Musicology Commons^™

Review Of Re-Reading The Beethoven Violin Sonatas By Daniel Tong, Katharina Uhde

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Marriage Letters Of Joseph Deym And Josephine Brunsvik-Deym By Rita Steblin, Jos Van Der Zanden

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Composer Embalmed By Abigail Fine, Joe Davies

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

"The Effect Was The Same, But Not For The Eye." From Playability To Augenmusik In Beethoven’S Arrangement Of His Grande Fugue Op. 133/134, Elisa Novara

The Beethoven Journal

Beethoven’s four-hands piano transcription of the Grande Fugue Op. 134 is different from any other arrangement he ever made: firstly, it is given an opus number, which is something that conventional Klavierauszüge usually do not have; secondly, it has a dedication, namely to Beethoven’s patron and pupil the Archduke Rudolf. Third, it is notoriously so difficult to play that it barely fulfils the primary function of four-hands piano transcriptions in the 19th century, i.e. a more easily accessible performance medium, which would have resulted in a better circulation of the work.

A more conventional transcription of Op. 133 might have …

Beethoven’S Piccolo Apprenticeship: Eighteen Years Of Experimentation Before The Fifth Symphony, Rikki A. Wolpowitz

The Beethoven Journal

Beethoven is routinely credited as the "father of the orchestral piccolo," a claim resting primarily on his deployment of the instrument in the Fifth Symphony (1808). Yet this paternity metaphor obscures a crucial fact: Beethoven composed for the piccolo for nearly eighteen years before that symphonic premiere, producing works for court entertainment, public dances, and military bands that systematically explored the instrument’s capabilities. This article examines Beethoven’s complete piccolo output—nineteen works comprising thirty-two individual pieces—through a three-function analytical framework: the piccolo as range-extender, as vehicle for programmatic effect, and as independent voice. Beginning with the Musik zu einem Ritterballett (1790) …

"Wondrous Emanations Of A Transcendently Transfigured Sublimity And Profundity": The Reception Of Beethoven's Last Three Piano Sonatas In The Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Nicholas S. Kennedy

The Beethoven Journal

Ludwig van Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas, Opp. 109, 110, and 111, have captured the imaginations of critics from the nineteenth century to the present. As “late” works penned towards the end of the composer’s life, these sonatas have often been read as infused with existential or transcendental meaning, frequently aligned with Beethoven’s own experiences. Reception studies have identified broader tropes of autobiographical explanation and poetic analogy as applied to these works by early critics; however, these studies frequently stop short of identifying more specific patterns in the images employed to describe the sonatas. Focusing on mainly German literature from …

Beethoven, Caspar Peucer’S Commentarius, And Enchanted Nature, Nicholas Chong

The Beethoven Journal

The posthumous inventory of Beethoven’s library includes a late Renaissance treatise by Caspar Peucer (1525–1602) entitled Commentarius de præcipuis generibus divinationum (Commentary on the main types of divination). Peucer’s text is concerned mainly with methods of predicting the future through such practices as magic, astrology, and the reading of oracles. Neither Peucer nor his treatise is mentioned in any other source associated with Beethoven. The composer also had a limited knowledge of Latin and his copy of Peucer’s text was more than two centuries old.

Previous scholarship has not explored Beethoven’s ownership of this book in any detail, except to …

Humor In Eighteenth-Century Dress: The Comic Form Of Beethoven’S Grosse Fuge, Op. 133., Stephen Husarik

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge (Op. 133), previously interpreted as a work shaped by comedic design, can also be understood as an “algorithmic fugue” in which the subject undergoes a systematic process from deformation to restoration. Rather than relying mainly on traditional contrapuntal devices such as inversion and augmentation, Beethoven reshapes the theme through syncopation and paired slurred pulses, then expands these alterations into increasingly exaggerated fugal textures. Drawing on sketches and manuscript sources, this paper argues that the process resembles the moves of a Rubik’s Cube, with each transformation contributing to an eventual solution. In the closing measures, Beethoven reverses the …

