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24 Hours Of Beethoven's 9th Symphony

Posted by Hemos on from the hold-that-whole-note dept.

Ermintrude the Flying Cow writes "Ever wonder what "Ode to Joy" would sound like if stretched to 24 hours? Now you can find out. 9 Beet Stretch is the result of running Beethoven's 9th Symphony in a digital stretching program, turning the one hour piece into a 24 hour attention span acid test. Thankfully, for those of us who know our limits, it's been cut into 19 parts."

35 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. I have only one question... by Zandromeda · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why?

    Finally someone who has more time on their hands than I do.

    --
    "Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs."
    1. Re:I have only one question... by cioxx · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, I'll try to give you the general idea in a nutshell.

      For those of you who do not follow space-rock, post rock, atmospheric, ambient, organic et al, this is basically a great idea.

      There are thousands of artists who release albums which have a similar sound to this one. Take Vir Unis for example. It's ambient as it gets. Sure, he has more substance in his albums than just prolonged note progressions, but one you hear Vir Unis or other musician in the genre you'll get the general idea.

      There are other artists too, like Steve Roach, Michael Brook, etc.

      For one, I think this is highly innovative. In the past, to reinvent music, one would have to do a remix, play it with different instruments, etc. And the end result would be very similar. What separates these guys from the rest is how they were able to stretch the music and transform it from one genre to a totally new genre. Beethoven would have approved of this, if he was alive. After centuries, his music is going into a new territory which was not even heard of couple of decades ago. And as an added bonus, this is quite listenable. I've heard arrangements of SETI signals, space noise ambience, etc. And this ranks very high on top of that list.

      I could understand how many people feel this is pointless, as did I, until I had a chance to hear it. If you're familiar with ambience, you'll understand the significance of this pioneer effort.

    2. Re:I have only one question... by tjowatonna · · Score: 3, Informative

      I belive you're referring to Steve Reich, but close enough. And incidentally, only a very limited ammount of his music can be considered ambient, and he wasn't really a minimalist after about 1970 anyway (he hated the term really). Try listening to the 'opera "Einstein on the Beach" by Philip Glass. To me that's actually worse than the topic at hand. For some reason the title of this work reminds me of the title of said Philip Glass opera. interesting. Ambient music I like: Discrete Music by Brian Eno

  2. This could be as much fun by TerryAtWork · · Score: 5, Funny

    as watching grass grow....

    --
    It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
  3. Ever wonder ? by tmark · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ever wonder what "Ode to Joy" would sound like if stretched to 24 hours?

    Uhh, no ?

    1. Re:Ever wonder ? by Kipper+the+Llama · · Score: 5, Funny

      I did, then the pot wore off.

  4. suicide scherzo by nastro · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yet another way to get little Alex to try to off himself, O my brothers.

  5. Unreal by whereiswaldo · · Score: 3, Insightful


    Why do content producers insist on using RealAudio? Give me a real player and I'll listen to to the stream. I'm not installing spyware on my machine.

  6. 19? by limekiller4 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I just gotta know... Why 19 parts? Not 24? Not 48. Not 12. WHY 19?? I could see if they cordoned off each file to represent a fixed timelength of music, which would result in different filesizes, and thus the count would be screwy, but even that isn't the case.

    --
    My .02,
    Limekiller
    1. Re:19? by TekReggard · · Score: 5, Insightful
      The reason why they use 19 is related to musical content. If you divided it into 48, or even 24 even pieces, then you might accidentally stop it in the middle of a brilliant musical motion.



      In other words, whoever broke it up into sections was more worried about musical value and meaning, than file size and numerical sense. Think of your favorite piece of music from any genre, you wouldnt want it to, take a break, RIGHT in the middle of your favorite stanza, verse, etc.

    2. Re:19? by NeoSkandranon · · Score: 5, Funny

      If they were worried about musical value and meaning, they wouldnt have stretched a classical masterpiece horribly out of shape =p

      --
      If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
  7. 24 seconds. by Trusty+Penfold · · Score: 5, Funny


    It would be better compressed to 24 seconds - the neighbourhood dogs would go apeshit.

