Northern State University

Northern State University, Music History III Dr. Robert Vodnoy Study Guide 3: Beethoven

Take-home question: How did Beethoven’s deafness affect his music? In your answer, consider his life experiences, his sense of mission, the ideas and themes he was drawn to, and his desire to reach out to people coupled with his increasing social isolation.

1) Be familiar with the major details of Beethoven’s family background. 2) How did Beethoven’s deafness progress? When did he first learn he had problems with his hearing? By when was he totally deaf? 3) What are the major style periods in Beethoven’s creative life and what separates them from one another? 4) Be able to name three works in three different genre from each of Beethoven’s style periods. 5) How many of each of the following genre did Beethoven compose? a) ___ Symphonies b) ___ String quartets c) ___ Piano sonatas d) ___ Piano concertos e) ___ Opera(s) f) ___ Violin sonatas 6) Who were some of Beethoven’s major teachers? With what famous composer did Beethoven study? 7) What instrument(s) did Beethoven play? 8) With what genre is each of these programmatic titles associated? a) Ode to Joy b) Kreutzer c) Pastorale d) La malinconia e) Moonlight f) Appassionata g) Fidelio h) Eroica i) Pathetique 9) Who wrote the poem upon which Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is based? 10) In which Beethoven symphony or symphonies: a) Is a chorus used? b) Are the trombones used? c) Is percussion used? d) Are there four horns? e) Is there a piccolo? f) Is there a contrabassoon? 11) To whom was Beethoven’s Third Symphony originally dedicated? 12) To what type of person were most of Beethoven’s works dedicated? 13) What are the reasons why we know so much about Beethoven’s life? 14) What was the “Monster Concert” of 1808? What major works were on it? 15) What was the Heiligenstadt Testament? When and where was it written? To whom was it written? 16) How did Beethoven work on his musical ideas? 17) What is the Tagebuch? 18) In which symphony is there a funeral march? 19) Which Beethoven symphony has five movements instead of the traditional four? 20) Which symphonies have slow introductions to the first movement? 21) What is unusual about Beethoven’s variation technique in the Diabelli Variations? To what other great keyboard work is it compared? What composers were inspired by it? 22) What is unusual about the order of movements in the Ninth Symphony? 23) Regarding Beethoven’s opera Fidelio: a) When was it premiered? b) How many overtures did he write for it? c) How many times did he revise it? d) What is the basic story? e) Why do you think that Beethoven was interested in this story? 24) Regarding the Pathetique Sonata: a) How is the introduction used throughout the 1st movement? At what points does it occur or reoccur? b) How is the Allegro 1st theme related to the introduction’s theme? c) How is the recapitulation prepared? 25) Regarding the C# Minor Quartet, Op.131: a) How many movements does it have? b) What is the form of the 1st movement? c) What is the form of the 4th movement? 26) Regarding the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3: a) What is the main tonality (key)? b) How long is the introduction? c) What is unusual about the 1st theme? Is it heroic? In what ways are its “heroism” subverted? d) How is the sliding chromatic motive in mm. 6-7 used throughout the 1st movement? e) What is the key of the second theme? In what measure does it begin? f) What is the measure number of the closing theme? g) What happens in measures 236? In 284? In 395? In 564? In 631? h) What is the difference between the phrase structure of the 1st theme in the exposition and when it appears in the coda? 27) What is the form of the finale of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony? From what earlier work did Beethoven derive its theme? 28) Can the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony be understood to be in more than one form? If so, which ones? 29) Why are Beethoven’s piano sonatas so important? 30) Why are Beethoven’s quartets so important? 31) Who were the following people and why are they important in Beethoven’s life: a) Antonie Brentano b) Count Waldstein c) Count Rasumovsky d) Archduke Rudolf e) Karl van Beethoven f) Prince Lobkowitz g) Carl Czerny h) Johann Nepomuk Maelzel