Getting Hammered: Beethoven meets Rocky Balboa in a heroic struggle

You haven't heard Beethoven like this....

Rocky Balboa meets Ludvig von Beethoven in a metaphorical ring of drama, suspense and heroic struggle. 

Leonard Bernstein said "Music...can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable"

But metaphor can also be used to help us understand complex music in a fresh way.

Words can only go so far...

Especially when it comes to describing the experience of great music.

So how about using another vehicle of expression, one that we can relate to on an emotional level?

Film.

On today's podcast we take to the piano (you can watch on YouTube for the video version which includes clips from the film).

We overlay Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata 1st movement side by side with the film Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone.

What emerges is a fascinating revelation of what is 'under the hood'.

Yes, both Balboa's and Beethoven's template is the same.

It's known as the Hero's Journey, the quintessential model for great Hollywood films, novels and compelling stories.

And now...we see and hear it at work in the compositional process of Beethoven.

Join me for a frolic in film and music.

I guarantee you will never hear Beethoven the same way again.

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Transcript

All of our knowledge proceeds from what we feel. How can we feel more and learn about the depth of the human condition, the dark night of the soul, and experience for ourselves the hero's journey? Well, today we are going to superimpose Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, looking at the lens of this music through Hollywood's lens. using the blockbuster hit from the 70s, Rocky, yes, Rocky Balboa, to illuminate this very complex music and connect with it in a fresh new way. Welcome to Music to Compose You, where the timeless melodies of classical music intertwine with narratives of personal transformation. Join me each week at my Steinway Piano on a journey through the symphonies of life. we explore how the power of music shapes our stories ignites our passions and leads us towards profound inner growth and physical healing from the gentle cascades of a bach prelude to the triumphant crescendo of a Beethoven sonata each episode will resonate with the melodies of our experiences inviting you to discover the transformative magic of classical music Hello, I'm Margaret Wacyk and welcome to another installment of the Music to Compose You podcast. Guys, today we are at my piano and I've talked about this piano on episode one and what makes it pretty special. So I'm so excited to share it with you today. And we're diving in to this very passionate piece of music. It's called the Appassionata, which means passionate. And the word passion is not just passion as in, Oh, you know, I love you. It's actually a little bit deeper than that. It comes from the word pathos and pathos means Pathetic, which means filled with not only passion, but pain. Pain and passion go together. Like it or not, it's something that we all experience. If you've ever had your heart broken, you know the pain. you know the bliss as well of the love but what does this have to do with this music well it's got it all it's got the pain it's got the passion and it has the fire the refining fire of life when we decide to transform because transformation is is a decision and we get to do it every single moment of the day that's the good news if we're stuck if we're not happy the way things are going in our life it might be due to a mindset issue it might be due to circumstances we always have a chance this very moment to transform we're going to look at this music and the music um is going to be an interesting story as well it's got the hero's journey embedded in it is that factual is that like something you're going to find in the music textbooks no But I love to combine things from different walks of life. I love film and I love the movie Rocky. And in researching the movie Rocky, have you guys seen it? It came out in 1976 and I remember growing up as a teenager, I would watch every single sequel. to the Rocky movies, and it's got this fantastic tension to it. It's always about Rocky, who you feel is like a guy rags to fame and riches story and how he was able to overcome the difficulties in his life and challenge himself to meet these really scary opponents and have these really difficult experiences it makes you wonder or it gives you hope that yeah you know what maybe I can also improve something in my life at least when I was watching those I i kind of got that inspiration from that so let's dive in if you haven't seen the movie rocky no worries I'm going to insert some clips here we're going to take step by step and we're going to take the music step by step but I'd like to start first with a fresh listen of the first part of beethoven's sonata Before we start, let me share with you that a sonata is a work of music, a piece of music that has a very specific structure to it. It has an exposition, a development section, a recapitulation section, which relates to the exposition, almost sometimes copies it, but then veers off with a coda, which is technically the ending or a tale. end of something. So the way composers would use this format from Haydn to Mozart to Beethoven to Liszt, all these composers used it in very fresh ways. Sorry, that's my dog. And Beethoven did it in probably one of the most bold ways ever in this piece. let's take a listen to the exposition of beethoven's appassionata sonata first movement it's only about three minutes long and we're just gonna listen to it with