As a "musical saint", Beethoven's musical status and achievements are unparalleled; As a representative of the struggle against the fate of suffering, Beethoven was also revered. Beethoven was an extraordinary man in every way. The uniqueness of this paper lies in: reducing a great man like Beethoven to a living person in real life, focusing on his inner pain and tenacious struggle against unfortunate fate.
Beethoven has the same joys and sorrows as ordinary people: when someone visits him and wants to know him, he will be moved to tears; When disturbed for no reason, he will also show impatience; Facing the blow of deafness, he couldn't help sighing and feeling weak. But Beethoven is great because he has an extraordinary strong will and does not bow to bad luck: as a musician, the biggest blow is that his ears can't hear music. However, he did not get depressed under the impact of deafness, but faced the cruel facts. On the one hand, he handles daily chores as independently as possible, on the other hand, he calmly faces the loneliness and tranquility brought by deafness, listens to his inner needs and impulses, observes and thinks about life with his "heart", and then puts this thinking into music, turning music from a tool for entertainment into a language of expression, expressing his inner complex and changeable emotions and his own beliefs and will. Even the concept of the world conveys the mysterious and unspeakable feelings about self or nature, which greatly enriches the expressive force of music and makes music the carrier of thought and the destination of soul.
The author of this paper showed superb portrait description skills. It not only describes from far to near, from top to bottom in an orderly way, but also has a vivid form. Beethoven's portrait shows his life experience, personality and unique spiritual world: his "old and untidy" clothes, "hearing aid that has been dragged behind his clothes" and his "long failed" and "sad" face and unkempt hair. But at the same time, his broad shoulders, strong hands, deep eyes and closed mouth, which seem to provoke the burden of life and fate, all show his indomitable will to resist misfortune.
This paper has a clear hierarchy and a clear context. According to the interview sequence, first of all, from the perspective of the witness of Beethoven's daily life-maid, explain Beethoven's basic living conditions and current mental state. Then, with the eyes of a stranger who visited Beethoven for the first time, he recreated the image of Beethoven. Finally, the author lets the hero speak for himself and reveals his inner world. Focusing on Beethoven's attitude towards bad luck, it gradually penetrated into Beethoven's inner world from the outside, successfully showing Beethoven's unique temperament and strong personality.
Second, the problem research
1. What do you mean by "how dare you come to the tiger's den to catch the hair of an old lion"?
This is a metaphor. Beethoven means that most people think he is terrible and difficult to approach, but "guests" come to visit him and the maid lets them in without his permission. He was surprised at what they had done.
2. Why did Beethoven say that "a tree is better than people"?
This needs to be analyzed in connection with Beethoven's psychology after hearing loss. On the one hand, deafness has caused obstacles to Beethoven's communication, which is often misunderstood, and his social interaction is greatly restricted. He is not as deaf as a tree, because trees can still hear the sounds of nature. On the other hand, Beethoven, who was deaf, stayed away from the noise and disputes of the world and gained purity and peace of mind. As far as the purity of the soul is concerned, people in society are not as good as trees.
3. "You may think of me-a fallen volcano, its head burning in lava, struggling to get out." How to understand the meaning of this sentence
Beethoven compared his deaf self to a "fallen volcano", and "lava" refers to his creative passion. What he means is that just as his understanding of music went further and his desire to create was strong, he was hit by deafness and he was unwilling to give up his music career. "Despair" and "eagerness" show his determination to fight against unfortunate fate.
4. "He is really lonely, but he is accompanied by' eternity'". What does "eternity" mean here?
"Eternity" refers to the music art as a spiritual carrier. Although Beethoven had difficulty communicating with people because of his deafness, this limitation enabled him to transcend his body and words, directly perceive the spiritual world of people, and then understand the true meaning of music. Music became his faithful friend, soothing his heart and conveying his heart. Friends will leave and misunderstand him, but music will not. The concert has been with him.
5. "Please look at romain rolland's John Christophe. In that big book, there is a big river that flows out from Beethoven and extends out. " How to understand this sentence?
The basic content of John Christophe is the concentrated expression of Christophe's life experience and pursuit. What runs through the novel is Christophe's love for art and life and his unremitting pursuit of ideals. Christophe's experience and personality are similar to Beethoven's. Beethoven's Biography before romain rolland is the most famous biography of Beethoven, and John Christophe was originally inspired by Beethoven's spirit. Zweig's biography romain rolland illustrates this point in detail.
