CGF Newsletter 29: Locks of Liebe

Beethoven gets a tonsorial diagnosis, CGF Listeners are fêted, Classical music is ascendant

Name That Tune

This week’s Name That Tune is a Joey special. Here’s your hint: This pianist/composer/child prodigy had memorized all 24 preludes of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier books by age 12. No Googling!

As always, your goal is to provide as much accurate analysis as possible. First try to get the nationality, year, and genre, then make educated guesses about the composer and — if possible— the piece. If you know the piece immediately, send us an email at classicalgabfest@gmail.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing. 

Last Week’s Results

CGF Newsletter 28
Stravinsky, Le chant du rossignol

You all struggled with this one, and in just the way I wanted you to! Listener Jeremy was in first with a vague guess of Gershwin. Listener Ellen followed down his path but veered towards France with Milhaud—as excellent a guess as I could imagine—and Ravel, also perfectly legit. Listener Eric offered up more Americans, Copland, Still, and Bernstein, which all make sense to me.

In the end, after an intense struggle that I know about from a déluge of text messages, Listener Kevin pulled out the right answer just before the deadline.

Think you can stump your fellow Listeners? Go ahead and try!

Head to our Google Form to upload a 30-second clip of an unidentified piece of classical music for us to try to identify.

Save the Dates

The CGF Newsletter team is going on tour! More precisely, Joseph “Joey” Vaz will be traveling to Seattle for a chamber performance with members of the Harmonia Orchestra on Saturday, April 1 at 2:30 pm.

Later in the month, Will will travel to NYC for Joseph’s second doctoral recital at the CUNY Graduate Center on Friday, April 21.

Please join us if you live in or near either location! Joseph will perform Will’s piano sonata at both performances.

Beethoven’s Hair

It’s a bit of the old Ludwig Van in the news this week.

According to CNN, a report has just been issued about a recent round of genetic analysis on several samples of Beethoven’s hair that still survive, in the hopes of sussing out the cause of his persistent illnesses and his eventual death. According to the scientists, they were unable to find a definitive cause of his deafness or gastrointestinal illness.

"However, we did discover a number of significant genetic risk factors for liver disease," he added. "We also found evidence of an infection with hepatitis B virus in at latest the months before the composer's final illness. Those likely contributed to his death."

Beethoven's genetic data also helped the researchers rule out other potential causes of his ailments, such as celiac disease, an autoimmune condition, lactose intolerance or irritable bowel syndrome.

Letters written by Beethoven, as well as those of his friends, show that the composer regularly consumed alcohol. Although it's difficult to tell how much he drank, a close friend wrote that Beethoven had at least a liter of wine with lunch each day.

Drinking alcohol, combined with genetic risk factors for liver disease and his hepatitis B infection, might have been the perfect storm for Beethoven's health near the end of his life.

This whole analyzing Beethoven’s hair thing has been around for quite a while. In fact, there was even a book about it that came out back in 2001, aptly titled—wait for it—Beethoven’s Hair!

Listener Tammy on Jeopardy!

The CGF Listeners, they’re just an extraordinary bunch! Be sure to tune into the long-running television trivia show this Friday night—that’s tomorrow!

Listener Tammy—aka Tamaroquai—will be repping the CGF Newsletter Community, the University of Chicago Motet Choir alumni community, and the editorial community, among many other excellent communities!

Happy 40th to Listener Jeremy!

Speaking of other illustrious members of the University of Chicago/CGF Newsletter expanded universe, our own Listener Jeremy turns the big four-oh today! 

As you all will know, Jeremy is an inveterate submitter of Name That Tune clips that nobody has any idea about and that all feature the clarinet, his frenemy of an instrument.

Jeremy, the CGF Newsletter community salutes you as one of the truest Friends of the Pod and a Listener of unique taste and exquisite erudition.

The Kids, They Love the Classical Music

According to fellow Substacker Ted Gioa (whose book I was assigned in my college Jazz class), 2022 was a banner year for the classics:

But whatever the reasons, the impact is clear. Starting about 12-18 months ago, something shifted in music consumption patterns.

Not long ago, I would have shaken my head in disbelief at this report. But given all the converging survey data shared above, I can only conclude that the culture is shifting in some meaningful way. [...] And by my measure, this culture shift is still in the early stages.

Classical Mixtape

Bernstein, Overture to Candide

Today’s newsletter was such a celebratory edition, it seemed only right that we should have music fit for  festivity. Enjoy!