Haydn’S Creation Challenge: A New Hypothesis About The Genesis Of Beethoven’S Ninth Symphony, Stefan Romanó

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

The article hypothesizes that Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was the product of his decision to take up the challenge that Haydn’s Creation had confronted him with since his youth.  Haydn’s oratorio was immensely popular in Vienna and Germany during Beethoven’s time, more popular than Beethoven’s own music.  It represented the golden standard of musical perfection for Beethoven himself, who strove to equal it, but repeatedly felt that he had not yet jumped over the Creation hurdle.  He took up the challenge in the years 1816-18, when he began designing the first movement of his Ninth, as a replica to the …

The Message Of Resilience And Harmony: From War Camps To Modern Calls For Peace, Linlin Uta

Dissertations, 2020-current

Music has a unique power to either foster harmony and peace or contribute to discord and suffering, depending on how it is used. The role of music in three different wartime camps—the Bando Prisoner-of-War Camp in Japan during World War I, Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and Japanese American internment camps during World War II—illustrates both the dangers and the transformative potential of music. While these examples highlight the misuse of music as a warning, they also reveal how music, when used in a positive way, can offer valuable lessons for promoting global peace.

Moreover, in an environment …

"Acoustical Bedlam": A Contextualization Of Beethoven's Christus, Leanna R. York

The Beethoven Journal

The premiere of Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge at the Theater an der Wien on April 5, 1803, marked the composer’s first and only contribution to the complex tradition of the German oratorio. Since the genre’s inception at the turn of the eighteenth century, it reflected artistic, literary, and theological controversies of its day. Beethoven’s chosen theme, the passion of Christ, came with its own set of ever-shifting compositional and textual expectations, influenced by older traditions of sepolcri and staged oratorios (common in Vienna and at the court of the elector of Cologne after mid-century) and lyric works such as Graun’s …

Innovative Sonorities: Atypical Pitch Orders In Beethoven's Piano Trios, Yoko Maruyama

The Beethoven Journal

In his chamber music with keyboard, Beethoven famously emancipated the cello from its bass function to make it equal with the other instruments, as has been repeatedly noted. Some studies have also highlighted, partly in relation to this emancipation, the sonorous balance between strings and piano in Beethoven’s chamber works. The pitch relationship between the cello and violin in his piano trios has been less discussed, yet attending to both parts reveals a tendency to use an atypical order in which the cello’s pitch is set above the violin or between the violin’s chord tones. This tendency increases from Beethoven’s …

Review Of From The Ruins Of Enlightenment: Beethoven And Schubert In Their Solitude By Richard Kramer, Sarah Waltz

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Catholic Beethoven By Nicholas Chong, David Wyn Jones

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Conference Report: 200th Anniversary Of Beethoven's 1824 Academy Concerts (Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, 2024), Mary Kirchdorfer, Cheston Humphries

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of Beethoven's French Piano: A Tale Of Ambition And Frustration By Tom Beghin, Dorian Bandy

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of Beethoven’S Ninth Symphony: Rehearsing And Performing Its 1824 Premiere By Theodore Albrecht, Marten Noorduin

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

The Movement Plans For The Quartet Op. 127 And The "Backstage" Of Beethoven's Late Style, Francesco Fontanelli

The Beethoven Journal

Among the different sketch typologies in Beethoven’s hand, the so-called “telescoped drafts” are the most eloquent in conveying the composer’s vision and intentions. In these synoptic diagrams made up of musical ideas and notes in writing, Beethoven outlined the structure of the work he had in mind, fixing the decisive points (themes, keys, tempo markings, number and configuration of movements). Four movement plans are extant for the String Quartet Op. 127 in E-flat major, sketched between February 1823 and the summer of 1824; in each, the composer explores alternative ways of managing musical form and content.

