Something for Thursday

You know what I feel like, on this crisp almost-spring morning? I feel like Beethoven. Well, listening to Beethoven. I don't actually feel like Beethoven himself, because he's been dead almost 200 years. Ewww.

Here's an entire symphony: the Sixth, specifically, perhaps better known as the "Pastoral". It's one of Beethoven's relatively rare attempts at making concrete representations with his music...and besides that, it's just an amazingly beautiful, sunny, and charming work. My favorite part is in the second movement when the dance-step is off kilter, as if to depict a bumbling country dancer who can't get the beat right. Beethoven isn't the first name that leaps to mind when one thinks of "charm" in classical music, but he had charm. Let's not forget it!