Beethoven’s DNA

You may have seen in the news recently that scientists analyzed the DNA in Beethoven’s hair. The stories seemed to be bit short on details.  But I just found one that provided more insight, and you can read it here. If you want to read the full original scientific paper, you can find it here.

Here are some interesting take-aways I got from reading these articles.

The claim that Beethoven’s deafness was caused by lead poisoning, possibly from the cup he drank from, is now in question.  This claim was based on an earlier study of a lock of hair known as the Hiller lock.  It turns out that the Hiller lock is not Beethoven’s hair.  How do we know?  In the current study, eight hair samples were examined that were claimed to be from Beethoven.  Five were from the same person, and study of the provenance (the chain of ownership from origin to now) of these samples indicates that they are likely to be authentic Beethoven samples.  The Hiller lock, the basis for the lead poisoning claim, was not among these five.  In fact, scientists found out that the Hiller lock came from a female. So, two of the eight hair samples were from people who were not Beethoven, and one was so poorly preserved that results were inconclusive. The current study is based on the five matching samples.

Beethoven’s genealogy on paper does not match his DNA genealogy.  The DNA of relatives of Beethoven who are currently alive, whose relationship to him was established using legal records, was compared with Beethoven’s DNA. It turns out they are not genetic relatives of Beethoven.  The discrepancy appears in Beethoven’s paternal line, although it is not clear when it happened.  This was described as an “extra-pair paternity event.” What this means is that a male ancestor of Beethoven’s may have been the result of an extramarital affair.  Scientists could not determine the identity of the unexpected ancestor.

The exact cause of the Beethoven’s persistent gastrointestinal problems is still unknown, but some disorders have been ruled out.  Beethoven frequently commented about the misery he was in due to gastrointestinal problems.  Scientists were able to determine that celiac disease, lactose intolerance, and irritable bowel syndrome were not probable causes.

Scientists found genetic risk factors for liver disease and an incident of hepatitis B.  Historically, it has been thought that Beethoven suffered from liver disease and died of cirrhosis.  Risk factors for liver disease were found in his DNA, as well as evidence (in the hair itself) of hepatitis B infection.  The authors of the study also cite Beethoven’s alcohol consumption as a contributing factor to his liver dysfunction.

It is possible that advances in DNA analysis will yield more information in the future.  And you can’t help but wonder if similar studies could be done on locks of hair from other historical persons (once they’re authenticated, of course).  One late-night TV host suggested cloning Beethoven in Jurassic Park fashion!

Even if it were possible, the cloned Beethoven would never create the masterpieces of the original Beethoven.  Cloned Beethoven would live in the 2000s, not the 1800s, absorbing the influences and knowledge of the time that has passed since his predecessor (including the changing opinions about his predecessor’s works). The works of each would be influenced by their life experiences, good and bad.

We sometimes think of Beethoven as a brooding figure, scowling at us from portraits.  What if he were light-hearted?  Can you picture Beethoven laughing?  With that in mind, here is a Beethoven confection, Andante Favori in F WoO 57 played here by Balázs Szokolay.

Want more?  See my post on Beethoven’s Cavatina, or Haiku Wednesday: Beethoven.

Scales

It’s been a tough time, folks. I hope you are well.

Even if you haven’t experienced illness or loss personally in this last year and a half (and I hope you haven’t), it has been pervasive, in the air.  The world changed.  It was inescapable.  Demoralizing.  We had to halt so many activities, and it has been difficult to begin again.  But begin again we must.

So we put one cautious foot in front of another.  We try to figure out where we left off before we were so abruptly interrupted.  In some cases we go back to square one.

Musically speaking, we go back to scales.  We go back to training.  We start again.  We do the best we can, even if it’s a little at a time.

And we groan.  Because starting from scratch can be tough. And scales are not…exciting.  Repetition is not thrilling.  Necessary? Yes, absolutely. Worthwhile? Indeed. But not the thing you might rush to do.