fresh ears right now so so Thank you. So upon listening to it, I'd like you to think about how it made you feel. What mood did it have? What experience did you have when you listened to it? Did you feel that it was flowing or did it challenge you? Was it difficult to listen to? What did you like about it? Was it compelling and why? These are just questions to ask as you listen because listening is an action verb. We really have to engage. These days, because we hear so much, we have sort of evolved to be able to let things really passively enter our ears and not be attentive to it. So in this, the invitation is to listen without interruption, without distraction, to really listen to the elements within it. So in order to make that a little easier, I'm going to break apart some of the features of that exposition we just heard. And again, overlay it with the story of Rocky and that movie. So that movie has a built-in template to it. It's called The Hero's Journey. And The Hero's Journey was made famous in Joseph Campbell's writing. And in its stages of a journey that a hero takes, and Hollywood has used this template for everything. And there's something about this template. It's a storytelling type of template that human beings just love. gravitate to books like Harry Potter, which has the hero's journey in it. We gravitate to movies like Wizard of Oz, which has the hero's journey template in it. And there's just countless other things. I personally do believe that there is a hero's journey story within Beethoven's writing. And so let's jump into that right now with the first part of the hero's journey. The first part of the hero's journey is the ordinary world. What is like in the movie Rocky? What is Rocky's world? situation. When we start watching the first clips of this movie, we see that he is boxing in a club. It's a seedy club. It's not glamorous at all. It's really run down and it seems like a pretty cringy environment. It's stinky. There's smoke. It's got blood. People are fighting for very little money. And that's what Rocky does. He fights in this club for real little money. And that's his night job. And in the daytime, he, quote unquote, breaks legs for a local loan shark. So that's what he does. It's not the most... It's a fun kind of lifestyle he has, and probably he's unhappy with it. So that's his ordinary world. Let me read to you a little bit about that ordinary world in The Hero's Journey. It's the normal life of the hero at the start of the story before the adventure begins. So for Rocky, it goes that Rocky isn't even a has-been boxer. He's the definition of a never was. At night, he's a boxing, a club boxer fighter fighting brutal fights for a few bucks. During the day, he's the local muscle for a loan shark. Every moment of his life, Rocky is seemingly reminded of how he's nothing but a bum. So let's now superimpose that with the opening of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata. And we're going to listen to what the characters are here. So for the movie Rocky, we are introduced to Rocky. We're introduced to Mickey, who is the owner of the club in the exposition. We're introduced to Adrian who works at the pet store and he has a crush on her and he's little by little getting to know her more and so that's a potential love story going on and a bunch of other supporting characters those are the main ones now for Beethoven we're going to also meet characters so I'd like to introduce you to character one which is the down sliding theme. So the music starts like this with a slide of three notes going down. Whoo! Those notes going down, plus this dark key of F minor really sets this up as dark, smoky, kind of like the opening sound of Rocky. It's not good. But then the music twirls up. Which might represent hope. We'll see. it's still dark now that ends with something that is totally coming from out of the blue out of nowhere it's like where did this next piece of music come from and this is the next segment It's so weird. It's like apples and oranges in a way. There is a trill here. Trills often represent the heart because music is all about, as Da Vinci said, all knowledge comes from feeling. Music represents our feelings. This to me represents the heart fluttering nervously. You know, like when we get nervous, our heart beats faster. So we have this nervous trill. Next, we have the nerves. heart repeating but now in a more hopeful key started here now a slightly more hopeful key and he does the same thing all over again but it sounds much more positive Next, he goes through a series of ambiguous moments that are punctuated by this trill. And now comes the fateful four notes. The fateful four. Listen up for those for the entire piece because it will be coming back. The fateful four notes. That represents... an idea that Beethoven was completely obsessed with, fate knocking at the door. He used it in the Fifth Symphony. and many other places as well. That is a feature of this. And what is the fate he's talking about? Fate is a force, a destiny, something he can't escape. It's for his own good. But in this case, fate has a challenge He's coming and knocking on the door with the challenge to Beethoven saying, you know, can you do this, please? I'm asking you to elevate yourself to this new way of thinking, this new way of being, which means being a composer while being completely deaf. Will you elevate yourself to this challenge? That is the invitation, fate. Of course, nobody wants to go deaf and certainly not the greatest composer in the world to go deaf. It seems almost like a cruel joke, but here he's fighting the fate, which is a theme that's also going to be represented in this piece. Right