Some books, movies or lectures we remember for years, maybe for a lifetime. For me, Robert Greenberg’s courses, especially the The Symphonies of Beethoven, is such an experience. In this audio course Greenberg covers Beethoven’s symphonies in 32 lectures. In the duration of 24 hours and 12 minutes, the course will guide you not only in the history of his …
Poor Beethoven had a formidable adversary all his life: his own health. Among the many-many symptoms and illnesses he had, one sticks out as especially scary. In 1807 he wrote his playwright friend Heinrich Collin, “My colic is better, but my poor finger had to undergo a drastic nail operation. When I wrote to you yesterday it looked very angry. …
Beethoven was born in Bonn (today Germany), where he had lived for 22 years. For the rest of his life, apart from some concert tours he made, he lived in Vienna, Austria. This may sound like a person, who is a couch potato, but nothing can be more far from the truth! Beethoven was a frequent mover in and around …
One might think that listing a composer’s works is not a difficult task. The case of Beethoven shows it is not that easy after all! According to the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, over 45 years Beethoven is estimated to have created about 750 works. The ones published during his life received an opus number (138 opus numbers in total). What about …
As is the case with other composers, the works of Beethoven are classified by genre and more kinds of numbering systems. The most relevant and important numbering is the opus numbering. There are 172 Beethoven compositions numbered in this system and these are listed under 138 opus numbers (one opus number can contain multiple compositions). Apart from opus numbers, there …
Werke ohne Opuszahl (Works without opus number), abbreviated WoO, is a German musical catalog prepared by Hans Halm and Georg Kinsky in 1955. The goal was to list all Beethoven compositions that were not numbered with opus numbers or exist only in fragments. The original German title was Das Werk Beethovens: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner sämtlichen vollendeten Kompositionen. Example for WoO …