I decided to start running again, especially now that it is a little cooler here in the northern hemisphere.  One foot in front of another.  And, as was my habit before, I queued up some Renaissance polyphony.

Or at least I wanted to, but my old phone had failed, and my new phone doesn’t have any music on it yet.  I relied on a streaming service, and it served up what it thought I would want to hear.

About mile 3 (running some, walking some, just keep going), I heard music I had never heard before that made me stop to listen. Prominent in the melody was part of a scale.  So simple.  One note after the other.  Repeated, echoed, shifted, a moving line.  Simple, but lovely.

The piece was Corde natus ex parentis.  It is a Christmas hymn, and the words are ancient, penned by the Roman poet Aurelius Prudentius (348-413 CE). It was then coupled to a plainchant melody, Divinum mysterium, which dates to the tenth century, though the two were not connected until the 1800s.

Here is what I heard.  This ethereal rendition of Corde natus ex parentis is performed by Voces8, and the arrangement is by Christian Forshaw.

Be safe, everyone, do what you can to protect yourself, those you love, and those around you. And let the music play on!

Animated Composers

The genealogy research website MyHeritage has been rolling out new photo enhancement tools over the last few months that allow you to enhance (sharpen and clean up) and colorize old photographs. Their latest addition has now gone viral.

You can now animate old photographs with their Deep Nostalgia feature. An ancestor you never knew can blink, move their head, and smile at you. It can be eerily accurate, depending on the photo.

Some folks, however, are animating more than just family photos. Classicfm.com has presented on its website a video of composers brought to life with this new technology. And they didn’t just use photographs: Bach has been reanimated from one of his portraits, as has Mozart. You can see the video here. Be aware that the music is a little loud when you hit play.

I tried my hand with family photos and drawings, with mixed results–it all depends on the resolution of the original, head angle, and shadowing, in particular (you’ll see that with the Clara Schumann animation in the video mentioned above). There’s a fellow I’ve written about before here, the mystery pianist Granville Reynolds, Here is his animation. Somehow, the animation makes him even more mysterious. What could he be thinking about?

The echoes of nostalgia and remembrance are complicated, and that is what I hear in the piece that I give you in closing. Here is an animation of Chopin. Here is his Mazurka, Op. 56 No. 3, played by Daniil Trifonov.

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Image attributions: Photograph of Granville Reynolds, family photograph. Enhanced, colorized, and animated by MyHeritage.com. Detail of daguerreotype of Frederic Chopin by Louis-Auguste Bisson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frederic_Chopin_photo.jpeg, enhanced, colorized, and animated by MyHeritage.com.

Haiku Wednesday: Lux

And the sun will rise
And we’ll find our way forward
In a brand new day.

In novo dies
Soles orietur et
Aurora erit.

In novo dies
Viam inveniemus.
Progrediemur.*

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, darkness comes earlier now. It’s getting colder. Fall seems to be taking on greater gravity this year. It’s been a tough year. It’s not over. We don’t know what next year will bring.

Coming soon are the Christian observances of All-Saints Day, All-Souls Day. The Day of the Dead. November brings Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day, known as Veterans Day here in the United States.

All are observances of loss and remembrance. So many have lost friends and family just in this year. My heart goes out to all of you. As societies, we look at losses suffered, and wonder at our way forward.

Our motion is perhaps unsteady, perhaps uneasy. There is trepidation in our steps. And yet, we resolve to move forward, somehow.

One thing is certain. The sun will rise.  We may not see it clearly, but after a long darkness, there will be light.

All of this was in mind when I came across this video of a performance of Lux Aeterna. It is from Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations. It is a small solace, a balm, a moment of calm amidst the storm. We all need a moment of peace.

And because we all deserve another, here is a performance by a virtual choir of Eric Whitacre’s Lux Aurumque.

