Jon Batiste has taken classical music and added his own creative gospel and blues style to it with his new album “Beethoven Blues”. This video is his twist on “Fur Elise” by Beethoven. Now, many may say, “Beethoven doesn’t need changing or altering”. Fair point. Beethoven was an amazingly gifted composer and musician.
One of the most beautiful and powerful things about music is that is gives the opportunity for interpretation and creativity. Because of Jon’s background in gospel and blues piano, he’s adding his own layer of insight, experience and creativity to his interpretation of the music.
With things like this, some could say that it cheapens Beethoven and his music. I don’t see that one bit. I actually have an arrangement of “Fur Elise” called “Swingin’ Elise“. The reason I wrote it was that I had a student who was learning “Fur Elise”. He initially started swinging the eighth notes. I thought it was a unique and interesting sound and style, so I wrote the arrangement.
Throughout the history of music, one piece can serve as an inspiration for another. Composers also have taken a melody and written variations and experimented with it. For example, look at Mozart’s 12 Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je maman”. This is a melody we now know as the melody for “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “The Alphabet Song”. That melody was not created by Mozart. It was a French children’s song. But when you listen to his variations, the melody is there at some points and in other points it veers into Mozart’s unique genius and creativity.
When we solely play things “as written”, we are making the music the way the composer or arranger intended. There is nothing wrong with that at all. But, injecting a bit of ourselves and our creativity makes the composition more personal, in my opinion. What Jon Batiste has done with this is inject himself, his experiences and his background into an already beautiful creation by Beethoven. And I hope this inspires musicians to do more of it!
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