Notes Between the Notes

Verdi String Quartet in E Minor

Verdi — a great master of strings, momentarily claimed by opera.
All his life, he shaped music as a journey from darkness into light.
In this string work, the final scherzo-fugue brings German rigor and Italian soul into luminous unity:
a music of exquisite order that, at its heart, turns toward Italy’s romance, warmth, and dawn.

2026 — Verdi welcomes you.

drive.google.com/file/d/1U60uNX_VbMIXLWQGyyTjcn-papIq7Roc/view?usp=sharing 

Beethoven Symphony No 4                               01/30/2025

Chicken Nuggets Fantasy

A few days ago, I was listening to a podcast where the conductor introduced Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony in the most unexpected way. He described the opening as two minutes in an endless swamp—dark, murky, almost suffocating. Through string staccato, Beethoven seemed to crawl with us, insisting that even in a monotonous, heavy life, there is hope. He believed so firmly that light would come, and slowly, dawn indeed began to break.

The music grew, glory rising, until—suddenly—the conductor exclaimed: “Chicken nuggets! For real!”

I nearly choked on my own chicken nuggets as I was driving through Princeton Woods. Beethoven, eating chicken nuggets? Really? Out of curiosity, I googled the conductor—handsome fellow—but I couldn’t tell if he actually loves nuggets.

In the following days, I returned again and again to the first movement of Beethoven’s Fourth. I needed to solve this “chicken nugget mystery.” Sure enough, the first two minutes do feel like a long suppression of darkness. Yet, I didn’t lose hope. By 2:30, the light breaks through, and I almost wanted to cry. That’s not chicken nuggets at all—that’s Mahler!

But then, at around 4:30, when the music bursts forth in 2/2 rhythm with one accent after another, I suddenly understood. The energy turns playful, almost ridiculous—like a Chicken Dance, a Chicken Nugget March, nuggets flying everywhere after humanity has been tempered. The syncopated scale’s long tones bring a pleasure that feels like the triumph of ordinary joys.

It reminded me of something a friend told me recently in a Chinese poem: about the presence of imagination. That is what the chicken nuggets really are—an image of delight, a playful metaphor for joy emerging from the depths of struggle.