It's very difficult to express in words what goes on in my thoughts when I listen to a great piece of music. My mind goes back and forth between the macro and micro levels, and simultaneous combinations of levels. That is why, I believe, that great music bears re-hearing over and over again. Each listening experience is different because music that is both complex and unified at the same time can never be comprehended completely. It may be perceived one time on the surface, the next time in dizzying depth. Yet both ways have the ability to create a powerful response in the listener.
This video seems to me to be very close to the way I listen. I rarely use the left side of my brain when listening to music, analyzing forms, for instance. I follow the trails of melodies, harmonies, rhythms, motives, textures where they lead me and sometimes I pull back and "watch" with my ears the grand dance. I know you will experience this in a different way than I do, but there is also something shared in a work such as this, otherwise we couldn't agree that Beethoven, or this wonderful video is beautiful.
I hope you enjoy this. I would suggest using good headphones. This movement from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony was used in the climactic radio broadcast scene of "The King's Speech." to great effect. I remember hearing it for the first time during the television broadcasts of President Kennedy's funeral procession and the laying in state of his casket in the Capitol rotunda in 1963. It wasn't until several years later when I was at a music camp in Lawrence, Kansas, listening to the recordings of Beethoven's symphonies, that I came across it again. It was such a joy, like finding a long lost friend!
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