Lyrics Jon Batiste on Für Elise - Batiste - Jon Batiste

Hello, it's Jon Batiste
And I'm here to talk you through my new album
Beethoven Blues
First time I heard Beethoven
I was a kid studying music
And, inevitably, you hear
The classic solo piano repertoire of Beethoven
Für Elise being the first thing I heard, I think
That was a beautiful moment because
It gave me a sense of what the piano could do
I'm making this album now because
There's always been a desire
For me to start a solo piano series
This was an incredible spurring of doing so
When I was on this television program
And played a piece of Für Elise through
Several different idioms of music
In under a minute
And millions of people saw the clip
With my friend Chris Wallace and I on television
And they said "You know what? Can you make an album?"
And for me, my mind, I'm thinkin'
I'm glad you asked
(Laughs) So, by sheer demand
The opportunity came about to
Do what I always wanted to do
Beethoven is special because
He exists in the realm of the transcendent
He's someone who channeled music that is much bigger
Than himself
And bigger than music
He was a vessel for our collective consciousness to be elevated
And I think that when someone does that
It is an invitation for us to continue where they left off
It is an invitation for us to see
How we can manifest these things in our life
Through the divine that exists forever
Für Elise is something we hear all the time
In our piano lessons
And I decided to extend this well-known composition
By adding thematic material
And adding sections
And really bringing out emotions that are in the piece
But implied, and not so literal
So if you listen to this
And also, the other version that's on this album
You'll hear two perspectives on this classic
That really are my vision for the album as a whole
How can I be in conversation with Beethoven?
Not just a rendition
But a collaboration