What if Beethoven had YouTube?

What if Beethoven had YouTube? At first it might seem like a frivolous idea, but there are profound implications by this. First of all, think about this. Beethoven would have had exposure to music from all over the world. What would that have done for his compositions? Why would he have to be so isolated? Sure, composers made every attempt at learning the great composers from around the world, but YouTube, by gosh, we literally have the world's music in our pockets at the click of our fingers.

Secondly, think about all the other composers around the globe who might have created far greater works if they had just been able to hear all the works of the great composers clustered in Austria and Germany. Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert. So this changes things dramatically. It could have reshaped music history.

Now Bach is a key example. Now Bach didn't travel much at all, but he did make an effort to go to any concert that came through his home in Leipzig, Germany, and he was able to have phenomenal compositions in all the different styles from the Italian...

Now, if you know a lot of Bach's works, you realize how unique this Italian concerto is. And he also wrote in the English style, the French style. Here's a little bit of his French Suite No. 5.

Now I'm sure you're going to hear these two styles are dramatically different from one another. Imagine if Bach hadn't had the opportunity to hear French music, English music, Italian music, and think about the exposure he could have gotten with Spanish music and the world's music even here in the Americas.

But at least he was able to produce this fantastic music in all these different styles just from simply attending concerts. Now imagine if Beethoven had access to all the musical styles and cultures around the world. The possibilities are truly staggering. But composers lived in relative isolation. And you know, you could hear the same effect. Here's a parallel for you that I think you'll really appreciate. In the early 20th century, pianists, listen to the recordings from pre -World War II, talking about Paderewski or Hoffman, Rachmaninoff, Levine, they all were dramatically different from one another. With the advent of recording, many, many musicians and pianists could hear one another. And today everybody can hear everyone. So there is much more homogeneity in performances than there were back then. I encourage you to listen to some of those old recordings. Even though they're scratchy, they have technology now to get rid of most of the scratches. But you can hear individuality that's so far beyond anything that anybody is doing today. So the question is, would this have made people more homogenous if YouTube had existed in Beethoven's time? Or would we have the individuality and more styles like you hear in Bach? And this is the great question.

Now here in the 20th century, a great example of world music, the ushering in of different styles, the Beatles were pioneering that. You know, that George Harrison kind of mentored with Ravi Shankar, the great Indian composer and musician. And you listen to songs like Within You, Without You, which I'll put a link in the description if you've never heard it, because it's unlike any other Beatles song. Of course, they utilize these techniques in many of their songs, traveling the world. So this is the great question that I leave you all with, is that would YouTube, if something like that had existed in Beethoven's time, would that have made more creativity because of the access to more sounds and styles? Or would it have made composers more the same as one another? And we don't really know the answer to that question. And one last thought for you that kind of is troubling, if YouTube was around, would Beethoven have just been doom -scrolling through and wasted time instead of sitting there composing these great compositions? And that's all the things I'm thinking about in this, and let's keep this discussion going here at livingpianos.com. We are your online piano resource. Thanks so much everybody for joining me. I'm Robert Estrin.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/what-if-beethoven-had-youtube/

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