Wishing you health and peace.
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*My Latin might be a little shaky, but what I meant to say was: On a new day/The sun will rise and/It will be dawn. On a new day/We will find a way/And we will go forward.

Image attribution: Jpogi at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yellow_sunrise.JPG

Weird and Wonderful Vinyl

Hi!  It’s nice to talk to all of you again.  I hope that you and your families are safe and in good health.

I found something interesting for you today.  For some of you this will be a trip down Memory Lane; for others, it may be an adventure in time travel.

Internet Archives, in collaboration with the Boston Public Library, is digitizing the library’s extensive collection of vinyl albums.  And it is a wide-ranging collection, including classical music, jazz, country, spoken word, international music, and category-defying LPs (I’m thinking of Music for Baton Twirlers and sound effects records, among others).  There are even language-learning LPs (I stumbled upon one set I used to own!).

Over 15,000 albums have already been digitized.  Of these, over 7000 are classical music.  You can narrow your search by genres and subgenres (Baroque, Romantic) or by composer.

For works that are still under copyright, you can hear 30-second samples, and in some cases you can use the provided Spotify link (which plays on the Internet Archives website) to hear an entire track (or album).  Over 2,500 are “unlocked,” meaning you can download the album in uncompressed 24-bit FLAC format, meaning at full fidelity (there are plenty of programs to convert to MP3 if needed).  You can also download album art. Cherubini’s Medea with Maria Callas included a full bilingual libretto and liner notes.

A caveat: quality may vary.  I heard some albums with wonderful clarity; others had the clicks and snaps typically associated with old vinyl recordings.   Those with the inclination and a little tech savvy could probably run their downloads through an audio program like Audacity (which is free) and clean them up a bit.

You can find the albums at https://archive.org/details/vinyl_bostonpubliclibrary.  Here is an article about the project (quick takeaway: each operator digitizes 12 albums at a time in real time; after about 20 minutes, the operator flips each record on its turntable and records the second side—it’s a time-consuming process!).  If you derive value from this project, please consider supporting Internet Archive’s efforts with a tax-deductible donation.

And while you’re at the Internet Archive, check out the mind-boggling variety of material available at the site.  You’ll find books and audio, but you’ll also find films, tv programming, courses, old software and games…just go look, you’ll be amazed.

Even if you can’t go to your local library, you can still get to this one online.

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Image attribution:  Vinyl record by Meul, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Disque_Vinyl.svg

A Wish for You

My wish for you is that you may be as contented and relaxed as this cat.  Enjoy!

Ubi Caritas

Hello!  I hope you are all well and safe.  The world is a troubling, dangerous place right now.  Let’s take care of ourselves, and each other.

I’ve been searching for superlative soothing music.  We all could use that now.

Here you can see Kings Return singing composer Ola Gjeilo’s setting of the ancient Latin hymn Ubi Caritas.

You can find more videos from Kings Return here.

A more traditional setting, but one that actually dates from the 20th century, was written by Maurice Duruflé, and you can hear the Kings College Choir sing it here.

 

Wishing you well, more music soon!

If you can’t find beauty, try to make some

Times are tough.  We all need to find a way to get through, and the right music definitely helps.  Here are some recent finds.  Humor, flexibility, and great ingenuity are hallmarks here.

Have you seen the No Corona version of Nessun dorma by Daniel Emmet?

How about the Covid-19 Bach fugue by Nicholas Papdimitriou?  This is incredible.

And now, a great concert for you!  Pianist Alexander Krichel gave a live drive-in classical piano concert that you can now see online. Car horns and flashing headlights replace applause (it works better than you’d think).  The upside?  No coughing, cell phones ringing, or candy wrappers crackling (other than perhaps from your family members, whom you can probably shush).  Krichel introduces the pieces in German, there are no subtitles available, but there is captioning of the title at the beginning of each piece.  You can see it at:    https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/video/radio/wdr3/video-autokino-meets-klassik–alexander-krichel-spielt-beethoven-und-liszt-100.html

When life gives you lemons, don’t just make lemonade, make lemon sorbet.

