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"withoutyou"... heh....

You give me too much cleverness credit on my moniker. (Although my computer password used to be 30e31ab32cm, the key signatures of the last three Beethoven sonatas.)

No, the 31425 is the old security key (no longer used) in the mathematics department when I was a grad student. The corresponding mnemonic was "pi and a quarter".

-Jason

I wish I could find this T-shirt...
Or maybe one with this image:


Or this:

31425 is the first movement of Beethoven's Op. 110 sonata.

And on the computer password subject, when I was in college, I used kdkdkdkkdkkdk (a rhythm and sticking we used in drumline in high school.)

Made my day I knew it would have to be there somewhere, but in my quick skim of the beethoven index i read 3111425, forgetting to apply redundancy rule. My research was flawed; clearly I'll never make a good scientist. I applaud the master Kreisler.

Beet, your key sig computer password is Very good. Pi is making me hungry now...

I know this seems random, but how many of you remember Mystery Science Theater 3000? If you play piano AND loved watching this then you are really weird!

Hey, it is!
I was wondering also what that might be.
Even if it wasn't really anything.
I realized it was similar to pi, but didn't think of "pi and a quarter."

BTW......as you might know, it's also sort of the beginning of the fugue, provided you're willing to "assume" the initial 3 as a gimme, or else stick it at the end.
And it's most definitely the inversion of the opening of the 2nd fugue.

Wow. I'm kind of shocked. Op. 110 isn't just any sonata to me; it's *the* Beethoven sonata that dominated months of my high school life; it has certain moments (first movement trills in the left hand; third movement sequence of G major chords) that felt like personal messages from Beethoven to me. (Presumptuous, OK, but I was young! ) Its fugue theme permeated my subconscious and influenced that semester's compositions.

There are strange coincidences which some people (Jung?) would say are not coincidences. Why was I drawn to that sequence of numbers years later in grad school? Why did I remember them, long after the locks to the doors they opened were torn off? Why did I choose, for my Piano World moniker, to combine them with-- of all things-- beet?

The world, and the mind, is mysterious. And I'm generally a skeptic! Thanks guys for the discovery.

-Jason

Not just any sonata for me. The Op. 110 was the first late Beethoven sonata I recall hearing... I must have been around 14 or so. I still remember following the score, and it was Wilhelm Backhaus playing. When the first fugue began, I quite vividly remember thinking... 'what is going on here?' Rest is history.

So I am not the only one who made their late Beethoven debut with the Op. 110? The Missa Solemnis came years later -long after the rest of the Beethoven sonatas, symphonies, concertos and a few string quartets- but methinks I'm still not quite ready for it. There is something very enigmatic about this mass setting, and acquaintance with the neighboring 9th symphony is no ticket to ride. The Missa stands alone, I think it Beethoven's most challenging work, and to those who think they have it in stride... beware false prophets.

"Wow" is right!
I was figuring this was just a remarkable coincidence, notwithstanding your having "Beethoven" in your chosen user name. But it looks like you're figuring there might have been something unconscious or subliminal going on -- and if you think so, then I do too.
BTW this is a shrink speaking.

P.S. Numbers often have a musical connotation or association to me, even when I'm not aware of it. (For example, I sometimes sort of "sing" phone numbers to myself, if they're singable, which most are, and often without realizing it.) Maybe to some extent that's the case for you also, and if so -- considering the significance of Op. 110 for you, it's probably likely that at some level, "31425" had a special ring for you.

I am not a scientist, but do I qualify to be among the science-leaning group if I majored in mathematics? At any rate I am proud to say I earned my degree at the university where Tom Lehrer was a professor.
You all did know he is a mathematician, right?

I think even those of us who knew tend to forget.

BTW -- since you're in CA, I imagine you mean Santa Cruz? I understand that was a cool place. And of course probably still is.
A girl I was going with (sort of) in college left and transferred to Santa Cruz. I took it personally.

Wow, maybe you will consider submitting it for the LvB 240th Birthday SonataFest in December!

Thanks for the push, and I'm glad you're organizing this thing. But (a) I worked it up 20 years ago; and (b) as I posted on a random personal goals thread a few months back, I've got some muscle healing and technique rehabilitation to go through. It's going to be a long process. I aim to post that sonata here some day, but probably not in 2010.

-Jason

Jason, best wishes for rapid healing of those muscles!

Hahah, a forum full of the weird kids

Yeah I'm pretty sure I was considered an oddball as well, went through a lonely sort of period... But I've gotten decent at being able to relate to a wide spectrum of people, finding a commonality somewhere, somehow. It may not be the same topic, but most people have something they love as much as we love music. Or some interesting thing going on in their lives. Other times it can be surprising what interesting turns a conversation that starts on something as prosaic as grocery shopping can take.



...Other times I get this too, lol! Especially with TV (a common theme here), I usually try and steer the topic elsewhere but some people watch A LOT of TV.

Jason, best wishes for your technique rehab from me too. No doubt you'll need lots of patience

I have to ask, are you telling us that the "beet" in your name never refered to beethoven? I always assumed it did, but PW names (and pics) can be misleading....

Edit: speaking of numbers, it looks like I am about to tip into the 500 club

I'm still assuming it does. I figured he meant just that the "31425" didn't. (Or rather that he didn't realize it did!)

Sorry for the confusion: Yes, "beet" was an intentional reference to Mr. Van Beethoven; it's just the "31425" that had no musical meaning. So I thought....

I agree with this completely. By the time I was done with high school, I was pretty familiar with the late sonatas and late string quartets. (I have a very clear memory of visiting colleges with the Große Fugue whirling through my head.) But I didn't begin to crack the Missa for another 10 years, and even now it's... big and complicated and sort of hard to not get lost in. Imagine you were the size of an ant, and you were wandering over the score, trying to make sense of these enormous black smudges and lines. Revelation hovering just out of scope. It's a little like that for me.

-Jason

Now I have something to work for, a new goal, albeit not so close right now I guess...