# Rearrangement of Beethoven's 5th is the opening theme of a brazilian soap opera



## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Soap operas are one of the biggest cultural phenomenons in Brazil as it dominates the prime time of the biggest television network in the country.

One of the most recent soap opera has this curious opening theme of a rearranged Beethoven's 5th which changes genre throughout according to the personality of each main character (classical, rock, samba and pop).






What do you guys think?

Curiously, the soundtrack has many popular classics from Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Mahler, etc.


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## Michael122 (Sep 16, 2021)

Sacrilege!!!!!!


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Michael122 said:


> Sacrilege!!!!!!


Burn them! Pick the torches!


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

A rocked up version is the opening theme for Judge Judy.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

That about sums up any number of sexual encounters, from beginning to end.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

vtpoet said:


> That about sums up any number of sexual encounters, from beginning to end.


That's an interesting take


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

No worse than Hooked on Classics from the '70s. Still horrible.


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## Michael122 (Sep 16, 2021)

Livly_Station said:


> Burn them! Pick the torches!


Liv, this made me LOL!


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

That's bitchin'. Love it.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

One thing for sure, except from the music very exceptional.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

What? Was there nothing by Villa-Lobos that would have served as the theme? Or Jobim?

Or did Beethoven have a secret Latin love-life, full of drama and intrigues, that I haven't heard about?


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

The thing that irks me is not the instrumentation but the changing of notes to simplify the harmony and voice-leading.

I don't know much about telenovelas (and nothing about Brazilian telenovelas), but from what little I've seen (mostly Mexican) this is exactly the kind of music I'd picture as a theme song. LOL.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

SONNET CLV said:


> What? Was there nothing by Villa-Lobos that would have served as the theme? Or Jobim?
> 
> Or did Beethoven have a secret Latin love-life, full of drama and intrigues, that I haven't heard about?


Even though I get that this is a joke, I'm not too keen on the underlying sentiment that (probably unintentionally) comes across. Sorry to be "woke" about it.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

What's the name of the instrument at the end, at 0:54? It appears all the time in samba music but I don't know what it's called.

Edit: Cuíca


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

SONNET CLV said:


> What? Was there nothing by Villa-Lobos that would have served as the theme? Or Jobim?
> 
> Or did Beethoven have a secret Latin love-life, full of drama and intrigues, that I haven't heard about?


Using more modern composers would create copyright issues. Beethoven has been dead long enough to be public domain worldwide.


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## Durendal (Oct 24, 2018)

I'm not really a fan of dumbing down classical masterpieces into pop crossover forms.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

SONNET CLV said:


> What? Was there nothing by Villa-Lobos that would have served as the theme? Or Jobim?
> 
> Or did Beethoven have a secret Latin love-life, full of drama and intrigues, that I haven't heard about?


Besides copyright and stuff, Beethoven's 5th is still very iconic worldwide and it has this "destiny" theme which fits many narratives. Btw, the premise of this telenovela is that the 4 main characters "died" in the same plane crash, but they got a new chance to live, so I guess it matches that idea of "fate knocking at the door" that people use to describe the 5th.



BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> The thing that irks me is not the instrumentation but the changing of notes to simplify the harmony and voice-leading.
> 
> I don't know much about telenovelas (and nothing about Brazilian telenovelas), but from what little I've seen (mostly Mexican) this is exactly the kind of music I'd picture as a theme song. LOL.


As far as my knowledge goes, brazilian telenovelas have a wider scope of genres and maturity, so opening themes change a lot according to the vibe of the production. There are many "serious" opening themes as well as lighthearted ones.

This one is a little more "fun" in general.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Durendal said:


> I'm not really a fan of dumbing down classical masterpieces into pop crossover forms.


I don't think this rearrangement is really "dumbing it down". I mean, it's supposed to be a 1 minute piece of music, so it can't afford to have development and structure in the same way as the real thing, so, instead, all the genre variations is a very neat and smart way to showcase the theme (musically speaking) regardless of "good taste" as a standalone piece. Also, it's an opening theme meant to be heard in the context of the show, not anything else.


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## Tarneem (Jan 3, 2022)

Utter garbage, they had no idea what they are doing


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

ELO has this category locked up.


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