The tempo of the first movement in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is 108 half notes per minute (bpm), originally Allegro con brio. Beyond this obvious one sentence answer there are many mysteries and interesting anecdotes concerning the Fifth Symphony, especially the first few notes, the famous fate motif! One of the curious topics regarding the first movement is the tempo. In …
In his entire career Beethoven composed only one ballet music, The Creatures of Prometheus. The first performance of the Prometheus ballet was on March 28, 1801, in Vienna. Beethoven wrote an overture, an introduction, fifteen numbers and a finale. The Creatures of Prometheus (German: Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus) ballet was the creation of dancer, composer, and choreographer Salvatore Vigano. Vigano …
From childhood Beethoven always had a sketchbook in his pocket. He used them to pen down musical ideas right as they came to him. Even though the handwriting is messy and sometimes indecipherable these books became the holy grail to his admirers. Especially the famous Landsberg 6! In 1803 Beethoven realized his old sketchbook is getting full and went …
The Mannheim school The expression Mannheim school refers both to an orchestra, which was based in the southwest German city of Mannheim, and to their musical innovations in instrumental music. The orchestra was under the patronage of art loving Elector Duke Karl Theodor (reigned 1743–99). Many contemporary visitors to Mannheim were amazed by the excellence of the local orchestra, which …
Count Waldstein, a German nobleman and patron of arts, in March of 1791 during Bonn’s Carnival season, organized an event for which he needed a ballet play. The Count was the most influential early supporter of young Beethoven. He was a lover of music and arts, an amateur pianist and composer. His initial idea was to commission a ballet music, …
Beethoven was seventeen when he met Count Waldstein in Bonn and already had admirers in the city, but no one came close to the influential, generous and musically sophisticated Waldstein. This article reveals how the Count influenced the fate of Beethoven. A short biography of Count Waldstein Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein was born in Vienna in 1762 …