after this, we have this rebuttal Must it be so? Do we have to do this? Do I have to actually go through this? Fate says there's no other way. It's like the Ryan Halliday quote, the obstacle in the path is the path. That is the obstacle. Of course, right away, we see so many opportunities in this overlay where we can use this to just tell our story, to put ourselves in whatever difficulty we have using this as our model to push through, to transform, to feel all the feelings associated with that struggle, with that challenge. Feelings like music are simply energy that must be expressed. We can try to shove the feelings down and not have those feelings or distract ourselves with other things so that we will not feel those feelings, but those feelings never go dormant. They don't go away because it's an energy. And as we know, energy never dies. It's simply transformed. So feelings that can't be expressed will become toxins in our body. I do think this is why music is such a healer. It helps us to experience those emotions in a way that is so healthy and so freeing because every note... resonates inside of us. And perhaps even this note is resonating with a certain feeling that needs to be dealt with. It's all about frequency matching, matching the frequency with that. So We have the setup, Beethoven's main characters have already been set up. There's one last push before we close out that section and that's this like crashing down, this very difficult and crazy and really out of the blue, thunderous crashing of arpeggios. i completely messed that up but anyway you get the idea all right let's let's watch the rocky movie clip the ordinary world we've gotten a glimpse of beethoven's ordinary world let's watch Yeah, girl, say hi. You know, if you guys could see me dance, I wouldn't be doing this, you know? And the last turtle food I got here, that's, uh... This turtle food guy here had more flies than I had. More flies than I had. More flies than I had. More flies than I had. okay the next section of the hero's journey is the call to adventure the hero is faced with an event conflict problem or challenge that makes them begin their adventure so for rocky it means that apollo creed comes now into the picture a new character apollo creed is a muhammad ali type world champion boxer and he's looking for a new fight He's beaten everyone though. The options that his people choose for his next match are lackluster. He wants something bigger. Apollo and his team decide to give a no-name a try. They go through many options until Apollo finds Rocky, the Italian Stallion Balboa. As Rocky shows up at Mickey's boxing gym, he's given a message that he's been requested to appear at the offices of Apollo's promoting partner. Rocky thinks that they're just looking for a local sparring partner for the champ, but when he shows up, he's quickly offered the chance to fight for the title. Okay, so the call to adventure. For Beethoven, the call for adventure starts really by the end of the first page. Now, this is a very long piece, and so it starts very soon. And Basically, it starts here. So we have heard the down theme and now it goes with these crashing chords. And then more crashing chords. Now here, I believe that this note takes us to the... to the call to adventure it's almost like you could hear the the insistence that there is something happening you know it's what is this what is this and also embedded in that section we just heard is the refusal of the call which comes next let's watch how Rocky has a refusal of the call. So the setup is that the hero initially refuses the adventure because of hesitations, fears, insecurity, or any number of issues. And what we just heard expresses a lot of ambiguity, a lot of insecurity. bold moves and this insistence doesn't go away You know, there's something there. It's almost like a persistent call, like something must change, something must happen. So for Rocky, Rocky's refusal of the call is subtle and brief, but showing. When asked if he'd like to fight Apollo, his quick reaction is simple, nope. rocky then goes on to explain well it's just that you see uh I fight in clubs you know I'm really uh ham and egger this guy he's the best and uh it wouldn't be such a good fight thank you very much I appreciate it refusal not gonna go there let's watch the clip you don't understand me rocky my proposition is this Would you be interested in fighting Apollo Creed for the World Heavyweight Championship? No. Listen, Rocky, Apollo's seen you fight. He likes you. He wants to fight you. Well, it's just that you see, uh, I fight in clubs, you know, and I'm really a him and And now we are at the heroic section of the hero's journey. After the refusal of the call, there's usually another event that's going to happen. Maybe someone's going to say something that inspires a change of mind. And in Rocky's case, that happens when the promoter quickly convinces him to take on the fight after preaching to him about the American dream. He gets a glimpse of what is possible. Rocky, you believe that America is the land of opportunity? Yes. Yes. Apollo Creed does. And he's going to prove it to the whole world by giving an unknown a shot at the title. And that unknown is you. He picked you, Rocky. Rocky, it's the chance. Now, in Beethoven's case, we're going to get more into this moment of Beethoven's life where he writes a letter known as the Hegelstadt Testament. And that sounds very fancy, but really... The nuts and bolts of it is that he was writing his goodbye letter. It was a suicide note. And it was because he was giving up on life. He couldn't imagine continuing with this infirmity, this deafness, which also was