This article discusses and …

“The Tremendous Products Of A Son Of The Gods.” Missa Solemnis (Op. 123), Overture (Op. 124), And Ninth Symphony (Op. 125), Birgit Lodes

The Beethoven Journal

The premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna on May 7, 1824, is generally considered a milestone in music history. This article argues against the common characterization that Beethoven, in this, his (last) academy, programmed a monumental symphony and, perhaps with some embarrassment, a few filler pieces, but instead very consciously chose to highlight his three most recently composed orchestral works: the overture to the festival play Die Weihe des Hauses op. 124; Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei of the Missa solemnis op. 123; and the Ninth Symphony op. 125. Listening to these three works together opens …

Beethoven's Ukraine Connection: New Light On The Creation Of His Flute Variations Opp. 105 And 107, Barry Cooper

The Beethoven Journal

Two previously unidentified groups of sketches are revealed to be preliminary work for Beethoven’s last set of Flute Variations, Op. 107 No. 3. The theme is of Ukrainian origin, and the new discoveries are placed in the context of other manuscript material relating to the creation of the sixteen sets of flute variations, Opp. 105 and 107, which were commissioned by George Thomson. The extent of this preliminary work for Op. 107 No. 3 suggests that Beethoven spent much effort preparing the sixteen sets as a whole, and that the dearth of other sketches for them is probably due to …

Genius, Instrumental Music, And “Great Mistakes”: Amadeus Wendt And Beethoven’S Ninth Symphony, Sarah Clemmens Waltz

The Beethoven Journal

The author attributes the anonymous 1826 Berliner allegemeine musikalische Zeitung (BamZ) review of the Leipzig performances of Beethoven’s Ninth, which suggests removal of the choral finale and inspires A.B. Marx to a passionate defense, to the critic Amadeus Wendt. The career of Wendt as a philosophy professor is firmly established, as is his criticism for the BamZ, Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (AmZ), Cäcilia, Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung mit besonderer Rucksicht auf den österreichischen Kaiserstaat (WamZ), and other journals. Wendt’s Hoffmannesque opinions of instrumental music are contextualized via his extensive criticism of opera and vocal music, highlighting themes such as inappropriate virtuosity, (im)proper …

“The Formation Of A Personality”: Shostakovich’S Fifth Symphony And The Politics Of Its Hermeneutic Reception, Ki Ki Leung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation provides a new perspective on Shostakovich’s widely discussed Fifth Symphony by scrutinizing the formation of its Bildungsroman narrative and its transformation from a prototype of Soviet symphonism into an anti-Soviet statement. I begin by reaching back to 1930s Soviet Russia, when Soviet symphonism was formulated to comply with the official ideology of socialist realism. Building on Paul Bekker’s gemeinschaftsbildende Kraft (“community-building power”), key Soviet musicologists such as Ivan Sollertinsky advocated applying a model from the Western symphonic tradition to meet national propagandist needs. With music analysis, I show how Shostakovich’s Fifth fits into Boris Asafyev’s conception of Soviet …

Influence And Innovation: Beethoven's Impact On The Sonatas For Piano And Cello By Mendelssohn And Chopin, Patrick T. Bellah

Dissertations, 2020-current

The bulk of the scholarship in this paper centers around Beethoven’s five sonatas written for piano and cello and how he established a new normal within the genre. This is evidenced by what are arguably the two most noteworthy sonatas for the same instrumental medium, written by Mendelssohn and Chopin, following Beethoven’s death. I posit that the five sonatas written by Beethoven establish a series of models upon which the latter two works by his successors are based.

Chapters two and three of this document are separated into subsections that detail the plausibility of Beethoven’s influence through circumstantial evidence, musical …

The Roman Catholic Ordinary Mass From Circa 1750 To Circa 1820: A Selected Bibliography, Letícia Gabriele Grützmann Januario

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Orchestrated masses from the 18th century and early years of the 19th century provide a valuable source of repertoire for contemporary choral conductors. This project will explore composers and works from circa 1750 to 1820 to provide choral conductors with a list of works suitable for programming based on the practical size of vocal and instrumental forces.

