Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved

Beethoven's Immortal Beloved

Beethoven’s Unsterbliche Geliebte, or Immortal Beloved   ‘My angel, my all, my own self’ Written at the age of 41, Beethoven’s famous love letter reads as a breathless expression of despair and hope, of love and devotion for an unnamed woman, his Immortal Beloved, whose identity has sparked two centuries of curiosity, research and debate. Here, we will take a …

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Beethoven and Cipriani Potter

Beethoven and Cipriani Potter

  ‘The young Englishman, who knew all of Beethoven’s works by heart’ I believe we can all appreciate the Englishman’s justified admiration and enthusiasm for Beethoven’s musical talent and be somewhat bemused by the comment made to Potter, by pianist J.B Cramer: ‘If Beethoven emptied his inkstand upon a piece of music paper you would admire it! Though, wouldn’t we …

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Beethoven: The String Quartets – a book review

David Vernon’s ‘Beethoven: The String Quartets’

David Vernon: Beethoven: The String Quartets As a long time Churchill fan I always find wisdom and encouragement in his sayings. One can easily discover answers in these compact one liners to almost any situation in life. No wonder, when reading David Vernon’s new book, a quote came to me: I like a man who grins when he fights. I …

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The history of music printing and publishing

The history of music printing and publishing

In the first article on printing the focus was on printing in general, on the history and the techniques. In this second part we turn our attention to a more specific area, on printing music and music publishing. In the last part of this article there is a complete list and short history of each music publisher that were in …

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The history of printing

The history of printing

Printing: a process of reproducing text or an image on paper or other materials through various techniques. Sounds simple, but its evolution has had far-reaching consequences. The history of printing is a remarkable human journey that has profoundly contributed to, and influenced human communication, knowledge distribution and consequently to the development of societies and humanity in general.   In a …

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Beethoven anecdotes: fool or prophet?

Beethoven anecdotes: fool or prophet?

Not long after the birth of Beethoven in 1770 the family moved to the house of the Fischer family in the Rheingasse, Bonn. The exact date of the move is unknown. The Beethovens occupied the upper floor, under them the Fischers lived and operated their business, a bakery. It happened many years later that a middle-aged local musician and composer …

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