This past week saw the introduction of yet another new series into the world of Grimm Fairy Tales - No Tomorrow featuring Keres. As of yet very little has been done to identify what the antagonist of the series is doing, whether it is an observer of tragedy or the creator of death. One characteristic of the character is the humming/whistling/singing of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata:

This music is considered to be some of the saddest in the history of human music, and yet wasn't necessarily intended as such by Beethoven, instead he wanted to create a fantastical setting for his music. That it became associated with darkness and sorrow may have been an unintended consequence, though it is interesting how it has infiltrated pop culture as such. It is also interesting that the writer incorporates such an element into comics, as it is a less common manner of getting across tone, as it implies that the reader knows what the music is.

Wow, I really like this :) I had no idea Beethoven never intended it to be a sad piece - I learned it, or a modified version of it, on the guitar not so long ago and it really is a very melancholy tune. I would go so far as to say it is difficult to make it sound upbeat! But then, certain notes and combinations of notes (for example minor chords) seem to naturally invoke a sense of sadness or uncertainty, something which is heavily utilised in the film industry :)

But to see that used here in a comic book context is so unusual, as you say. Very interesting stuff.

@bumpyboo: He must have had an idea that it was sad, but I guess it was not what he was going for. The moonlight part of it was not his interpretation either, rather that of a later music critic.

@razzatazz: Well I guess nothing quite negates an artist's creative control like having been dead a few hundred years ;P Still, makes me wonder what some of these classical composers and artists would have made off their legacies, and how wide of the mark we may be in other respects. Food for thought, definitely :)

@bumpyboo: True, especially when one considers some of the "one hit wonders" from artistic history. Would Herman Melville want to be best known for Moby Dick where the rest of his books were mostly ignored? Or that Grant Wood is best remembered for American Gothic when he might not have liked it very much? I remember reading about Salman Rushdie once saying that he was not ashamed that any of his works of fiction were available to the public, but that he was less proud of some as oppose to others. It is probably the same with every artist.

@razzatazz: Those are good points, and I would imagine it is something that troubles a lot of writers to some degree. When it comes to how people remember you and your work, there is really only so much control you can have over it. Which is a bit scary, but also, a kind of liberating thought in some respects :)

My #3 song of all time. I never considered it to be sad, but maybe a little somber.

I listen to this song when I'm reading a Batman book, its amazing.

@bumpyboo: I guess that it would be the case. It must be weirder for someone like Picasso who created 1000s of pieces in his life. He probably even forgot about some of them that a lot of people held dear.