  8. strange people by lingqi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wow this is like Andy Warhol's film "Empire", only that it is probabbly not as artistically creative for its time.

    for those that don't know - Empire is a film where he (Andy Warhol) put a camera aiming at the empire state building in the morning, started the film, and let it ran EIGHT HOURS. ...

    right up there with watching corn grow and whatever.

    silly people that do silly things in the name of art.

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

    1. Re:strange people by Jonathan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And today someone who filmed a building for each hours would be arrested as a terrorist suspect...

    2. Re:strange people by xinit · · Score: 5, Informative
      Apparently the theory behind Empire was that it could be displayed as a piece in a gallery... you could look at it and see an effectively still image. The image changed, of course, but not like you'd expect a MOVIE to.

      So, what the piece was was more of a painting or a photograph with some dynamic content.

      --
      --- http://foo.ca
    3. Re:strange people by delfstrom · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Apparently the theory behind Empire was that it could be displayed as a piece in a gallery..

      And Leif Inge says this about the immediate future of 9beetstretch: (source: Sonoloco record reviews)

      "I actually will use the sound in an installation in a bedrom in a gallery in Oslo in September (2002), making the symphony into bedchambermusic. People can lay down and listen (and maybe drift)"

      Perhaps this music would accompany Empire very well.

    4. Re:strange people by lingqi · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know "Empire" because I took a philosophy of art class.

      Now, I am probabbly getting a lot of this wrong and my professor will smack me for getting them wrong, but as far as I remembered, one of the mojor reasons why it was so "genius" is because it explored the medium of film and contrasted it to the ideas of stillness.

      The idea is that on a static medium (painting / photography), you obviously cannot show movement, as even the best painting is only the capture of a moment (lets not get into Van Gough and the funny square stuff for a second);

      Similarly, a moving medium like film can capture motion, but in turn, it REALLY captures something static in a much more "complete" sense than, say, a painting can - case in point, you can see the empire state building, unmoving amongst the birds (there is this famous scene when a seagull flew by), clouds, etc. This contrast of moving (the environment) and the still (the building) is only captureable, and experssed, on film. In turn, the stillness of the building is understood in a way that is unexpressable on a photograph, a painting, or whatever.

      Of course, maybe there are some obscure purpose to this stretching of the symphony too? I really don't know - one thing the class taught me was that art is wayyyy over my head. :-)

      --

      My life in the land of the rising sun.

  9. It's okay..... by Newer+Guy · · Score: 5, Funny

    But it drags a bit....

  10. On a more interesting note... by flippet · · Score: 4, Interesting
    (Pun intended, sorry)

    Someone here did a project last year to "derive" a new symphony by a composer. The idea was to analyse various pieces written by the chosen composer, find the common themes, and then use them to produce new pieces which would have the same "feel" as the originals.

    That way you end up with more music you like without making you think you've overdosed...

    Phil, just me

    --
    "Cattle Prods solve most of life's little problems."
  11. Change the freakin name! by AltImage · · Score: 5, Funny

    At 24 hours, I don't think "Ode to Joy" is really appropriate anymore.

    Then again, isn't an ode a song or poem in remembrance to something lost? In that case it may be all too fitting.

  12. timestretching and electronic music by phaxkolumbo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Timestretching has been featured exclusively on electronic music tracks for quite a while now... Just think those drum'n'bass records with the words 'selekta' etc.

    Apparently Aphex Twin once was supposed to remix a track, so he timestretched it to a couple of milliseconds and used it as a snare drum, and when the bloke came back to get the ready remix, he just grabbed a random DAT-tape and gave it back to him...

    One Nine inch nails strack features the words ' erase your head' stretched to the duration of the track (ummh, 5 minutes or so), so you can hear the words if you fast forward the track.

    And this is not even mentioning Autechre (and many others) which these days just live on the digital artifacts caused by timestretching.

