Which is your favourite Beethoven piece to mindlessly listen to?

[neurosys]

Okay you come home tired and fall onto your bed, or failing that the floor. You can only move your arms for another half a minute before they stop working (you are tired, not a robot, by the way).

In front of you is your CD player, in it a magic CD containing every Beethoven piece ever. Moments before you fall back and bliss engulfs your ears which track will you put on?

For me it's either the 7th or 9th symphony. And if you didn't understand what I said, it is basically a complicated and useless way of asking you what is your favourite Beethoven piece to listen to when you can't think and just want to relax.

....

Please don't laugh at me.

[Rod]

Originally posted by neurosys:
Okay you come home tired and fall onto your bed, or failing that the floor. You can only move your arms for another half a minute before they stop working (you are tired, not a robot, by the way).

In front of you is your CD player, in it a magic CD containing every Beethoven piece ever. Moments before you fall back and bliss engulfs your ears which track will you put on?

For me it's either the 7th or 9th symphony. And if you didn't understand what I said, it is basically a complicated and useless way of asking you what is your favourite Beethoven piece to listen to when you can't think and just want to relax.

....

Please don't laugh at me.

Well, when I'm tired I can't listen to Beethoven, I need to be in control of my faculties for this music. Also if it's late the noise, especially of works like the 9th, inevitable annoys my neighbours. I need to move to somewhere isolated, like the Little House on the Prairy!



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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[spaceray]

If I go out to a friends for tea they will often play classical music for me as they know that I like it very much however not being afficianados themselves they are obliged to paw thru all the Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez to find their copy of The Best Of Beethoven and then it is left to me to gently persuade them not to put on the 9th symphony or the Moonlight sonata as I would prefer to either listen or talk but am not able to do both!
"Mindlessly" and "listen to Beethoven" must not be in the same sentence.For Mindless listening get one of those" new age " cds of Bird Songs or Waves on the Seashore.
And I agree,this is no laughing matter.

[chopithoven]

Originally posted by Rod:
Well, when I'm tired I can't listen to Beethoven, I need to be in control of my faculties for this music. Also if it's late the noise, especially of works like the 9th, inevitable annoys my neighbours. I need to move to somewhere isolated, like the Little House on the Prairy!

This is so true!

[Joy]

You can't just mindlessly listen to Beethoven. I can't just pop him into the CD player if I'm tired or preoccupied. I have to agree with Rod on this one, I need all my faculties to give a true listen. You have to give him your full attention, he demands it!

Joy

[neurosys]

I beg to differ, I think that you can just mindlessly listen to Beethoven. I don't see any reason why just letting you're senses become inflamed by his music whilst drifting into some surreal dream world is dis-respectful to him.

[dice45]

As you descirbed it,
no, i then play nothing..
But as long as my hands are not too shaky to put a vinyl on the platter ...
any piano sonata, any string quartet will do. Preferably op.59/2 or 59/3 or op.106.

But mindlessly, simply doesn't work. It starts as background music and soon claims the main focus, suppressing the up-to-now main activity to be background activity.

If the performance is not appealing to me, i cannot even stand it as background music. I get up and put it off.


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Greets,
Bernhard

[Joy]

Originally posted by neurosys:
I beg to differ, I think that you can just mindlessly listen to Beethoven. I don't see any reason why just letting you're senses become inflamed by his music whilst drifting into some surreal dream world is dis-respectful to him.

I'm not saying it's disrespectful to him I'm just saying I have to give his music my full attention and cannot use it as music to fall asleep by. He wakes me up not puts me too sleep.

Joy

[Joy]

Originally posted by dice45:

If the performance is not appealing to me, i cannot even stand it as background music. I get up and put it off.


[/B]

I agree!!

[John Rasmussen]

It seems to depend on what you mean by "mindless." No listening is mindless to me; I'm always subconsciously analyzing and comparing. But sometimes the analysis is unconscious and my conscious mind just basks. This happens most often with recordings with which I'm very familiar and love. I have an ancient platter of Fritz Busch leading the Eroica; the sound is awful but the performance is magnificent. I also have the Bruno Walter 9th; magisterial and beloved.

But my tastes are a little extreme. I've been known to fall asleep with The Rite of Spring on my headphones!

[Chris]

I sometimes used to play the Triple Concerto at low volume as I fell asleep. I found it relaxing, for some reason.

[Andrea]

Let's see. What would be my favorite Beethoven piece that I could mindlessly listen to? Well that's not so easy since there are so many...

Probably it would be the Allegretto movement of his Symphony #7. It's so emotional. It was said that in the early performances of this symphony in Vienna, the Allegretto always had to be repeated. It became one of the most popular of Beethoven's symphonic movements. It's always been one of my favorites.

[Rutradelusasa]

One thing I must say is this: Any Beethoven music will sufice. Shortly my faculties will become operational again and here I am paying atention to the music. It just restores me to full operational services and I even get untired.

For sleeping, I use either one of Peer Gynt's suites (for I find them dull enough to make me sleepy) or one of Schubert's sonatas (for they make me go to bed with angels).

[cloak2]

my favorite ludwig pieces...kind of a tough one...first would have to be pathetique sonata 1st movement,...everyone loves the second but the 1st...displays this level of passion...after that the emperor suite...then missa solemnis...and of course 9th symphony 4th movement presto...the ode to joy...

[beatoven]

These days,i only listen to the 6th symph. and with all my concentration, but 2 years ago i remember going to sleep with the triple concerto cd (looped forever ...)
so that the music became a part of me (im a musician hehe)