I’m a kid in a candy store. All around me there are multicolored packages and rows of tempting bites. I feel a promise of pleasure. Imagine. Simple things like candies and brightly colored packages fill the inside of my head with fireworks of sparkling neurotransmitters.
Unfortunately, I’m also older than a kid, so I probably won’t gorge myself on any particular candy. But think of unrestrained youth. Eat one, then another, then another of the same candy (or cookie, or doughnut). The sugar builds and builds.
The beginning of the Second Movement of Beethoven’s Seventh is like that. So many sounds that are the same note, but building, always building. Becoming more complex by the addition of instruments. Becoming louder. Sparklers turning into the brain’s fireworks. Both brain and mind sugar.
Almost too much, so Beethoven softens the music, even returning to almost inaudible repetition of the theme after which he renews the buildup. Beethoven, knowing that the brain and mind need a break from anything of great intensity, pulls us back from the candy counter, says “whoa,” and steps in like a parent concerned that too much sugar isn’t good for anyone.
Intensity is a blast of fireworks in the brain. But just about everyone realizes that some bright explosions are best seen against a background of near nothingness. In the inexperienced or uncontrolled brain, the lure of all that candy, all those bright flashing lights, and all those loud sounds, is desirable. Then, seeking high intensity, the brain becomes so saturated with flashes that it cannot discern one from another. The process is exhausting. Strobe lights and lasers over a dance floor. Too much sugar. Too much light. Too many sparks. Too many loud versions of the same theme. “Quick! Someone turn down the volume; someone dim the lights.”
Are you an uncontrolled Beethoven, one who doesn’t know that those around you need a bit of a break from anything high intensity? Even requiring simple, repetitive actions can build to an unsustainable intensity. You aren’t a robot immune to unrelenting intensity, and no one else is. Beethoven consciously varies the Second Movement’s intensity. He varies his work. Vary yours. Vary that of those who must play what you compose.
Know what will happen? What you compose will become an earworm in the brains around you. Ah! Beethoven: dah dah dah daaah dah; dah dah dah daaah dah; dah dah dee daaah dah; dah dah dee daah
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+beethoven%27s+second+movement+of+symphony+number+7&&view=detail&mid=130FEB70B0F94C85D13B130FEB70B0F94C85D13B&rvsmid=2680F28F1344039E71022680F28F1344039E7102&fsscr=0&FORM=VDFSRV
Or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffYKCNY6kUk
Unfortunately, I’m also older than a kid, so I probably won’t gorge myself on any particular candy. But think of unrestrained youth. Eat one, then another, then another of the same candy (or cookie, or doughnut). The sugar builds and builds.
The beginning of the Second Movement of Beethoven’s Seventh is like that. So many sounds that are the same note, but building, always building. Becoming more complex by the addition of instruments. Becoming louder. Sparklers turning into the brain’s fireworks. Both brain and mind sugar.
Almost too much, so Beethoven softens the music, even returning to almost inaudible repetition of the theme after which he renews the buildup. Beethoven, knowing that the brain and mind need a break from anything of great intensity, pulls us back from the candy counter, says “whoa,” and steps in like a parent concerned that too much sugar isn’t good for anyone.
Intensity is a blast of fireworks in the brain. But just about everyone realizes that some bright explosions are best seen against a background of near nothingness. In the inexperienced or uncontrolled brain, the lure of all that candy, all those bright flashing lights, and all those loud sounds, is desirable. Then, seeking high intensity, the brain becomes so saturated with flashes that it cannot discern one from another. The process is exhausting. Strobe lights and lasers over a dance floor. Too much sugar. Too much light. Too many sparks. Too many loud versions of the same theme. “Quick! Someone turn down the volume; someone dim the lights.”
Are you an uncontrolled Beethoven, one who doesn’t know that those around you need a bit of a break from anything high intensity? Even requiring simple, repetitive actions can build to an unsustainable intensity. You aren’t a robot immune to unrelenting intensity, and no one else is. Beethoven consciously varies the Second Movement’s intensity. He varies his work. Vary yours. Vary that of those who must play what you compose.
Know what will happen? What you compose will become an earworm in the brains around you. Ah! Beethoven: dah dah dah daaah dah; dah dah dah daaah dah; dah dah dee daaah dah; dah dah dee daah
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+beethoven%27s+second+movement+of+symphony+number+7&&view=detail&mid=130FEB70B0F94C85D13B130FEB70B0F94C85D13B&rvsmid=2680F28F1344039E71022680F28F1344039E7102&fsscr=0&FORM=VDFSRV
Or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffYKCNY6kUk
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