    But, still, it's cool to find use for this sort of thing... i wonder what they used to create the 24-h stretch

  13. Next up: 4'33" by John Cage. by Blaede · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oughta be good.

  14. how's the stretch come out? by mcc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Most digital stretching filters i've heard-- even the ones in professional music programs like ProTools and Logic Audio-- cause the output to be exceedingly gravelly and robotized, like they're being played through a digital cell phone that's slowly giving out. The resulting sound is possible to be used in a musically interesting manner, but it definitely doesn't sound like something a classical music fan would find pleasant to listen to, in my experience.

    How did the stretch turn out in this thing? Is it relatively smooth, or is it just like listening to a rotor slowly changing pitch to form something similar to beethoven's 9th? No, of course i'm not going to listen to it myself, especially not when there are X number of slashdotters pounding on their poor realaudio server. Though i may check out this "Herb Levys Mappings" page they link to, if i ever find the correct link. (Theirs is busted. Actually, pretty much everything linked from that first page seems to be slashdotted at this point. Ah well.)

    And if it did turn out smoothly, will someone please tell me what software they used for the time expansion, because i want a copy :)

    --
    Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
    1. Re:how's the stretch come out? by delfstrom · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's really amazing! I'm listening to section 4.1 right now. It sounds like a complete orchestra making very long, slowly changing notes, such as background music for a movie.

  15. So this is how Kubrik did it !?! by corvi42 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow, this sounds exactly like the opening 20 minutes of blackness to 2001! Now we finally know what Kubrik was doing - he was torturing a reel-to-reel copy of Beethoven's Ninth, cool!

    --

    There are a thousand forms of subversion, but few can equal the convenience and immediacy of a cream pie -Noel Godin
  16. Re:Ogg/MP3 Version? by pi+radians · · Score: 3, Informative

    As someone actually listening to it right now, I think I can safely say "No, you don't want to hear it."

    Its the 9th symphony stretched out to 24 hours. Think about it.

    And yet, it still plays in the background.

    --

    sin(6cos(r)+5A)
  17. sssssoooouuuunnndddsss iiiinnnnttteeerreeessstting by Dr.+Awktagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    SSSSSooooouuuuunnnnndddddsssss iiiiinnnnnttttteeeeerrrrreeeeessssstttttiiiiinnnnn ggggg.....

    LLLLLiiiiikkkkkeeeee ttttthhhhheeeee ooooottttthhhhheeeeerrrrr pppppooooosssssttttteeeeerrrrr hhhhheeeeerrrrreeeee,,,,, IIIII wwwwwooooonnnnndddddeeeeerrrrr wwwwwhhhhhaaaaattttt sssssoooooffffftttttwwwwwaaaaarrrrreeeee hhhhheeeee uuuuussssseeeeeddddd..... PPPPPrrrrrooooobbbbbaaaaabbbbblllllyyyyy sssssooooommmmmeeeee sssssooooorrrrrttttt ooooofffff gggggrrrrraaaaannnnnuuuuulllllaaaaarrrrr sssssyyyyynnnnnttttthhhhheeeeesssssiiiiisssss.....

    TTTTThhhhheeeeerrrrreeeee'''''sssss aaaaa cccccoooooooooolllll GGGGGSSSSS ppppprrrrrooooogggggrrrrraaaaammmmm IIIII'''''vvvvveeeee ppppplllllaaaaayyyyyeeeeeddddd wwwwwiiiiittttthhhhh bbbbbeeeeefffffooooorrrrreeeee cccccaaaaalllllllllleeeeeddddd """""ttttthhhhhOOOOOnnnnnkkkkk""""" .......... yyyyyooooouuuuu fffffeeeeeeeeeeddddd iiiiittttt sssssooooommmmmeeeee sssssooooouuuuunnnnndddddsssss,,,,, wwwwwaaaaaiiiiittttt ooooovvvvveeeeerrrrrnnnnniiiiiggggghhhhhttttt,,,,, aaaaannnnnddddd ttttthhhhheeeeennnnn hhhhhaaaaavvvvveeeee sssssooooommmmmeeeee wwwwwiiiiiccccckkkkkeeeeeddddd dddddrrrrrooooonnnnneeeeesssss iiiiinnnnn ttttthhhhheeeee mmmmmooooorrrrrnnnnniiiiinnnnnggggg..... TTTTThhhhhooooossssseeeee ooooofffff yyyyyooooouuuuu iiiiinnnnnttttteeeeerrrrreeeeesssssttttteeeeeddddd iiiiinnnnn eeeeellllleeeeeccccctttttrrrrrooooonnnnniiiiiccccc sssssooooouuuuunnnnndddddsssss ooooouuuuuggggghhhhhttttt tttttooooo ccccchhhhheeeeeccccckkkkk iiiiittttt ooooouuuuuttttt!!!!!

