Beethoven vs. Rossini

[Mark Thibodeau]

One of my favorite sections from Gravity's Rainbow. And my favorite
director of all time. Awesome!

MT

On Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 12:02 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
wrote:

> We'll Meet Again: Musical Design in the Films of Stanley Kubrick
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=qRuRAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA166#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199767663.do
>
> “Gustav is a composer. For months he has been carrying on a raging
> debate with Säure over who is better, Beethoven or Rossini. Säure is
> for Rossini. “I’m not so much for Beethoven qua Beethoven,” Gustav
> argues, “but as he represents the German dialectic, the incorporation
> of more and more notes into the scale, culminating with dodecaphonic
> democracy, where all notes get an equal hearing. Beethoven was one of
> the architects of musical freedom—he submitted to the demands of
> history, despite his deafness. While Rossini was retiring at the age
> of 36, womanizing and getting fat, Beethoven was living a life filled
> with tragedy and grandeur.”
>
> “So?” is Säure’s customary answer to that one. “Which would you rather
> do? The point is,” cutting off Gustav’s usually indignant scream, “a
> person feels good listening to Rossini. All you feel like listening to
> Beethoven is going out and invading Poland. Ode to Joy indeed. The man
> didn’t even have a sense of humor. I tell you,” shaking his skinny old
> fist, “there is more of the Sublime in the snare-drum part to La Gazza
> Ladra than in the whole Ninth Symphony. With Rossini, the whole point
> is that lovers always get together, isolation is overcome, and like it
> or not that is the one great centripetal movement of the World.
> Through the machineries of greed, pettiness, and the abuse of power,
> love occurs. All the shit is transmuted to gold. The walls are
> breached, the balconies are scaled—listen!” It was a night in early
> May, and the final bombardment of Berlin was in progress. Säure had to
> shout his head off. “The Italian girl is in Algiers, the Barber’s in
> the crockery, the magpie’s stealing everything in sight! The World is
> rushing together. …”
>
> https://theoreticallyevil.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/beethoven-vs-rossini/
>
> Beethoven: The Man Who Freed Music
>
>
> http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beethoven_%26_Rossini
>
> The Style of Connectedness: Gravity's Rainbow and Thomas Pynchon
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=U7lX0wPvhocC&pg=PA281#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> A Gravity's Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon's Novel
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=fK73JkjMDmQC&pg=PA247#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Ethical Diversions: The Post-Holocaust Narratives of Pynchon, Abish,
> DeLillo, and Spiegelman
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=XQraAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA158#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Gravity's Rainbow, Domination, and Freedom
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=469pAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA176#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Pynchon and Philosophy: Wittgenstein, Foucault and Adorno
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=84GEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Novel Listening: Background Sound and the Technologies of Aural Control
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=9H-_5vdwSDMC&pg=PA181#v=onepage&q&f=false
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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