Piano World Home Page Forums General Discussions Musicians Welcome! Beethoven trivia, anybody?

How about Beethoven, friends?

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1. What composer said of the young Beethoven, "Watch out for him. He's going to make a noise in the world!" ?

2. What was his reason for inserting trills at the end of many of his piano compositions? ?

3. How many movements did his Pastoral Symphony have? ?

4. In what ways did the Pastoral Symphony foreshadow Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique? ?

5. How many operas did Beethoven write? ?

6. How many children did Beethoven have? ?

7. What noble family was responsible for some of his "Pathetique" piano sonata? ?

8. What 1950's and 1960's network news broadcast ended with the opening of the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Ninth? ?

9. To whom was his Symphony #3 originally dedicated? ?

10. Beethoven wrote his greatest works in spite of which physical handicap?

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Could be Haydn.

To make it more dramatic? I don't know.

Five.

It had a musical programme to each movement. Berlioz adapted this and developped it further.

One.

None.

I guess that must be the Lichnowsky family. It's dedicated to Carl von Lichnowsky, I think.

Don't know. I wasn't around yet to have watched it.

Napoleon Bonaparte.

He was deaf.

Mozart

I'm with Orlando; it's the only one I knew...

1. What composer said of the young Beethoven, "Watch out for him. He's going to make a noise in the world!" ?
Mozart

2. What was his reason for inserting trills at the end of many of his piano compositions?
To embarrass Viennese pianists! He confessed this in a letter to Eleonore von Breuning. Here's an excerpt alluding to the difficult trills:

I should never have written down this kind of piece, had I not already noticed fairly often how some people in Vienna after hearing me extemporize one evening would next day note down several peculiarities of my style and palm them off with pride as their own. Well, as I foresaw that their pieces would soon be published, I resolved to forestall those people. But there was another reason, too; my desire to embarrass those Viennese pianists, some of whom are my sworn enemies. I wanted to revenge myself on them in this way, because I knew beforehand that my variations would here and there be put before the said gentlemen and that they would cut a sorry figure with them.

Source

3. How many movements did his Pastoral Symphony have?
5

4. In what ways did the Pastoral Symphony foreshadow Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique? ?
Written in the same key - F major. Echoes of bird song at the end of 2nd movement of the Pastoral Symphony (bar 67 onwards).

5. How many operas did Beethoven write? ?
Just the one - Fidelio!

6. How many children did Beethoven have?
None

7. What noble family was responsible for some of his "Pathetique" piano sonata? ?
It was dedicated to Lichnowsky wasn't it? I don't think that's the answer to your question though and I haven't been able to find out

8. What 1950's and 1960's network news broadcast ended with the opening of the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Ninth? ?
Don't know, I'm from the UK!

9. To whom was his Symphony #3 originally dedicated?
Napoleon

10. Beethoven wrote his greatest works in spite of which physical handicap?
Deafness

#8: NBC Nightly News with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.
"Good night, David" ...... quixotic pause (but not as long as Paul Harvey's) "Good night Chet" Wake up the Timpani guy! Que the Strings! Ba Ba! .. Ba Ba Ba Ba! du.....be dubede dubede dubede dubede "fadein the Clairol commercial" ....."don't be so sad Dave, we'll cream Uncle Walter tomorrow" "oh I can live with that, but if that Eric Severide brat gives me ONE more wedgie on the air I swear hes going to be doing the weather with Uncle Miltie!"

(this really happened, and I've got the VCR tapes to proove it)
Bob

What was the name of Beethoven's nephew and how did he figure in the composer's death?

How many years did Beethoven give up composing and for what?

Who premiered most of Beethoven's piano concertos?

What forms of chamber music did Beethoven compose more of than anything else?

What were Beethoven's first published compositions, and his last?

How promiscuous was Beethoven?

Which English piano maker shipped Beethoven a piano overland from Trieste to Vienna?

What epithet did Debussy use to describe Beethoven?

Who Was his real Immortal Beloved?

I wish we knew.

Great questions Andrew

David, do you think that semi-famous pianist whom alot of people assumed was Beethovens' out of wedlock son, could really be his? I've got his picture in a piano history book ( The piano by Jeremy Siepmann) and going by paintings of the master, the gentleman does look like him. It kind of skirts the issue by stating that the dates don't quite add up, but then again who trusts the record keeping skills of that time period anyway. Heck, even my great grandmother was not for sure about her birthdate and year.

freddie

Yes, I believe his name was Anton Rubinstein, but I read once that he was born 3 years after him (I doubt the record keeping was that far off.)

I have one that will dumb found you guys:

To which musician did Beethoven originally dedicated his kreutzer sonata? That's right, Mr. kreutzer wasn't the original dedicatee. In fact kreutzer did not ever play the sonata in his life-time because he was sore that he was second best!

Wasn't it a violinist friend of his? I do not remember the name of the top of my head though.

It was - George Bridgetower. He was an English virtuoso, a mulatto, with a mother who was Polish and a father who was West Indian.

Well... according to Thayer's biography, there was a daughter the Countess Josephine Deym (nee Brunsvik) had in 1813, and Thayer wondered if that child was Beethoven's because Josephine's husband wasn't around at the time of the child's conception. The evidence is rather flimsy, and I don't know if the hypothesis has been totally disproved or not.

Well... the evidence suggests that it was Antonie Brentano, according to Maynard Solomon's biography (1977).


pqbd

Here's a question:

How many siblings did Beethoven have, including those who died in infancy? (It's obviously more than his brothers Carl and Johann.) And in the order of these siblings, where is our friend Ludwig placed? (In other words, was he the oldest? Youngest?)


pqbd

Edit: double posted, sorry!


pqbd

[QUOTE]Originally posted by pqbd:
[QB] Here's a question:

How many siblings did Beethoven have, including those who died in infancy? (It's obviously more than his brothers Carl and Johann.) And in the order of these siblings, where is our friend Ludwig placed? (In other words, was he the oldest? Youngest?)


He was the second oldest of 7.

that question is too easy.