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Old May 12 2008, 10:35 AM
Gardener Gardener is offline

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I personally don't think Beethoven was a "brilliant melodist" (he might have been if he had wanted to, of course). Just think of his probably most popular piece, the fifth symphony. Can you actually call this hammering theme a "melody"? It is a rhythmic-intervallic motivic cell out of which a whole piece is built. It's concise, but it's not really a singable melody, like in a Mozart, Schubert, or Mendelssohn piece.

Beethoven sometimes even appears extremely "anti-melodic" to me.