Ludwig van Beethoven is generally viewed as one of the most influential figures in the history of European classical music. Since his lifetime, when he was "universally accepted as the greatest living composer," Beethoven's music has remained among the most performed, discussed and reviewed. Scholarly journals are devoted to analysis of his life and work, he has been the subject of numerous biographies and monographs and his music was the driving force behind the development of Schenkerian analysis. He is widely considered as among the most important Western composers, and along with Bach and Mozart, his music is the most frequently recorded.
Beethoven's stylistic innovations encompass two achievements. First, they brought the Classical form to its highest expressive level, expanding in formal, structural and harmonic terms the musical idiom developed by predecessors such as Mozart and Haydn. Additionally, they proved immensely influential over the musical language and thinking of the Romantic era, whether as a source of direct inspiration, as with the music of Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms, or in terms of defining a musical reaction against his stylistic language, as with music of Mendelssohn.
The musical works of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) are listed below. Two overlapping lists of Beethoven's works are presented here. The first is a listing of his most well-known works classified by genre. The second is a larger list of works, classified by various numbering systems. Years in parentheses denote dates of composition or publication.
The most common methods of numbering Beethoven's works are by opus number, assigned by Beethoven's publishers during his lifetime, and by number within genre. For example, the 14th string quartet, published as Opus 131, may be referenced either as "String Quartet No. 14" or "the Opus 131 String Quartet".
Many works that were unpublished have been assigned either "WoO" (works without opus number) or "Anh" (appendix) numbers. For example, the short piano piece "Für Elise", is more fully known as the "Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59 ('Für Elise')". Some works are also commonly referred to by their nicknames, such as the 'Kreutzer' Violin Sonata, or the Eroica Symphony.
The death of Ludwig van Beethoven on 26 March 1827 followed a prolonged illness. It was witnessed by his sister-in-law and by his close friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner, who provided a vivid description of the event. Beethoven's funeral was held three days later, and the procession was witnessed by a large crowd. He was buried in the cemetery at Währing, although his remains were moved in 1888 to Vienna's Zentralfriedhof.
Hüttenbrenner's account has been used to ascribe motivations of resistance and anger to Beethoven in his final moments. Beethoven's last words, and the exact cause of Beethoven's death have also been the subject of some disagreement.
Beethoven suffered declining health throughout the last years of his life, including the so-called "Late period" when he produced some of his most admired work. The last work he was able to complete was the substitute final movement of the String Quartet No. 13, deemed necessary to replace the difficult Große Fuge. Shortly thereafter, in December 1826, illness struck again, with episodes of vomiting and diarrhea that nearly ended his life.
There's a tremor in the city
But it looks so quiet
There is something awful brewing
But there ain't no fights
Beethoven, Beethoven
You can read between the lines
That there must be more
You're alarmed, but you don't know
What you're waiting for
Beethoven
The boots are back in town
When ignorance and fear
Are closing mouths and ears
The skins are on their way
When it gets dark in Europe
It's just a state of mind
The blind leading the blind
Beethoven
The boots are back
There's a scrawling on a tombstone
Judenschweine raus!
Once again, the racial fury
Is burning down the house
Beethoven, listen to me, Beethoven
There's a bleeding yellow man
Lying in the street
But there isn't anybody
Doing anything
Beethoven
The boots are back in town...
SF Prayer
And one grey day shall rise the flood
No dikes will stem the heavy tides
When cold pierced heavy bodies scream
They fall as if the monstrous scythe
Of clouds has smashed them from the skies
The scattered squadron of mankind
Stabs right into the churned up ether
Of long forgotten birdless flights
Beethoven
The boots are back in town...
Beethoven
The boots are back in town
The demons of the past
Will be replaced at last
There are smarter ones to stay
How can you stay away
From the order of disgrace
How can you close your eyes?
Beethoven
The boots are back
AN DIE FREUDE - ODE TO JOY
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen
und freudenvollere!
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken.
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund.
Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brüsten der Natur;
Alle Guten, alle Bösen,
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott!
Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen
Durch des Himmels prächt'gen Plan,
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen.
Dieser Kuss der ganzen Welt!
Brüder! Über'm Sternenzelt
Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
Such ihn über'm Sternenzelt!
Au del? du monde,
Que quelqu'un r? ponde,
Martyre et guerri? re,
Violence ordinaire,
Palais d'all? geance,
March? d'indulgence,
Parmi tant de voix,
Le silence est roi,
Silence de la mer,
Des nuits, d'un d? sert,
Nos cris, nos combats,
Qui les entendra?