chronic pain physically for him. And it also meant social isolation. There were no hearing aids. the hearing aid of the time was basically for somebody to talk into your ear with something as big as a tuba and it was too humiliating for him. He already had enjoyed success as a composer and this was so humbling and he couldn't even imagine who would take a deaf composer seriously. And he writes this letter and he refuses to go on with his life. That's the refusal of the call. But in this letter, there's an amazing moment where you can almost sense as you're reading it that he has this this light bulb moment where he realizes, what if I just change the way I look at this situation? And we'll talk more about that. I don't want to give it all away yet. But in this music, we have this light bulb moment, this switch of mood where we've been going through this darkness and this insecurity and this sort of nervous fear of, energy and now the energy is transformed from this moment where we receive a real full-fledged melody not just scraps of notes anymore and I say that with respect because boy what beethoven does with just these little scraps of notes is amazing but now we have a real bonafide melody yay for the first time And truly, this is a heroic moment. This is for him moving out of that darkness, despair, and for a brief moment at least, having that light. So, again, Beethoven writes in a letter. I want to read you just a bit of this letter that he writes to one of his great mentors, a prince named Prince Lichnowsky. And in it, he writes, I must confide in you about a personal struggle that has been a heavy burden upon me. The persistent ringing in my ears, a melody that I can scarcely describe, has been an ever-present challenge. This affliction, which seems to grow worse with each passing day, has tested my resolve and my patience. Yet, I remain determined to rise above this adversity and to continue composing music that speaks to the essence of the human experience. I love that he writes why he's doing it. It is the human experience that he invites us to step into. We might not be experiencing deafness and those particular circumstances, but nobody can get through this life unscathed without some big crises and so we can relate to all the feelings in this piece already that nervousness that waiting like for whatever it is that doctor's report or that waiting for the phone to ring to make sure that your kid is safe you know because they've been out so long and you haven't been able to reach them that nervousness that happens when you're not sure if you're going to get that job and you're waiting for that email to go through it there's so many countless life events that we can imagine to experience these feelings but again it's this opportunity to really feel on the deepest level that Beethoven invites us to Take two symphonies and call me in the morning. Those are the words expressed by Elena Mannes in her book, The Power of Music. My friend, let me ask you a question. Have you been using the power of music in your health and wellness journey? If not, then there's no better time than now to jump in. Because we live in a modern time that is filled with noise, where finding peace and clarity can sometimes seem impossible. However, by tapping into the notes of classical music and the timeless messages of wisdom found within, we have a powerful transformational tool that we can use today. But you might be thinking, well, classical music has never been my thing. How do I connect to it? How do I listen and actually like it, engage with it, and have it be a reflection of my feelings and emotions? Welcome to the Music to Compose You podcast. Here we connect the dots, bringing together the beautiful masterpieces of classical music, the stories behind the compositions and the composers that wrote them. The benefits of classical music are sky high. From reducing stress and anxiety to boosting concentration and creativity, classical music harmonizes your mind and body, elevating your everyday experiences. And you can try it right now. Feel the soothing melodies wash over you, improving your mood, enhancing your cognitive abilities, and promoting restful sleep. Let the melodies of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach be your companions on a journey to wellness. Dance Download Sound Sleep, a collection of soothing piano masterpieces that soothe your nervous system and harmonizes the brain, creating an atmosphere of peace just perfect for bedtime. Try it by going to musictocomposeyou.com. And while you're there, be sure to join the newsletter where I share the latest behind the scenes footage of the podcast and access to special events, concerts, and goodies reserved just for subscribers. So thanks so much for being part of the Music to Compose family. We are embarking on a fun journey. I'm so happy you're here for the ride. Let's let our soul song sing and see what this music reveals to us about ourselves. So the next portion of the hero's journey is meeting the mentor. I can't say that for Beethoven, it seems like he had a meeting of the mentor moment here. But because it's really it's between him and himself. He's dealing with himself in this piece and really hashing it out. But for Rocky, he has a hero encounter with a mentor that gives him advice, wisdom, information, tools for getting ready for the journey ahead. And so for Rocky, it's Mickey, the owner of that boxing club. So we first met Mickey in Rocky's ordinary world. But at that point, he was not a mentor to Rocky. And if anything, he was a tormentor screaming at him in a crowded gym about how he had the talent to become great, but instead wasted it when he