Don't start rolling your eyes -- those of you who've been following this blog over the past couple of years -- but for those of you who do not know it already, I've been working on Beethoven's Pathétique sonata ever since returning to piano lessons. To give myself some idea of what I'm doing, I regularly play YouTube interpretations of the sonata by serious pianists, both renowned and amateur.
As with most YouTube videos, these interpretations are accompanied by viewer comments, both informative and ignorant. Among these comments, I kept running into the question: Isn't this song [sic] called Beethoven Virus? I assumed (correctly, as it turns out) that someone had done a popularization of the Beethoven work (the last movement), and that some folks were enjoying it without realizing that it was based on an actual classical sonata. Today, my curiosity finally caused me to do a little research. Even after perusing the internet, however, I'm still a little confused -- maybe some of you more attuned to contemporary music can leave a comment for the edification of both me and other readers.
"Beethoven Virus" is apparently the name of a 2008 Korean television series, telling the story of a highly talented but tyrannically demanding orchestra conductor and his complicated relationships -- both musical and romantic -- with several members of his orchestra. The series has been critically acclaimed, and was praised as unique in its portrayal of the lives of Korean classical musicians.
I'm not quite certain how the music called Beethoven Virus relates to this show. I've found articles discussing the TV series, and articles discussing the composition, but none discussing the relationshiop between the two. There is a two-CD album of music that was performed on the TV series, but the cuts all appear to be traditional classical compositions. The Beethoven numbers listed are all symphonies, requiring full orchestra, with the exception of one violin sonata. There are no piano sonatas
My best guess is that Beethoven Virus is the introductory theme music to the program, but this is strictly a guess. The best known interpretation of the music appears to be by a Korean group called BanYa, a group known for performing various forms of contemporary music, including classical cross-overs. BanYa's version is an interesting simplification of the piano sonata, performed by what sounds like a small orchestra, and it features a recurring trumpet obbligato and a heavy drum beat. (Other versions highlight different instruments, for example, violin.) Here is the YouTube video. Those of you more familiar with rock than I am may be able to classify this particular sound by genre.
It's pretty catchy.
Ironically, some amateur pianists have doubled back, and recorded YouTube piano arrangements of Beethoven Virus. These arrangements come out sounding like well-played but simplified (and syncopated) versions of the original sonata. As one commentor puts it, why not just learn Beethoven's original Pathétique?
One of my relatives warned me recently that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture." I have to agree. But hey, look at me! I just tried doing it, anyway!
-------------------And for something a little different, here is Beethoven Virus played as a recorder duet by a couple of kids in Mexico.
-----------------------(11-9-10) If anyone's interested, further research has given more insight into the origin of Beethoven Virus. The song was apparently arranged by BanYa, which is described by Wikipedia as an in-house (and mainly anonymous) collective working for a Korean company called Nexcade, which produces arcade games. The song was prepared for use in a series of music video games called "Pump it Up " (PIU). Beethoven Virus appears to have been developed specifically for the game "PIU: Perfect Collection." This game definitely pre-dated 2008, and so the Korean television series must have derived its name from the song.
I'm still interested in learning how the song was used in the series, if it was at all, and any other information any fans of computer/arcade games and/or contemporary music and/or Korean television may have to offer.
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