The work of Beethoven was examined during a MUsic Mondays presentation at the Cellar Door Tapas Room by Le Bistro on Monday, Sept. 16. 

The lecture, titled “The Musical Motive that Led a Revolution: Beethoven’s Fifth,” was presented by music history professor and founder of MUsic Mondays, Vicki Stroeher. 

Stroeher said the lectures, which are intended to give Marshall staff the opportunity to educate the community, are different than giving presentations on campus because while they provide more distractions, they also provide a different type of environment that is more apt for performances. 

“I feel like when I do this, I am a performer, and so part of the aspect in this is a performance component that a classroom setting doesn’t have,” Stroeher said. 

The presentation covered the history of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, different arrangements of the music that have been composed over time and different opinions of the piece. 

Stroeher said Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 was not designed for enjoyable listening but rather is “a work for understanding the composer himself.”  

The music professor said she has multiple MUsic Mondays planned for the semester, and said that while she is excited for every lecture, the one she is most excited for will take place in February. 

“I’m doing Leonard Bernstien’s dialogues after Plato’s Symposium,” she said. “It’s a really cool work and I don’t think very many people know it, so I’m excited about that.”

Stroeher said she would encourage students to attend MUsic Mondays at the Cellar Door because it is a different environment. 

“You get a slightly different take on classical music,” Stroeher said. “It’s not stuffy, certainly, and it’s very different from what you would get in the classroom.”

The next MUsic Mondays event will be taking place Monday, Oct. 12 at the Cellar Door, located at 905 3rd Ave. in Huntington. 

Summer Jewell can be contacted at [email protected].