Good melody or Great melody?

West Side Story Suite; Leonard Bernstein, composer; Philharmonia Orchestra; David Zinman, conducting; Joshua Bell, violin

“Erik,” said my new friend Ollie Zinsmeister, on only our third encounter at Heritage Harbour Chorus rehearsals, “I'm ninety-five years old and I want you to play at my funeral. Can you do that?” Well, Mr. Zinsmeister … “Please, call me Ollie.” Yes, Mr. Zinsmeister. Excuse me for being blunt … but you started it. You don’t look like you’re ready for a funeral. “No, but it’s coming.” Anything special you want me to play? “Yes. I want you to play the second movement of the Concerto No. 5 of Beethoven. You know, the ‘Emperor’.” You know, of course, sir, that the performance of a piano concerto movement requires two pianos; one for the soloist and one for the accompanying piano, don’t you? “Yeah,” he said with a smile, “but we both know, {wink} that you don’t need no second piano to make that piece work. Do ‘ya?” {sigh} No, Mr. Zinsmeister.

I might have mentioned before that Mr. Beethoven wasn’t the great melodist. However, he had the talent of making you think that you’re hearing a great melody by infusing that melody with majesty, pomp and resplendence. “So, what keeps the melody from actually being great if my ear makes me think that it is?” Good question. The sentiment bears resemblance to Mark Twain’s claim that Richard Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.

In my humble opinion … well, it’s pretty humble … a great melody has its focus on the pitches to make it lyrical. The focus on Beethoven’s melodies is in the rhythm. His abilities, or lack thereof, to write truly great melodies are compromised by his tendency to compose in arpeggios. He frequently outlines chords in his melodic lines. To make them more interesting, memorable and musical, however, he laces them with stately and powerful rhythms. Like the first few measures of his Symphony No. 5. There is no real melody. But there’s lots of rhythm.

In the second movement of the “Emperor” Concerto of Mr. Beethoven, there is, indeed, one of those “pretty good” melodies … one that bears a suspicious likeness to “There’s A Place For Us” from Leonard Bernstein’s score to “West Side Story”. In Beethoven’s version of the short snippet of a melody, “Us” in “There’s A Place For Us” is one scale degree lower than Mr. Bernstein’s version. Did Bern borrow from Bee? I shrug my bloggy shoulders at you. I have never heard, one way or the other. But one makes you think of the other

Ollie passed away in the spring of 2008. I got the call from his daughter, asking if I could play the second movement of Piano Concerto No. 5 by Beethoven. Will there be a second piano available? “Nope.” I almost felt like I heard her winking over the phone. Is there an app for winking?

Credits: To Leonard Bernstein, for living a great American life. You made us hear what America sounded like.

This is the fifteenth of my final forty-five CD's