Daily Beethoven

Comparison of Lieder settings

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Lyndon LaRouche insisted that German “Lieder” (songs) functioned as a Rosetta Stone for understanding classical musical composition and encouraged the study of how different composers set the same poem- for example, looking at the similarities to get at the principle of vocalization.

Kennst Du das Land

Monday, April 5, 2021

“Mignon” is the name of a fictional character in Goethe’s novel, “Wilhelm Meisters Lehrerjahre” (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship). She is a waif who is traveling with a troupe of circus performers until she is rescued by the title character. An enigmatic figure who sings of unbearable loneliness and longing, her songs were set to music by many composers, including Beethoven.

Mass in C, Opus 86

Easter, April 4, 2021

Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II, the long-time patron of Franz Josef Haydn, commissioned a new mass setting each year for his wife’s name-day. In 1807, the commission fell to Beethoven, who, in his own words, “treated the text in a manner in which it has rarely been treated”.

Leonore Prohaska, WoO 96

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Eleonore Prochaska was the daughter of a Prussian soldier, raised in a military orphanage after the death of her mother. She was one of many German women who fought in the Napoleonic Wars, though most were ejected from the army when it was found out that they were women.

Opus 133 "Große Fuge" (The Great Fugue)

Friday, April 2, 2021

The Opus 133 "Große Fuge" (Great Fugue) is the summit of Beethoven’s string quartets. With a duration of about sixteen minutes, it’s easily the longest fugue ever written for string quartet, although the finale of the Opus 106 Hammerklavier piano sonata has the same length and formal structure.

String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135

Thursday, April 1, 2021

When Beethoven sent his last string quartet to the publisher, he included the following note: “Here, my dear friend, is my last quartet. It will be the last; and indeed it has given me much trouble. For I could not bring myself to compose the last movement. But as your letters were reminding me of it, in the end I decided to compose it. And that is the reason why I have written the motto: 'Der schwer gefaßte Entschluss. Muß es sein? Es muß sein, es muß sein.' (The difficult resolution. Must it be? It must be, it must be!)".

String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Opus 132 was the second of the three quartets commissioned by Prince Galitzin (the others being Opus 127and 130). Beethoven began the composition in March of 1825 but then became seriously ill, necessitating weeks of bed rest and a complete change of diet. This is said to be the genesis of the centerpiece of this work, the Molto Adagio movement to which Beethoven gave the title “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart " (Holy Song of Thanksgiving of a Convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode).

String Quartet No. 14 in C# minor, Op. 131

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Although Beethoven regarded the Opus 131 Quartet in C-sharp minor as his greatest, it was not publicly premiered until 1835, seven years after the composer's death. In 1828, the dying Franz Schubert requested a private performance of the quartet, after which he is said to have exclaimed, “After this, what is left for us to write?”.

String Quartet No. 13 in Bb Major, Op. 130

Monday, March 29, 2021

The Opus 130 string quartet is a magnificent work of six movements, more like scenes and acts of a play, the last of which was originally the Grosse Fuge (Great Fugue). After the quartet premiered, Beethoven was persuaded to replace the fugue with a shorter and more genial finale and publish the fugue separately (Opus 133).

String Quartet No. 12 in Eb Major, Op. 127

Sunday, March 28, 2021

In 1822, at the suggestion of a member of Prince Galitzin's private quartet, Beethoven received a commission for three string quartets, thus beginning the great project of the late quartets that would occupy him for the last two and a half years of his life.

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