Beethoven, Große Fuge, opus 133 (ver. 3 w/barlines)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Große Fuge (Great Fugue), opus 133, accompanied by an animated score.
FAQ

Q: Where can I learn more about this project?
A: Here:

Q: Where can I get free sheet music for this piece?
A: You can download score and parts from IMSLP:

Q: Where can I learn more about this piece?
A: The Wikipedia article is pretty good
and this New Yorker article about a recently discovered manuscript is interesting

Q: Who is performing?
A: I don't know. I licensed this recording through Shockwave (dot com), and they don't say who the performers are.

Q: I appreciate the animated graphical scores you make; how can I support your work?
A: Thank you! The easiest way to support my work is by contributing via Patreon:
If you'd like to help in more specific way, consider this:

Q: Could you please do a MAM video of _________?
A: Please read this:

[willmiller]

Thank you so much for showing the barlines. This really makes clear how brilliantly perverse Beethoven's composing is. His sense of syncopation is so delicate that the instruments that play "on the beat" are the ones that sound most syncopated.

In other words, Stravinsky is on to something with his quote at the end....

[sciencemusicvideos]

For a long time, this has been my favorite piece of music.
I think that your brilliant graphical presentation would be strengthened if you dropped the quotes (and perhaps added the notes). The brilliance of the Grosse Fugue needs no debating!

[ThinkingManNeil]

This is the first time I've heard this piece and I'm quite taken with it. It's surprisingly modern and contemporary sounding considering its era and astonishingly sophisticated. Without the external inputs and auditory distractions of the surrounding natural world and soundscape it's as if Beethoven had discovered the clear and precise harmonies, dissonances, and capabilities of each instrument and was able to express them separately and together with an almost mathematical purity and clarity.

[hendritube]

A stunning expression of anger, joy, frustration, confusion, consolation... what a mixture of feelings! ... this fugue somehow reminds me of Conway's 'Game of Life'. Very subtle ^^

[APando]

I beg to differ :)
One of the coolest things about the physics behind music, is that within every note's wave, are overtones of it's major chord - which makes for what we hear as natural and harmonic sounds, and why there is dissonance between some notes.
With that said, i agree that the dissonance is right in it's place in here and makes sure you get the emotion out of this piece.

[FranciscoDeHadoque]

THIS is one osf his last works. The 9th Symphony is earlier. This was the final part of his last quartett that he had to take it off due to the "suggestions" of his editor. Despite this, this is an absolute genius work-

[karlpoppins]

certainly one of the most genius pieces ever written! the themes are magnificent and the fugue does not any of its contrapuntal value although it's written on a clearly classical style. now every composer should wish become deaf...

[smalin]

Did Stravinsky do something interesting in the 7th grade?

[snabeelimam]

This is the same man who at the height of his deafness gave us the lyricism of the 9th Symphony and the burning anguish of his late quartets (e.g opus 131, 132). The borderline dissonance of this piece, its EXACTLY what Beethoven intended.

[CliffordKing]

Beethoven didn't need to be able to hear to know whether or not his music was consonant or dissonant. He knew what he was composing as most musicians can know exactly how a piece will sound simply by looking at it. At this point he was most interested in counterpoint and linear motion. And for the record, Mozart wasn't exactly the most consonant composer either, consider the introduction to String Quartet #19 in C, K. 465. Remember not all music is or has been created to be "emotional".

[mahler]

I love Beethoven and I love dissonance. Super.

[franklinvp]

Most of the time there are overtones of many notes, not only the major chord. The reason is not that. The reason is the low ratio between the frequencies what makes consonance special. We can only detect the simplest patterns. Consonant tones make simpler wave patterns.

[Phersephoie]

yes, absolutely. Since his final work was the 9th symphony, you can easily see that his hearing problem had nothing to do with it, and generally in music it's not that hard to wright a piece, even if you can't hear it, cause you already know what you're doing. What Beethoven has done here is simply be way ahead of his time, something wich he socialy paid for. His fugue was greatly opposed, exactly because of its dissonance. Try see th film Copying Beethoven, it takes a wonderfull aproach on it.

[ekeeywaka]

Quite honestly, I heard no dissonance at all within the piece. Dissonance is only there if you want it to be. It is an abstraction, if you will. To say that certain notes do not go with each other is to say that certain colors do not, when one will buy a painting of an orange dot overlapping a blue dot for a million dollars. Beauty is based on perspective. In this fugue, one is not to hear notes. One is to feel emotions, and that, that is not dissonant. It is accomplished.

[jeffamarie]

@jebsievers I don't hear dissonance... I hear the tension that resolves perfectly at every juncture and yet stays within character enough to make you question whether what you're hearing is both grotesque and beautiful. : P

[gjallahorngjallahorn]

Excellent animation. Perhaps visually represent legato and velocity values too?

[histrionical]

Ive been listening to the 'late' quartets for forty years. What I hear is beauty in aural form. I admit that 40 years ago what I mostly heard was a lot of wrong sounding notes thrown randomly together. Deaf and blind too? I wondered?

[ai]

@jebsievers That is a very good question, one I have pondered for a lot of days. Too bad the uploader cuts you off with rude replies. :(

[Schuiram]

@musanim
I dont think you can say that that easy ;) But I would tend to it too :)

[davidrwlinge]

This comment of yours never fails to make me laugh.