6. "Listen to the music in my heart! You don't know how I feel! A band can only play what I want to write in one minute! " What does this sentence mean?
Beethoven devoted his life and passion to music creation. Music has become a symbol of life in Beethoven's pen and heart, but the band can only play the notes of sound, but it can't perfectly convey the inner rhythm and rhythm of life, which is Beethoven's "music in the heart".
Practice note
First, read the full text and complete the following questions.
1. Explain the whole process of "guests" visiting Beethoven and tell me what they wrote during this period.
2. Summarize the image of Beethoven written by the author in a few words.
3. What words of Beethoven in the text touched you deeply? How to understand these words?
The purpose of setting the topic is to guide students to clarify the author's thinking, grasp the important content of the article and understand the main idea of the article.
Reference answer:
1. The process of the "guest" visiting Beethoven: the maid opens the door-the maid introduces Beethoven's situation-visits Beethoven's studio-Beethoven goes downstairs and starts talking with the "guest"-Beethoven has dinner with the "guest"-Beethoven recalls the past. Main event: The "guest" visited Beethoven's studio, Beethoven met the "guest", and Beethoven recalled his last concert.
2. Beethoven's image: independent and proud, depressed and strong, earnest and kind, loving nature, pursuing freedom and devoting himself to music.
Students can express their opinions, combining Beethoven's situation and their own life experiences.
Second, pay attention to the sentences describing Beethoven's clothes and appearance, imitate this writing, and describe the appearance of a classmate you are most familiar with in a few sentences. Talk about it and see who wrote it most vividly.
The purpose of the topic is to guide students to master the writing skills of the author of this article, and to express the character characteristics and spiritual temperament of the characters through portrait description.
Listen to Beethoven's symphony of destiny after class, and talk about what you hear from music in combination with the ideological content of the text.
The purpose of the topic is to guide students to further understand Beethoven's spiritual world and the profound connotation of what he called "music in the heart"
Teaching suggestion
First experience the excellent portrait description in the text. The author shows Beethoven's life experience, personality and mental outlook from the portrait description, and should guide students to learn this writing method of shaping characters.
Second, guide students to compare this article with the first two texts-Say and Do by Deng Jiaxian and Wen Yiduo, and compare the similarities and differences of the angles and narrative points of these three texts, so as to learn the methods of comparing the description of characters in reading.
Third, the teaching steps
It is suggested that * * * complete the teaching task within two class hours.
first kind
1. Pre-class preparation: after class, let students consult Beethoven's related materials.
2. Students can enjoy the recording of Beethoven's symphony of destiny and import it into the text.
3. Check the preview.
Ask the students to exchange their impressions of Beethoven through consulting Beethoven's materials and summarize Beethoven's main personality characteristics.
The teacher's inspiration comes from his struggle with unfortunate fate.
4. Compared with the preview, let the students find out the sentences and paragraphs that reflect Beethoven's attitude and feelings towards bad luck in the text.
5. Organize students to discuss the meanings of several difficult sentences in the text in groups (for difficult sentences, see "Research on Problems").
6. Homework: Ask students to choose their classmates for portrait description.
Second lesson
1. Ask the students to read aloud paragraphs 6, 7 and 8 of the text.
2. Organize students to discuss the benefits of this portrait description.
3. The teacher makes a summary.
4. Students exchange portrait description exercises and comments.
5. Homework: According to the class discussion and classmates' comments, revise the portrait description homework in the last class.
related data
I. Introduction to the author
He Wei, formerly known as He, 1922, was born in Dinghai, Zhejiang. He worked as a newspaper reporter, periodical editor and film literary editor, and 1937 began to publish literary works. He has written poems, novels and essays. After 1956, he mainly engaged in prose creation, including Re-examination, Brocade Collection and Near Window Collection.
What is prose? Be good at grasping typical events in life and digging deep. At the same time, pay attention to the vividness of characters and stories. Delicate conception, profound artistic conception and concise and beautiful language.
Second, a brief introduction to Beethoven
Beethoven (1770- 1827) is a German composer and pianist. One of the representatives of Vienna Classical Music School. Born in the election palace in Cologne, the singer's family. Learn music from my father since childhood. /kloc-When he was 0/9 years old, he studied philosophy at Bonn University and came into contact with the bourgeois revolutionary enlightenment. Music teacher from 1787. 1792 settled in Vienna and published his first work three years later. Since then, I have started my creative career. 1820 was deaf in both ears, but he never stopped writing and pursued the ideal of "freedom, equality and fraternity" all his life. His main works reflect the revolutionary enthusiasm of the bourgeoisie against feudalism and for democracy at that time, and show the heroism of mankind. In his later years, he was in the period of metternich's reactionary rule and the restoration of feudal forces. Some of his works show negative emotions, but he still yearns for bourgeois democratic revolution. His creation inherits the tradition of Haydn and Mozart, and absorbs the tune of the French Revolution, which is inspiring and inspiring. In order to make music show dramatic opposition, many innovations have been made in creative techniques: harmonic progression, who used a wide range of comparative themes and was full of motives; Expand the structure of sonata to adapt to contradictions and conflicts, and deepen the expression meaning of introduction, reproduction and conclusion. In the divertimento, he is good at replacing elegant minuets with dynamic scherzos, giving orchestral instruments to symphonies and quoting human voices in symphonies. His creative achievements have greatly deepened the ideological content and expressive force of music art, and have a far-reaching impact on later generations. His major works include nine symphonies (the most famous ones are Hero III, Destiny V, Pastoral VI and Chorus IX), opera Federio, drama Egmont and the Ruins of Athens, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, sixteen string quartets, ten violin sonatas and two mass.
(Excerpted from Ci Hai, Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, 1999 edition)
Third, about Beethoven (Feng Zikai)
1. Beethoven the Hero
Beethoven's greatness lies not only in his being a musician. He has a beautiful soul that is extremely depressed and tempered in life, and is a spiritual hero. His music expresses this heroic heart.
Before Beethoven, Mozart was the greatest saint in European music. But the value of Mozart's music, after all, stops at a kind of "sound architecture", that is, it has the meaning of existence just because of the "beauty" of music. As for Beethoven, it is even more brilliant. His music is a symbol of his great soul. Mozart's music is the art of feeling, and Beethoven's music is the voice of the soul.
The greatest work of his life, the Ninth Symphony, was written after he was completely deaf. Deaf people can make music, which is a wonderful conversation; What Fengyun has done is the greatest masterpiece in the world! It can be seen that this is the product of transcendental spirit, and only heroes who can transcend the Great Depression can get it. Cowards and helpless heroes who know that fate can only manipulate this great spirit for mankind. Beethoven's ear disease began at the age of 28 (1798). From then on to his death at the age of 57 (1827), the sun and the moon for more than 20 years were all periods of deafness and illness. However, most of the works were produced in this period. Until he entered the period of complete deafness and stood on the stage and couldn't hear the applause of the audience, he continued to compose music and finally wrote the greatest ninth symphony. On his deathbed, he still cried with a sigh:
"alas! I only wrote a few notes! "
From this sentence, we can see that his ambition is great.
Beethoven's fifth symphony is entitled Symphony of Destiny. Beethoven himself once pointed to the first theme of the first movement of this song and said:
"That's the sound of fate knocking at the door."
2. Beethoven of fanatics
Beethoven ignored the worldly wisdom, often acting arbitrarily and despising life. On the surface, he is a fanatic. So Beethoven had no intimate friends, except those who could understand him very well and forgive him. For the owner of the hotel where he lives, there are often contradictions. As for the fierce, I must move several times a year. Critics described his violent character as follows:
"Beethoven was a man who lived alone on an uninhabited desert island and was suddenly brought to the civilized society in Europe."
This statement made Beethoven's side see it very thoroughly. Self-invited artists often have romantic and informal behaviors, and Beethoven is an extreme example. At that time, the famous European pianist Cherny visited him one day and found him curled up indoors with thick gauze wrapped around his ears. Cherny came out and said to people:
"This man is not like the biggest musician in Europe, but like Robinson drifting on a desert island."
He often dipped cotton in yellow medicine, stuffed it in his ear and wrapped it in gauze. The beard on his chin usually grows to more than half an inch. Hair never seems to touch the guide bar. Ears of wheat usually stand on the head. He was once angry because a pot of soup was not cooked well, so he picked it up and threw it at the hotel owner. He often pulls out the candle heart and uses it as a toothpick. When the street is busy in the morning, I wear pajamas and shave at the window facing the street, regardless of people's attention and surprise. Once, in order to get angry, I picked up an open ink bottle and threw it on the keyboard of the piano. When he plays the piano, because his fingers are hot for a long time, he often puts a pot of cold water next to the piano. When his fingers were hot, he dipped his hand in cold water and continued playing. However, his movements are chaotic. Every time he plays the piano, he spills a lot of cold water on the floor. These cold water will flow down from the cracks in the floor and drip into the bed where the people below live. The host downstairs questioned the host of the hostel. The host said a few words to Beethoven, and Beethoven got angry and immediately moved out of the hostel.
