Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Why Fur Elise is trash

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/world/asia/taiwan-waste-management-beethoven.html

In Taiwan, when the garbage truck plays Fur Elise it's the signal for people to bring out the trash.

Ludwig would be proud (I think).

At least his music became the theme song of a company's garbage pickup service. Taiwanese probably like Beethoven as much as Japan. In Japan, it became a tradition for choirs to sing the Beethoven "Ode to Joy" around Christmas.

I consider "Fur Elise" one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. Right up there with Lennon and McArtney's "She Loves You". Yes, I think it's THAT good!

Indeed, they are two pieces of music that HAD to be written, and the fact they have been proves it. If Lennon, Beethoven and McArtney hadn't written them, somebody else would have done.

Joking(?) aside, they are fantastic melodies that have a uniqueness about them that makes them instantly recognisable, hence the Taiwan Rubbish Company has made a good choice, in my opinion.
Having words automatically limits the comprehension of The Beatles song and this limitation simply doesn't exist with instrumentals. Furthermore, it hardly matters who is playing "Fur Elise", played properly it will always sound good... and it's out of copyright.
In the 1970's I sold electrical goods and IIRC, both Hitachi and Sanyo cassette recorders were supplied with a free tape. I think it was a C9 in Hitachi's goods and a C30 in Sanyo's... generous, eh?
Both tapes had demo tunes. Sanyo's was "La Cucaracha" and Hitachi's was "Fur Elise".

Regarding "She Loves You", one day in about 1964 while at secondary school in Petersfield, Hants. I was walking along the top corridor singing "She loves you , yeah, yeah, yeah,..."

A teacher shouted, "Boy, 50 lines on my desk tomorrow morning, "She Loves You, Yes, Yes, Yes!" Learn proper English at Petersfield"! The Swinging Sixties, indeed.

Yes, I have heard that already from a taiwanese piano student I met in my local piano group.

Fur Elise it's not trash per se. As Clair the Lune.

HOWEVER,
both of these pieces (as well like Gymnopedie no1) are overplayed literally everywhere, from movies, encores, phone rings, phone signals, trash trucks, normal shops, even my door ring plays Fur Elise (no joke, seriously). I think it would be find to place in the world which had not heard fur elise or clair de lune, maybe excluding Africa.