decided to become a leg breaker for a second rate loan shark. So Mickey is telling Rocky that he's made some bad decisions that seem to reflect on the way he thought about himself and his life. But when Rocky gets the fight with Apollo, Mickey appears at Rocky's apartment. He wants to train him. Rocky isn't too happy at first. In fact, he's angry, wondering why he didn't reach out to him like this years ago. After Mickey pleads his case to a closed door, Rocky comes out and accepts his offer. Granted, this doesn't happen until after he has accepted the call to adventure, crossed the threshold, and undergone many tests. that is the whole thing is that you know rocky already turned the key inside himself he already decided to switch the ignition in his mind from okay I'm this bum to I can maybe actually do this he starts to see himself as capable the same way that Beethoven started to see himself as capable of composing and living with this incredible affliction so talking about crossing the threshold I just want to point out one other moment in this exposition section because at this point after those themes that we had have already gone through everything else in this piece is derived from that which again is such an amazing amazing thing that beethoven does and this is the reason why he's such a great composer at least one of the reasons is that he can create so much from so little But for Beethoven, he is using what he's already presented and he's so economical with those choices. They're so well thought out, which leads me to a wonderful, sharing a wonderful thing I read about Beethoven's compositional process. Beethoven was so aware of structure in his music and like composing, as a composition, like the way a painter sees the composition of their painting. Beethoven also saw the scope of what he was trying to write. And the way he did that was he would put blank pieces of manuscript paper on the ground and he would see this as a full entity and then he would fill in certain blanks wherever he had ideas for where pivotal moments should come in and then he would create a lattice web to unite everything which is astonishing like how did he do this And this intricate amount of math that it takes to even think on this level is coming from a guy who didn't even know how to multiply or divide because Beethoven's academic education ended because he had to support the family very early on and he only knew addition. subtraction so amazing amazing feats but I want to show you this moment again in the exposition we get this very strange scale coming in let me just take you from this moment it's after this theme of the heroic right after that comes Then those trills. Then comes this really eerie scale. Descending. It's so unusual. It's like, oh, this ride in a, you know, foggy sea in a boat and you're just like being drifting into a new world. For me, this feels like the crossing to a new threshold, very much in the hero's journey. So let's take a listen to the exposition again and see how this discussion is has influenced the way we hear it. Thank you. Thank you. you Okay, so I'm just curious, how does it sound now after we have kind of gone in and like listened with new ears and talked about this overlay of the hero's journey? Does it compute? Do you feel that? Does it change your experience of listening to this music? Does it add to it? Does it not add to it? I'm very curious to see this because for me as a musician, I have since that one lesson that changed my life, which I talked about in last episode, I've always come to the music with this notion of meaning. Where's the meaning? What is the composer trying to say? What are the clues, the context clues that leads to that? What is this language really getting at? So anyway, that meaning does change things. So I'm just curious if this overlay helps you to connect with this music a bit more. So with that, I'd like to wrap up this podcast. Also reminding you that we have this fun Patreon group starting. We're going to be doing a midsummer book reading of a great book that also has some music. interlaced with it I don't want to give it away yet but do come over to the patreon and take a look and I'll have all the details there for how you can join and when we'll be starting and all that and also inviting you to come to the website music to compose you calm where there are free downloads for music to help with all sorts of life and wellness condition and there is a free download for And we know that there's certain rhythms in music that do help us to regulate and get ready to rest. So that is there for you as a gift. And also tell your friends, help me to grow this podcast. I would love that. And let me know how you like this. What has your experience been? with the hero's journey over light on this piece. So thank you for joining. And I look forward to seeing you next week where we continue the exploration. We finish out the hero's journey with movement one of this Beethoven sonata. If you're a piano learner of any age or level and feel blocked in your playing, I have some good news for you. Do you get tired of hitting the same notes over and over again? Does your progress feel stagnant no matter how much you practice? Worse yet, do you feel disconnected to the music you're playing and starting to feel tension creep up? your forearms, hands, and shoulders. For many piano players, poor technique and tension can hold them back from reaching their full potential. But fear not, because there is a solution. Introducing the Golden Tone Technique, the revolutionary program designed to unlock your true potential and transform your playing. 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