Für Elise

[rock music] There's our little piano tune on electric guitar, surrounded by drums and distortion.

Hoffman says he had played Für Elise for years, first on acoustic guitar and then on electric, before the band found a place for it.

The half step that sounded hesitant on piano becomes a phrase he can dig into.

The audience can sing the solo back at him.

Hear how the tiny piano figure keeps returning against that heavy bass? Beethoven's two neighboring notes are short enough to repeat without getting in the way of the voices.

And in twenty twenty-four, Jon Batiste returned the piece to one pianist.

His album Beethoven Blues began with "Für Elise (Batiste)." He had played Beethoven at classical competitions as a child and was also growing up with the music of New Orleans.

He starts with the notes everybody knows, then loosens the rhythm and puts blues harmony underneath them.

Hey, that's better than anything I could do.

If you- if I sat down, I could play Fur Elise, but... [piano music plays]

Oh, here's Jay-Z.

Okay, Jay-Z.

October has since been declared German American Month.

Please play the hymn Glorious Things, uh, by Franz Joseph Haydn..." Well, I'm playing Fur Elise by Beethoven, I apologize, "To honor the German Americans today.

Thank you so much for remembering this day and month in history.

LTS." The largest group of immigrants to come to the United States, the Germans.

You want the piano for-

Well, I need one month to learn Fur Elise.

Yeah.

See, my, my [laughs] only problem-

... let's do another bet.

[laughs]

Fur Elise bet.

You lend me the piano for a month, and if I can't play Fur Elise by the end of it, what, what's the bet?

And it's generally considered a light piece, not a big, sophisticated harmony one.

It's considered something... light and you know played by a single person usually a solo piano and like the most famous are Beethoven's set of bagatelles of which Fur Elise is one Fur Elise we've all heard Fur Elise

it's

been on this podcast before

Wait, really?

Well, 'cause Fur Elise is incredible-

Yeah

... and I know obviously you're not really gonna walk the, down the aisle to that-

If I could even...

If I could play anything but Fur Elise, you know I'd be...

Fur Elise? Which one's Fur Elise? Oh, no.

Ode to Joy is what I can play.

Okay.

And the auditory environment in the house is so specific.

The rain is violently lashing against the bedroom window, but downstairs, their mother is playing Fur Elise on the piano.

It's the ultimate auditory illusion of safety.

The storm is raging outside, but inside, there's classical music, there's a big brother making a toy.