Not long after the birth of Beethoven in 1770 the family moved to the house of the Fischer family in the Rheingasse, Bonn. The exact date of the move is unknown. The Beethovens occupied the upper floor, under them the Fischers lived and operated their business, a bakery. It happened many years later that a middle-aged local musician and composer …
How in the name of science Haydn’s head was stolen from his grave One of the customs that makes humans special in animal kingdom is the custom of burial or ceremony to say goodbye to the deceased. In fact, burial ceremonies and the traditions of afterlife are very much telling about the age, religion and social structure of a certain …
Every July (14th July) France celebrates its Fête nationale française, the French National Holiday. In English-speaking countries the Bastille Day (since 1789). It is the day of the storming of the Bastille, a major event during the French Revolution. Like so many social changes in history this one also was rooted in economic crisis, or hunger being the name on …
Today, timekeeping is an integral part of our daily lives. The devices we use are very accurate and present everywhere. This was not the case for a very long time. Also in music, up till the invention of the metronome, timekeeping and tempo was rather based on individual feeling than science. Time to organize society Small tribes, later larger societies, …
Both Haydn and Beethoven were considered to have Moor ancestry. Who are the Moors and what is their story? I always liked Morgan Freeman, especially in Robin Hood playing Azeem the Moor. From centuries later they seem mysterious people, advanced in knowledge and technologies, but conservative and pious at the same time. I decided to go deeper and find …
Beethoven was an emotional man. What else should the father of romantic musical era be? Stopping a piano concert, calling a disrespectful audience pigs and leaving was as common as throwing chairs or books at fellow human beings. He knew he had problems and was working on it… as today we call the process. Who was Plutarch? Plutarch was a …