Beethoven’s Für Elise sounds surprisingly enchanting when ‘twisted’ upside down

By Sophia Alexandra Hall, Classic FM

Written 212 years ago by Ludwig van Beethoven, ‘Für Elise’ gets a whole new makeover when you flip the piece upside down…

For April Fools Day 2021, the online community of score video makers were challenged with creating “twisted versions” of Beethoven’s solo piano work, Für Elise.

Videos ranged from turning the piece from a 3/8 time signature to 4/4, to nonsensical scores which placed each hand of the performer in different keys.

However, for Italian composer and video score maker, Stefano Paparozzi, his take came one year later... definitely worth waiting.

In Paparozzi’s ‘twisted’ version of Für Elise, the score is turned upside down and transposed, so that the left hand now carries the melody. It’s a darker, brooding score, with a disturbing sense of mystery – have a listen below.

The video has been viewed over 465,000 times on YouTube and commenters are thrilled to learn “that Beethoven also works upside down”.

Tongue-in-cheek viewers have also expressed their delight that Beethoven can “finally be played in Australia!”.

The more creative among the comments section have detailed how this bittersweet imagining of one of Beethoven’s most famous works, would work well as part of a film.

Inverting melodies or turning normally major melodies into minor is a common trick used in film scoring to highlight a change in tone during a story.

Mozart’s Sonata Facile in C Major – Upside-Down

Paparozzi’s YouTube channel SP's score videos has over 13,000 subscribers, and his videos of around 1,000 scores range from Baroque to early-20th Century music.

Since the success of his take on Für Elise, the composer has set up a dedicated YouTube channel for his Upside-Down Scores. So far, he has taken on the challenge of creating upside-down versions of works by Bach, Chopin, and Mozart.