Expert: Donald - 10/11/2006

Question
In this video I found on www.youtube.com they play a  bit of classical music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak0R4Buo5Dg this is the url for the clip. The music that starts about 4 minutes 12 seconds into the clip is what I would ask you to identify. I apologize for the clip itself, and I'm not trying to be funny. I really want to know who does that music and what that piece is called. I appreciate your patience and expertise, thank you.  

Answer
Hi Alexander,

Isn't it amazing how a piece of music can strike us in the midst of a totally unrelated piece of film? The excerpt is certainly beautiful, and I can see how you were drawn to it. Unfortunately, the amount of music used in the video wasn't quite long enough for me to identify. I can, however, point you in the right direction.

This is an orchestral piece, probably taken from a symphony, possibly by Beethoven. The dramatic and purposeful use of a repeated rhythmic motive is common in his music. I hear some of this in the strings within the passage in the video. Other composers copied Beethoven's style after him, so it could also be any of the following: Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Wagner, or Tchaikovsky (a bit of a stretch.)

The excerpt is in a minor key, and it is in duple meter (4/4 or 2/4, or some derivative.) If this is taken from a symphony, it is probably not from the third movement, since they are usually in triple meter (a feeling of three to the bar.) Most likely, this is from the first movement (maybe the fourth mvt.) of a multi-movement symphony.

I'm sorry that I can't give you more specific information, but I didn't recognize the piece from the short clip, and it didn't play quite long enough to draw a firm conclusion. Please feel free to contact me in the future if I can serve you.

Best regards,

Donald