Mr. Bean's Inner Beethoven


(Source: Beanfan's Archives)


On an idyllic, sunny day particularly suited to the humming of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony (the Sixth Symphony), the President and Founder of This Society was doing just that while trudging down an especially green hill. Reflecting upon Mr. Bean's myriad performances in juxstaposition to this music, the thought suddenly arose that Sean Bean and Ludwig von Beethoven approach their respective arts in a similar manner, both of them working ceaselessly and unstintingly to produce the result, frequently going back and redoing a segment until it works properly as is evidenced by the study of Beethoven's notebooks and interviews with Mr. Bean's costars. They are both serious and intense individuals whose work is puctuated by the truthfulness with which they imbue it.


Certainly the results of their efforts produce delightfully parallel experiences within the observer. These men seem to have made a trademark of dark, turbulent, and brooding natures, if the Fifth Symphony or a whole bevy of Mr. Bean's villains are any indication, yet lighter moments do exist. For Sean Bean, it is projects like the candid Black Beauty or even quirky movies like The Big Empty. For Beethoven, it is the tranquillity portrayed in the Pastoral and of course the ideals epitomized by "Ode to Joy." At the same time, even these works are intense, multi-layered, facted, and charming. Whether a character on-screen or a piece of music on the radio, they both have presence.


As if to justify this observation, a member of This Society brought to the Founder's attention an article having to do with the production of Macbeth and containing the following sentence: "As we talk, we are accompanied by the sound of Sean Bean playing Beethoven, rather well, on a nearby piano." [1] This is all the confirmation the two of them needed to hatch up a daring scheme to link as many of Sean Bean's characters as would fit to Beethoven's compositions. It is said that music is the balm for the soul, so in assisting the following characters to identify with their very own piece of music, members of the Inner Beethoven Chapter of the Sean Bean Salvation Society, in essence, aspire to bring peace to the suffering detailed within the annals of the other chapters of This Society.

The task of actually pigeonholing one man's performance to another's composition is actually quite monumental and will probably remain incomplete. Furthermore, it is unfair to either artist to typecast their work in such a rigid system. While their pieces may intersect at various levels, parts of Sean Bean that he brings to his work will not match up to other parts that Beethoven brings to his. Thus the pairings that have emerged are fluid at best. While some seem made for one another, different pairings might appear to be somewhat uncomfortable in the company of one another. Some characters will have more than one piece, and some pieces will sing to more than character. The beauty of this interpretative process is that it remains ever-changing.


With that in mind, you may browse in two ways:

By Piece

or

By Character

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