Bill Pirkle wrote:

>>Lets take the 2nd movement of the Emperor Concerto.  For me
>>hat evokes the feelings of peace and tranquility.  If life were like that
>>is would be a great planet.  (since Beethoven wrote this for Napoleon, I
>>spect that that's what Beethoven through life would be like if we could>
>>st get rid of all those potentates).

And Don Satz replied:

>I get different feelings from that music.  I get the sense of a grotesque
>and deceitful coronation of Napoleon who is lulling his people into a mood
>of peace and serenity while planning his future moves which, unfortunately
>or him and his subjects, will plunge the country into death and chaos
>instead of lifting it to an enlightened state.  There are tyrants who are
>very straight-forward about it and those who present a very different
>facade.  The latter is much more dangerous.

Amusing, all these different feelings about Napoleon and the Emperor
concerto.  For it's not true that Beethoven wrote if for Napoleon.
He wrote only one piece for the man: the Eroica.  The nickname of the
concerto is the result of an outcry of a French officer who attended a
performance and suddenly sprang up and shouted "Mais c'est l'Empereur!"
Beethoven himself never said a word about a connection between the
concerto and the tyrant.

Greetings,
Joyce Maier