Tag Archives: 50s sitcom

Was Beethoven Married?

Found this video on YouTube…

… and now have to wonder if Ludwig van Beethoven was ever married. Otherwise how could you imagine that he made music that matches to much a scene that we can all at least imagine.

You might know the real drama behind this symphony, don’t you? Legend tells that the initial Da, Da, Da, Daaa was the pulsing drum Ludwig Van heard in his ears as he was slowly going deaf and that the last symphony, he wrote, he could not hear at all when it premiered.

But somehow this music with its dramatic tone offers itself to different interpretations. One of the very early interpretations I remember was by a singer songwriter duo in Germany, Schobert und Black. Besides political satire they popularized what they called ‘High Nonsense’ and their nonsense using Beethoven’s fifth was so nonsensical that it taught me to sing that symphony. After forty years I still remember bigger part of the lyrics that dealt with a child genius, that, in his early age, invented things like a thumbscrew for horses, a muzzle for bees, and a red cabbage mixing machine. For all you Germans out there: “Er erfands, kaum ist’s zu glauben, fuer das Pferd die Daumenschrauben, einen Maulkorb fuer die Biene, eine Rotkohlmischmachine…”

But back to this video of an early TV show. Here the text from the description on YouTube by AIAfilms:

No cue cards, no teleprompters, and no second takes–legendary funnyman Sid Caesar pioneered live television sketch comedy with his 1950s sitcoms Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour. This classic sketch is “Argument to Beethoven’s 5th,” Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray play a married couple in a argument with pantomimed action and the dialogue is classic music.

Enjoy!