    (Before you mod down, remember, this is ART.)

  18. Brian Eno by sakusha · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interesting comparison to Eno and Discrete Music. If you read the liner notes to the original Discrete Music album, Eno talks about how he was laid up in the hospital, immobilized in a cast, when a friend came in and brought a record player with some classical music, he put it on to play and then left. The player was set to 16rpm instead of 33, so he was stuck listening to a slowed down album of Pachelbel's Canons. He said the album seemed to take hours, through his fog of pain and painkillers. He says it gave him the idea for ambient music.

    1. Re:Brian Eno by salmo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sorry, don't mean to be a smartass, but your original comment inspired me to pull out my copy of Discreet Music and throw it on the turntable. I'm listening to it now.

      As I look on the back cover it says nothing regarding the 16/33 issue or even anything to do with the speed the record was played at. It was however played at a very low level, with only one of the stereo channels functioning. The end of the paragraph that describes the experience is more than worth the cost of the record in my opinion.

      This is the original release (that I was very excited to find in my local record shop, Last Chance Records). A copy of the text can be found on probably the best Eno site on the web here.

      One interesting thing about this album is that it is well documented. He explains the purpose and the method involved in creating the album and provides a operational diagram for the setup he used to create (or more accurately direct) it. I guess this appeals to the Computer Scientist in me as well as the music appreciator.

  19. I did this with a Natalie Portman jpeg by wackybrit · · Score: 3, Funny

    I took one of those pictures of Natalie Portman topless on the beach, enlarged it to 50,000 by 50,000 pixels, and I spend my days nestled about 3,000 pixels into her left nipple. It's a really nice place.

    --
    mogorific carpentry experiments
  20. Just a nitpick by selan · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Ode to Joy" is a poem written by Schiller. Beethoven used the poem as the lyrics for the fourth movement of the symphony, which is the choral section and most famous part of the symphony. The symphony also has three other movements, so it's not really accurate to refer to the whole symphony no. 9 as "Ode to Joy."

    </pedantry>

    Phew. Now that's off my chest, you can continue about your business.
  21. PDQ Bach? by wirefarm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A guy named Peter Schickele (Have no idea of the real spelling. Ok, lemme go google... Wow - I got it right.) a music professor and composer has been 'deriving' compositions, 11 albums' worth, of the mythical son of JS Bach, PDQ Bach.
    Funny stuff, yet very scholarly, in a weird way.

    Anyway, he has a website at pdqbach.com.

    His peices always have great names too, like Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion and The Short-Tempered Clavier and Other Dysfunctional Works for Keyboard. Worth a listen.

    Cheers,
    Jim

    --
    -- My Weblog.
  22. Re:sssssoooouuuunnndddsss iiiinnnnttteeerreeessstt by Cruciform · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ah! My freakin' eyes!

  23. Spielberg too by freeweed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Spielberg did it as well for AI - he took a 10 minute story and stretched it out into 3 hours.

    Oddly enough, 24 hrs of B's 9th seems to go by much quicker than Steven's attempt...

    --
    Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
  24. Section 5.2 by PurpleBob · · Score: 3, Informative

    Unless you're intensely familiar with all parts of Beethoven's Ninth, you'll probably get the most recognition out of listening to section 5.2. That's the choral "Ode To Joy" section that most people know.

    --
    Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota