(Live performance:
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Here is our tribute to the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven on his birthday (December 16, 1770) - his Symphony no. 5 (parts of all four movements!) transformed into the Happy Birthday song! Arrangement for piano duet by Scott Meek, videography by Clare Yuan, performed by The Meeks Duo.

Sheet music available at: [ Ссылка ]

Scott's notes on the composition: I took several themes from each movement, and made the appropriate changes to harmony and melody to fit Happy Birthday, but kept Beethoven's original rhythm and texture. (We had some fun with minor to major key changes too!) This transformation technique is thanks to an assignment in one of my grad school courses, where the professor, Emile Naoumoff made each student transform Bach's C major Prelude into a piece of their choice.

The first movement begins in major instead of minor, but goes back into minor at the end. The second movement theme main theme didn't work too well with Happy Birthday, so I focused on the second theme, which worked perfectly! The third movement also had a perfectly fitting rhythm for Happy Birthday. The transition to the fourth movement in Beethoven's original was one of the most memorable listening experiences for me as a teenager studying for my music history exam. I remember being so shocked at how strange and mysterious it sounded suddenly, and how this created a perfect set-up for the triumph of the last movement.

0:00 1st movement
1:25 2nd movement
2:48 3rd movement
3:45 4th movement

(The ending chord was inspired by Humoresque by Rodion Shchedrin!)

Check out our Liszt Birthday! [ Ссылка ]
And Debussy Birthday! [ Ссылка ]
And Grieg Birthday! [ Ссылка ]
And Tchaikovsky Birthday! [ Ссылка ]
And Rachmaninov Birthday! [ Ссылка ]
And Chopin Birthday! [ Ссылка ]

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