Western choral music was born in a church setting. Among all choral genres, the mass is the only genre composed throughout all eras, from medieval until the 20th century. The mass remained a prominent genre during the 18th century despite the secularizing influence …

The French Enlightenment And Two Men: Napoleon Bonaparte And Beethoven, Kate Pisarczyk, Zach Hall, Nelle Conley

2017 Festschrift: Beethoven's <em>Symphony No. 3, Op. 55</em>

Many of the philosophies developed during the French Enlightenment circulated around nature and human emotions. These philosophies were written by men, such as Diderot, in the Encyclopedia. Both Napoleon Bonaparte and Ludwig van Beethoven were able to exemplify the French Enlightenment through their representations of self-determination and expertise at their crafts; however, both men experienced pitfalls that greatly affected their careers. Napoleon’s was so detrimental to his career that he was exiled to a small island; whereas, Beethoven took the negativity surrounding the Heiligenstadt Testament and used these feelings to write the Eroica. This symphony was able to exemplify …

The Psychology Of Beethoven And The Eroica Symphony, Sean P. Harty, Rebekah K. Gohl, Dana J. Burhorn, Joshua S. Morano

2017 Festschrift: Beethoven's <em>Symphony No. 3, Op. 55</em>

As a concert pianist and chapel organist, Beethoven rose to a fame in Vienna which allowed him patrons and friends who would support his compositions. One such patron was Count Waldstein, who claimed that Beethoven would inherit the spirit of Mozart in his famous prediction of Beethoven’s success. To study composition Beethoven turned to two prominent Viennese composers: Haydn and Salieri. As his fame grew, his health decreased until he was diagnosed with deafness and moved to Heiligenstadt. Here Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers called the Heiligenstadt Testament, which was never sent but expressed his troubled mental …

Beethoven's Eroica Sketchbooks: From Scribbles To Symphony, Victoria R. Kleeman, Katelyn Thurlby, Caitlin A. Thom, Monica Gil

2017 Festschrift: Beethoven's <em>Symphony No. 3, Op. 55</em>

This paper will help readers to gain new insights on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Op. 55, also known as Eroica, by exploring the sketches related to this symphony. The background of the piece is discussed, and the sketches have been compared to the completed symphony. Beethoven’s sketching process was dramatically different from other composers of his time, and his sketches included even more musical material than was eventually included in the symphony.

Benefactors, Bonds, And Beholders: The Beliefs And Reality Behind Beethoven’S Behavior, Olivia M. Weismann, Abigail L. Smith, Moira R. Dunn, Kathryn E. Krajewski

2017 Festschrift: Beethoven's <em>Symphony No. 3, Op. 55</em>

This paper will explore the relationships which Beethoven had during the years he composed and premiered his Eroica Symphony. Some of the individuals who will be discussed in this paper include Prince Lobkowitz, Ferdinand Ries, and Franz Wegeler. After learning about the nature of these relationships, the reader should begin to realize that Beethoven’s notoriously irrational or ill-tempered behavior was only one facet of his life.

From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Imagine an intimate room filled with people playing cards and casually chatting, while one of Chopin’s piano sonatas plays elegantly in the background. This scenario is characteristic of the atmosphere surrounding Classical and Romantic European salons. Salons served as havens of musical discourse from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. However, with the advancement of technology from the mid-twentieth century to the present, there has been a decline, or, arguably, even a cessation of salon life.

The aim of this project was to recreate the salon environment through the generation of the online discussion forum, "Music Soirée." To …

On The Hallelujah Efect: Priming Consumers, Recording Music, And The Spirit Of Tragedy, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

An overview of The Hallelujah Effect concentrating on priming or sonic branding, media, online porn as well as marketing and media programming, with a special excursus on the space of music --and radio in Adorno's Current of Music, and a detailed discussion on Nietzsche and music in antiquity as he explores this with reference ot Beethoven in The Birth of Tragedy.