Le monde est sourd
Comme Beethoven,
Sourd? l'amour,
Hurlant sa haine,
Hymne? la joie
Et requiem,
Chacun pour soi
Et Dieu quand m? me.
Chef-d'oeuvre en poussi? re,
Splendeur et mis? re,
Fragile et immense,
Orgueil, impuissance,
Mensonge et myst? re,
Vengeance et col? re,
Dans la nuit des temps,
Personne ne s'entend.
Le monde est sourd
Comme Beethoven,
Sourd? l'amour,
Hurlant sa haine,
De Walkyrie
En wagn? rienne,
Tant de g? nie
Et Dieu quand m? me.
Et la vie passe en chantant,
Harmonie, contretemps,
Le monde est un infini po? me.
Le monde est sourd
Comme Beethoven,
Sourd? l'amour,
Hurlant sa haine,
Hymne? la joie
Et requiem,
Chacun pour soi
Et Dieu quand m? me.
Le monde est sourd
Listen to
Listen to
Listen to
I love to, listen to
I love to, listen to
I love to, listen to
I love to
Take a girl like that
And put her in a natural setting
Like a cafe, for example
Along comes the boy
And he's looking for trouble
With a girl like that
With a girl like that
Who knows what they'll decide to do?
Who knows what they'll get up to?
I'd love to know
Wouldn't you?
I love to, listen to
Love to, listen to
I love to, listen to
I love to
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to
You think you know just what you want
But you have used that weapon against me
Did I tell you I was lying by the way?
When I said, "I wanted a new mink coat"
I was just thinking about something sleek
To wrap around my tender throat
I was dreaming like a Texan girl
A girl who thinks she's got the right to everything
A girl who thinks she should have something extreme
I love to, listen to
I love to, listen to
I love to, listen to
I love to
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to
Beethoven
I love to
Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to, Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to, listen to Beethoven
I love to
I love to, listen to Beethoven
[Instrumental]
[Once more back in 1827 Vienna, he tells Fate that he would not change a thing from his past and risk losing the music. The music is who he is, the reason for his existence. Also, having seen the influence of his music on so many lives, he knows that he could never give the music to Mephistopheles. Still, he does not wish to lose his soul. Desperately he ponders his dilemma.]
Friedrich von Schiller's Ode to Joy in Beethoven's
setting for
Four soloists, chorus
and orchestra has taken on a special meaning as a
fanfare for
Peace, tolerance and
liberty all over the world.
Beethoven's drafts for his opus 125 - the last in the
cycle of
Symphonies - date back
to the year 1815 or 1816. For decades he had been
wanting to
Set Schiller's hymn to
music, but it was only after the first three movements
of the
9th Symphony were
almost completed that he decided to compose a choral
finale
For the last movement
based on parts of the poem.
In the conventions of the 1820s it was nothing less
than
Revolutionary to end a
symphony in this manner - and at just over an hour the
work
Was also unusually
long. At it's first performance, in Vienna on May 7,
1824, the
Audience was typically
enthusiastic, while the critics, as so often before,
found the
Composer's unique
ideas too novel and daring.
Beethoven himself could not hear the clamour and the
shouts of
'Bravo', as he was
It feels like whisky and butterflies
Like midnight and kisses in the morning light
Waking up with you here by my side
You leave me breathless, leave me breathless, so
I'm chasing sand, do it on your skin
Rainy days are only wanna start again
I see your name and it's a violin
You leave me breathless, leave me breathless
Tonight, tonight, tonight, you are my music
Move my heart like metronome
Tonight, tonight, tonight, I wanna lose it
I'll be the only song you'll ever know
I play you like an instrument
Let me be your Beethoven
Play you like an instrument
Let me be your Beethoven
It's like we caught up in an ending string
The clocks don't tick when you hold on to me
We're keeping the rhythm so perfectly
You leave me breathless, leave me breathless
Tonight, tonight, tonight, you are my music
Move my heart like metronome
Tonight, tonight, tonight, I wanna lose it
I'll be the only song you'll ever know
I play you like an instrument
Let me be your Beethoven
Play you like an instrument
Let me be your Beethoven
'Cause tonight, tonight, tonight, you are my music
Move my heart like metronome
Tonight, tonight, tonight, I wanna lose it
I'll be the only song you'll ever know
I play you like an instrument
Let me be your Beethoven
Play you like an instrument
Let me be your Beethoven