Beethoven's posture is extremely ugly. His head is big, his body is short, it is difficult to smile on his face, and his movements are extremely clumsy. Once he wanted to learn to dance, but he couldn't keep up with the beat. It is reported that the reporter said that his facial expression is often cold and depressed. He is five feet four inches long, with broad shoulders, a pockmarked face, a rough brown face and a hard straight nose. The fingers are short, the five fingers are slightly equal in length, and the back of the hand has long hair. I have black hair. I never wear a comb or a hat. I often go out for a walk with my hair on. On windy days, his hair was blown like a flame. People met him in the middle of nowhere and suspected that he was a demon in hell.
……
All these stubborn and angry habits are due to his great depression. The root of his pain lies in his deafness.
3. Beethoven in distress
Beethoven recorded this in 1797' s winter diary:
"No matter how weak my body is, my heart must conquer him. I am 25 years old. I must try my best to realize all my wishes. "
After writing this diary, he soon reached the great physical pain of depriving him of happiness for the rest of his life. His deafness occurred in the summer of 1798.
Beethoven's artistic life changed greatly during the18th century and19th century. It used to be an era influenced by Haydn and Mozart, and later it was an era of independent musical style. During the years between18th century and19th century, Beethoven was so absorbed in composing that he hardly paid attention to his health. Because of this, ear diseases are getting worse. At 180 1, he had to sit in the first row of chairs in the theater to hear the singer sing.
In a letter to a close friend, he said this:
"Your dear Beethoven is an unfortunate man. He has clashed with nature and God! I often curse the gods. Because God regards his creation as the victim of the slightest accident in nature. It is destroying the best cause in the world. My most precious ear can't recognize most of the sounds today. What a miserable life this is! Everything I loved has left me. How happy it is to have no ear disease as before! If I can listen as well as before, I really want to come and tell you at once. However, I will never get this kind of happiness! My youth has passed away, and it is impossible for me to realize my youthful hope and complete my artistic memory. I had to give up my life in great sorrow. ……
The next year, 1802, his ear disease worsened and he often had tinnitus. He is a man who loves nature, and walking in the wild is his greatest comfort. At this time, he went to the wild, didn't recognize the farmer's flute, and immediately became pessimistic and wrote a "Last Words" for his friends. However, he finally became a strong man, fighting this deafness disease with an indomitable attitude. He once said to people:
"I must control my own destiny."
From then on, life is a painful struggle of deafness. 1809, Napoleon's army invaded Vienna, and the shells flew away in the air. Beethoven was afraid that the sound of the shells would aggravate his ear disease. He stuck his ears tightly with two fingers and lay in bed sadly.
Deafness is a great sorrow in Beethoven's life. His works are often a reflection of life. He can shine in the dark. Therefore, in Beethoven's view, music is a place to tell distress, and it is also a place to escape from distress.
(Selected from Stories of Ten Modern Western Musicians, Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House, 200 1 edition)
Fourth, romain rolland and Beethoven's Biography (Fu Lei)
Beethoven has been circulated for hundreds of times, and the most popular one is this thin book written by romain rolland, which left other schools and became his own. He won with the spirit of macro presentation, instead of indulging in numerous details. With the progress of science and technology and the richness of material, the living conditions of human beings are becoming more and more comfortable. Beethoven's spirit of "grasping the throat of fate" as his lifestyle has been slightly broadened. However, life will not always be smooth sailing, setbacks and troubles still need us to face up to life problems, so we can still feel something from Beethoven's example.
Zhu Dongrun, a literary historian, recommended romain rolland's Biography of Beethoven as one of the three great biographies in the world, which is a good book worth reading.
He hides in his inner world, isolated from the world, and can only find some comfort in nature. Trevor T. Brunswick said, "Nature is his only confidant." This became his refuge. Charlie Nader met him at 18 15. He said that he had never seen anyone who loved flowers, clouds and nature so much ... It seemed that he was born to live. Beethoven wrote, "No one in the world loves the fields as much as I do … I love a tree more than a person …" When he was in Vienna, he walked around the city wall every day. In the country, from morning till night, he walks outside alone, without a hat, facing the sun and the wind and rain. "Almighty God! I am happy in the forest, I am happy in the forest, and every tree conveys your voice. Oh, dear! How amazing! In these Woods, on these hills, there is peace, and peace is at your disposal. "