One might think that listing a composer’s works is not a difficult task. The case of Beethoven shows it is not that easy after all! According to the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, over 45 years Beethoven is estimated to have created about 750 works. The ones published during his life received an opus number (138 opus numbers in total). What about …
What is the curse of the ninth? The curse of the ninth is a superstition in the history of classical music. According to this, a ninth symphony for a composer will be the last, and death will come during writing or after completing this piece. There are two interpretations, according to the first, this is to ‘defend’ the fame and …
Private jets and full stadium concerts were not always the way of life even for a first class musician. From music as free gift to copyrights, the road was long and bumpy. From gift to asset Probably the most important milestone in music business was the introduction of copyrights. After this, music business in general is about these rights …
How Morse code, the letter V and the opening four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony saved the world in World War II? Read on to find out! The Morse code In the 19th-century news and information still travelled slowly. There was desperate need for faster communication! Three Americans, Samuel F. B. Morse, Joseph Henry, and Alfred Vail, a painter, a …
These Quartets are the very last pieces Beethoven wrote on this Earth. They are exceptional and were very intimate to him. Introduction to Beethoven’s Late Quartets For the sake of easier understanding and accessibility, Beethoven’s string quartets are categorized into three groups, based on artistic periods in his life: early, middle and late quartets. The Late Quartets, sadly, also …
In this article we discover who was Galitzin, what is the story of the Quartets named after him and whether he was a good payer or not. Who was Nikolai Borisovich Galitzin? Nikolai Borisovich Galitzin (8 November 1794, Saint Petersburg, Tsardom of Russia – 22 October 1866, Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire) was a Russian an aristocrat from the Galitzin-family. Just …