Ludwig van Beethoven, Coriolanus and 60 beans

60 beans per cup or he would not have anything of it! Outrageous and scandalous deprivation should a brew come up with anything short! With a mercurial temper and a gift nothing short of the immense divine, Ludwig van Beethoven, dark, moody, violently passionate, would brood and ponder over a brew of his own creation as ingeniously made as his own unfathomable musical works. Should ever a beverage be renown for anything less than the true source of creativity and genius, then the annals of history would be strewn and replete with the dullards and mediocre as wittily proclaimed by the English poet John Dryden "With this prophetic blessing—Be thou dull!"

Geben Sie mir mehr Kaffee bitte ..

One of my all time favorite pieces of Ludwig van Beethoven is indeed the Coriolan Overture. With a brew by the ready one could almost picture the scene. The genius broods in silence. Pondering over manuscripts with a dark and foreboding brew at hand, the genius gazes out from his table, though the  window, watching cloud and tree, searching the skies, looking at sky and earth and sky again, seeking some far off answer to his own riddled perplexity, and thus he strives to compose an absolute masterpiece. No other beverage stirs the depths of the human soul! The spirit soars. Such a mighty work of profound animation; the maestro seeks to grip the very heart with the heights and depths of joy and despair. Crescendo and descent stir the soul. Inspired thus, the overture offers an experience with such a marvelous range of sound that stirs the heart and mesmerizes the spirit to flow with the music of an elevated genius. As the waves of sound come crashing down into finality; there can only be tragedy whatever the choice facing the isolated Coriolanus.

  

Gnaeus Marcius, Roman aristocrat and general c. 5th century BC; decorated and lauded as 'Coriolanus' for leading the Roman army against the Volscian city of Corioli. Subsequently betrayed by his own people and exiled he then did the unthinkable and led the army of Rome's bitter enemy, the Volsci, to besiege the city that bore him: Rome. Surprised at her own son's actions the mother of Coriolanus, Veturia and his own wife Volumnia, their two sons and the women of Rome, went out of the city gates to the Volscian camp and implored Coriolanus to withdraw with anguished and passionate appeals. Coriolanus,  overcome with the despair of these women was moved to pity and thus ended the siege. Finally, Rome bestowed the highest honors upon these women by the foundation of a great temple dedicated to the Roman Goddess Fortuna.

So make your brew of choice and sit back and close your eyes. Picture the heart rending scene of raw emotions  at play. The stage is set; the die is cast. There stands the lonely, tragic and historical figure of Coriolanus as told in the book of Lives by Plutarch and later portrayed in a play by William Shakespeare. At the very gates of Rome, torn apart from love of wife and love of country, indecision grips his mind, as some of the deepest emotions stir his turbulent spirit, the lofty genius of the maestro's stroke captures the moment as Coriolanus. Read Plutarch - Lives at - 

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Coriolanus*.html

and then attempt count 60 beans and percolate in true Ludwigian fashion and close your eyes, picture the heart rending scene and listen -

Ludwig van Beethoven, Coriolan Overture -  conducted by Herbert Von Karajan

Composed in 1807 for Heinrich Joseph von Collin's 1804 tragedy Coriolan.

Pieter Bergli - Cafe enthusiast, raconteur extraordinaire on the dark and illuminating property of the humble coffee bean... and the story of human genius.