and assigned musical lines to instruments in the orchestra. 

He trained the models first on annotated scores music that influenced Beethoven, later on the composer’s own body of work. To train the melodic model, for instance, he annotated passages of theme and development. Then he fed the model thematic material from the sketches to generate elaborations on it.

The system eventually generated over 40 minutes of music in two movements. ...
Behind the news: In 2019, Huawei used AI powered by its smartphone processors to realize the final two movements of Franz Schubert’s unfinished Eighth Symphony. The engineers trained their model on roughly 90 pieces of Schubert’s work as well as pieces written by composers who influenced him. A human composer cleaned up the output, organized it into sections, and distributed the notes among various instruments. "

Beethoven X – The AI Project | MagentaMusik 360

Credits and appreciation: Andrew Ng's The Batch

In Search of Beethoven - Documentary Beethoven Festival Online

Very recommendable, but very long! 2020 was his 250th anniversary of his birth. I am sure this documentary has some flaws, e.g. I do not remember it mentioned (or was it a fleeting mention) that the text for the 9th Symphony is based on Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy (quite an omission).

Beethoven: Missa solemnis with John Eliot Gardiner

Enjoy! This stream, premiered November 20, 2020, may not be available after November 30, 2020 (see here).

"It is generally considered one of the composer's supreme achievements and, along with Bach's Mass in B minor, one of the most significant mass settings of the common practice period. ... A typical performance of the complete work runs 80 to 85 minutes. The difficulty of the piece combined with the requirements for a full orchestra, large chorus, and highly trained soloists, both vocal and instrumental, mean that it is not often performed ..." (Source)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 'Eroica': Heroism & shock tactics with John Eliot Gardiner

Enjoy! Don't you wish to be a conductor just for one day?

Beethoven: Symphony No. 2: Expanding the canvas with John Eliot Gardiner

Enjoy! Beethoven never wrote an opera, but he is the most operatic composer

Symphony No. 1: Beethoven announces himself with John Eliot Gardiner

Enjoy! Discover the Rhineland humor of Beethoven.

Beethoven Symphony No. 4: Composing for all eternity with John Eliot Gardiner

Enjoy! Fabulous! Go truffle hunting with John Eliot Gardiner!