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What Beethoven can teach you about Donald Trump
November 28, 2024
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As I browsed online through election memorabilia -- Let’s Go Brandon stickers, MAGA hats, Cats for Kamala banners, streamers from the conventions -- I realized that there is a deep link between my favourite composer and the 2024 election campaign.
It’s proof of the continuing relevance of Ludwig von Beethoven.
First, I should present my credentials. I am a German evolutionary biologist, specialising in the reproductive behaviour and parental care of leeches. However, I lead a double life as a pianist and composer. (Click here for my composition “Beethoven Joy Fantasy”.) So I am always alert to references to classical music in current affairs – and in Germany we took a keen interest in the American election.
Earlier in the year there was a remarkable essay about Joe Biden written by an eminent critic at the New York Times, A.O. Scott. He compared the ageing President to the ageing Beethoven:
He quoted the cultural theorist Theodor Adorno about Beethoven’s late style. It “does not resemble the kind one finds in fruit. They are, for the most part, not round, but furrowed, even ravaged.” Biden’s late style marks, he suggested, “a new and distinctive phase of creativity“.
In fact, Scott contended, “If this election is about the survival of democracy, he has cast himself not as its savior but — for the last time — as its most plausible representative.” As I said … remarkable. I would never have linked Biden and Beethoven, but there it was in black and white, and in the New York Times, to boot!
The second appearance of Beethoven in the campaign came at the climax of the Republican National Convention. Melania Trump walked on to the stage, radiant in a red dress, applauded rapturously by the delegates, accompanied by the strains of the transcendent third movement of the Ninth Symphony. It was a tribute to her good taste, but the critics sneered.
“In most contexts, this music is a balm for the soul,” said The Guardian. “At the RNC, it was a moment of absurdist drama.“
The Washington Post found the Melania music “deeply weird, tapping into the subterranean depths of the surreal that are fundamental to the aesthetic of the Republican Party now under the absolute control of Donald Trump.“
With due respect to these gentlemen, I would contend that the parallels between Beethoven and the Orange Man are substantial. Allow me to explain.
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A few weeks ago, I purchased a new Beethoven biography by Stefan Eisel, Bonn and Beethoven's Ninth. The author provides a detailed account of the creation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Nowadays Beethoven is idolised. But in his own time, he was something of a misfit. Educated people appreciated classical music as the high art of composing and writing chamber, orchestral, and church music pieces, including stage works like operas. In the shadow of this high culture, there existed an extensive scene of country-bumpkin musicians, who were dismissed as "beer fiddlers".
Initially, Beethoven was regarded as a beer fiddler dabbling in classical music. This barrel of a man, driven by a strong urge for independence, was always at odds with political and social elites of his time; he refused to kowtow to their expectations.
In contemporary parlance, Beethoven was a non-conformist outsider. Furthermore, he was far from smooth and charming. Goethe wrote: "His talent amazed me; unfortunately he is an utterly untamed personality, who is not altogether wrong in holding the world to be detestable, but surely does not make it any more enjoyable ... by his attitude."
He looked like a peasant and his manners were not above reproach. His favourite dish was macaroni and cheese, the 19th century Viennese version of a Big Mac. He was, in short, one of the “deplorables”.
I hope that the parallels between Trump and Beethoven are now less obscure -- both are outsiders, both a bit uncouth, both impatient with elites, both disruptors.
Consider the other side of this excursion into the music of politics – the Democrats’ embrace of Taylor Swift.
When I was standing in a queue to purchase my copy of Bonn and Beethoven's Ninth, I found myself paging through a pile of coffee table books about the American singer. This led to a conversation with three young women. Noticing my Beethoven book, one of them said: "We’re 'Swifties' – Taylor Swift is our idol – Taylor is the 'Beethoven' of our generation!"
Hmmm, I thought. The comparison lacks an essential feature of Beethoven’s achievement – that he was a rebel, a disruptor, an outsider, an uncomfortable, challenging, irritating, quirky curmudgeon. Taylor Swift, for all her charm and talent and business acumen, is the quintessential insider. Everyone loves her; no one has a bad word to say about her.
It turned out, unfortunately for the Swifties and their candidate of choice, that most Americans preferred a carrot-topped Beethoven-like deplorable.
Which composer does Donald Trump remind you of?
Ulrich Kutschera, PhD, is a Professor of Biology, who is active in both Germany and the United States. He also works as an author and music producer. For more information, visit his academic website or his music website.
Image credit: Donald Trump tutoring Ludwig van Beethoven @Trump_History45 / on X (Twitter)
Have your say!
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Steven Meyer commented 2024-12-02 11:37:39 +1100Michael Cook,
Do you really think you can draw any useful comparisons between:
A kid born into 18th century style poverty who ends up writing some of the most beautiful music of all time even as he goes deaf?
and
A rich kid with a long list of business failures and shady deals who swindles people out of their life’s savings with a fake university?
Let’s just have a reality check here. Isn’t this just a little bit preposterous.
I mean consider this sentence:
“Nowadays Beethoven is idolised”
No he isn’t most people know almost nothing or very little about his life. It’s his music that is idolised. It is sublime.
Who do you think is going to idolise “Trump University”? -
Michael Cook commented 2024-12-02 09:46:38 +1100Thank you for waiting so patiently. -
David Page commented 2024-12-02 09:21:09 +1100Steven, I agree with you. But we have yet to plumb the depths of their silliness.
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Steven Meyer commented 2024-12-02 08:19:50 +1100David Page,
Schiller wrote the words of Ode to Joy. You are right.
The only point I was trying to make is that comparing a trust-fund kid turned grifter like Trump to a genius like Beethoven displays a level of willful blindness that is comical to behold.
I confess I’m enjoying the show. -
David Page commented 2024-12-01 20:11:27 +1100I believe Schiller wrote “Ode to Joy”, and then Beethoven set it to music.
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Anon Emouse commented 2024-11-30 05:26:16 +1100“Nothing” would have worked, too
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Angela Shanahan commented 2024-11-30 00:00:58 +1100Very clever, and true! Remember what happened to Beethoven..? Went from scruffy crazy genius to a sort of cultural hero and eminence Gris. -
Steven Meyer commented 2024-11-28 13:03:06 +1100Ulrich Kutschera,
So Ludwig had a wealthy father who bailed out his no-talent son by paying other composers to write symphonies in his son’s name?
Here’s to the unknown composer of “Ode to Joy.” -
Emberson Fedders commented 2024-11-28 11:02:49 +1100These sorts of articles are increasingly desperate. What is the obsession with trying to make Trump something he is not? I mean, Beethoven? Seriously?
And the image at the top? It reminds me of the all the Trump-as-Rambo, Trump-as-superhero, Trump-as-athlete shirts. There is something almost childish about the fixation on trying to reimagine a seriously limited man as a cartoonish figure of power, brawn or sophistication.
Truly, I will never understand the Trump cult. -
