Beethoven dogs and elephants!

[Peter]

They're playing classical music to the elephants at Belfast Zoo to help with behavioural problems and it works! They're not sure though if this is the only genre the elephants like, but when it comes to dogs and gorillas studies have shown them to be quite discerning - heavy metal had adverse effects whilst classical was more to their taste!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...al-music-elgar

[Michael]

It lends a whole new meaning to the expression "tickling the ivories".

[Agnes Selby]

It is not only dogs and elephants!!! I saw a documentary about a
wine grower in Italy who pipes classical music to his plants.
Apparently it enhances the taste of the grapes and subsequently
improves the wine.

Regards,
Agnes.

[Joy]

It just goes to show that classical music is good for practically everybody!

[Agnes Selby]

Very true, Joy!!! For babies in the womb as well.

[Sorrano]

It is not only dogs and elephants!!! I saw a documentary about a
wine grower in Italy who pipes classical music to his plants.
Apparently it enhances the taste of the grapes and subsequently
improves the wine.

Regards,
Agnes.

Quite some years ago there was a study made with exposing plants to various forms of music and the plants thrived with Bach in particular, as well as other Classical works. However, when exposed to acid rock they "leaned" away from the speakers and shriveled.

[Michael]

It is not only dogs and elephants!!! I saw a documentary about a
wine grower in Italy who pipes classical music to his plants.
Apparently it enhances the taste of the grapes and subsequently
improves the wine.

Regards,
Agnes.

Beethoven once compared his music to wine. He said something like:

"It is the wine that inspires new creations, and I am the Bacchus, who presses out this wine for men, and makes them spiritually drunk."

[Preston]

Michael you are right, but I will be a little bit more precise. Beethoven said what you wrote to Elizabeth Brentano. There is controversy whether Beethoven said it or not, because he did not talk like that often. After Beethoven said what is posted below, Elizabeth wrote a letter to Goethe telling him about what Beethoven said to her.

There is controversy because what Beethoven said was very philosophical. And his friends and contemporary's, when having read the letter to Goethe, later in life, said that they had, basically, never heard him talk like that. Personally, I do believe that Beethoven said these things.

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"When I open my eyes I must sigh, for what I see is contrary to my religion, and I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy, the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am the Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken. When they are again become sober they have drawn from the sea all that they have brought with them, all that they can bring with them to dry land. I have not a single friend, I must live alone. But well I know that God is nearer to me than other artists; I associate with Him without fear; I have always recognized and understood Him and have no fear for my music- it can meet no evil fate. Those who understand it must be freed by it from all the miseries which the others drag about themselves."

"Music, verily, is the mediator between intellectual and sensuous life."

"Speak to Goethe about me. Tell him to hear my symphonies and he will that I am right in saying that music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend."
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I think, a day, after Beethoven said this Elizabeth showed him what he had said written out on paper, and Beethoven said, "Did I say that? Well, then I had a raptus!"

[Michael]

You're right, Preston. I forgot about Elizabeth Brentano who, I think, was a bit of a Schindler when it came to exaggerating or even manufacturing stories about Beethoven. Maybe he was referring to Australian wine which includes more than a grain of salt.

[Preston]

I don't if it is possible for her to be a Schindler, ! I have come to really believe that after the posts on this forum and reading some other information that Schindler is very untrustworthy. Although, you are right, she was known to be a liar from what I have read about her.

I just don't see her writing something of that magnitude.

[Michael]

I just don't see her writing something of that magnitude.

Yes - it's such a fantastic simile (about Bacchus and the wine) that there must be a grain of truth in it - and maybe a grain of salt! I'm afraid we'll never know for sure.

[Agnes Selby]

You're right, Preston. I forgot about Elizabeth Brentano who, I think, was a bit of a Schindler when it came to exaggerating or even manufacturing stories about Beethoven. Maybe he was referring to Australian wine which includes more than a grain of salt.

Somehow I have a feeling Beethoven would have enjoyed Australian
wine - particularly the wine grown in South Australia. The wine growers
in South Australia are mainly of German origin and brought their
art directly from Germany. The taste would have been familiar to our hero
and an inspiration to his muse.

Regards,
Agnes.