Here’s another tip, not necessarily a musical one, but one you might consider.  A friend who lives far away and I have started exchanging photos.  Typically, it’s flower pictures (they have a tremendous rose garden), but not always.  It doesn’t have to be flowers, it could be a meme, or an animal picture, a photo you take on a walk (if permitted) (added benefit: your picture-taking gets better), a happy memory photo, or a link to some great music, whatever works for you.  It doesn’t need to be every day–no pressure (we have enough)!  And you know what happens?  You end up looking for beauty, or levity, and actually start seeing it amidst gloom and chaos.  If you know someone who might be interested in this, why not suggest an informal exchange?  Wouldn’t it be nice to see something happy in your inbox or on your phone?

And as Daniel Emmet says in his aria, vinceremo [we will win]!

Thanks to reader Paul B for alerting me to the fugue!

 

Bach’s St. John Passion To Be Livestreamed from Bach’s Church in Leipzig on April 10, 2020

On April 10, 2020, Bach’s St. John Passion will be performed at Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church, at the site of Bach’s tomb.  The broadcast will begin at 15:00 CET (GMT+2; 9AM EDT).  This innovative performance will include a tenor, a harpsichordist, and a percussionist, as well as five singers, with the addition of various artists and choirs participating via video.  The tenor part, the Evangelist,  and all the other characters will be sung by Icelandic tenor Benedikt Kristjánsson (see bio in English here).

Here’s a sample, “Zerfliesse, mein Herze, in Fluten der Zähren”.

Sheet music for the chorales and program notes are available via the Carus-Verlag website.

You can see the livestream at the following sites:

http://www.facebook.com/bacharchiv
http://www.facebook.com/mdrkultur
https://www.facebook.com/MDRKlassik
http://www.mdr-klassik.de
http://www.arte.tv/en/arte-concert (six languages available at this site)
https://www.arte.tv/en (six languages available at this site)

It will be broadcast in Germany at 19:00 on MDR Kultur and MDR Klassik, and on German TV at 24:00 on MDR-Fernsehen.

For more details, see this Gramophone article and the Carus-Verlag website.

Aurora Australis

Since everyone seemed to like my matching of the Llandudno goats video to Prokofiev’s Montagues and Capulets, I’ve decided to bring you another mashup.
First, I saw this beautiful time-lapse footage of the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis) over Antarctica. [1]  If the only thing you do is watch this video, your day may improve. The soundtrack for this video is a piece called Diana by Tony Anderson, and it works wonderfully with this video. If you enjoy the video, check out Timestorm Film’s YouTube channel for more videos (in particular, Nox Atacama. Wow.)

But I wanted to try something different.

I found this video of violinist Mari Samuelsen playing Max Richter’s November live in Beijing. If you only listen to this, your day may improve.

Now for the mashup. Open the two videos in separate tabs. Start the video of November. Once the orchestra starts to play, start the video of the Southern Lights in Antarctica, but mute its sound. The timing is not critical.

I think you will enjoy the result.

Wishing you peace and good health.

 

Extra note for Max Richter fans: If you are in the UK or Europe, BBC3 and the European Broadcasting Union will broadcast Max Richter’s Sleep, all eight hours of it, beginning 11PM London time on 11 April 2020. Read more about BBC’s Culture in Quarantine program here.  Not in Europe?  Need Sleep now?  You can find it here on YouTube.
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1. Clara Parkes is providing a daily moment of calm, with photos or videos to provide a moment of peace, or a smile, to your day. It is called The Daily Respite. Past days have included a photo of the Maine sky, a dog jumping into piles of leaves, the Llandudno goats, and today’s Southern Lights video. You can check it out at the website, or if you subscribe, it will be sent to your inbox each day. See details at the link above.

Image attribution: Drawing by C. Gallant (c) 2020.