The A-Z Beethoven Quiz (rules of the game)

[Megan]

Rio



Hochzeitslied ("Auf, Freunde, singt dem Gott der Ehen") for solo, chorus & piano, WoO 105.


Date: 1819

Beethoven dedicated this piece to Anna Giannatasio del Rio.


.

[Michael]

Rio



Beethoven dedicated this piece to Anna Giannatasio del Rio.


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Known to her friends as Fanny.

[Megan]

Ooops, I hope we haven't mentioned her name already.



Just thought I'd post some pictures of my Orchid plant which is in flower.










An early morning view from the bottom of the garden

A frosty tree taken last year.

[Michael]

Smashing flowers, Megan!

[Michael]

Okay, okay ...........


Schubart (Please note: not Schubert)

Beethoven "composed" a piece for piano in C major (after C.F.D. Schubart's " Kaplied"), Hess 63.

[Quijote]

T = Trollop. I think this is what Beethoven meant when he described his sister-in-law, instead of the more generally accepted "queen of the night". Will this do?

[PDG]

T = Trollop. Will this do?

Not really...

Gee, without the ostracised Xs, Ys and Zs, this A - W quiz seems to be struggling. I suggest (Philip) that we humbly apologise to the minority group and allow them back their rightful membership (since we do, after all, live in a democracy).

[PDG]

U = Umbrella. I have never seen any reference to Beethoven ever using one (this much he and I would have in common)...

[Quijote]

Lord Tenant-PDG (X-Strong lager), you have not read your Beethoven literature! LvB always faced the elements bare headed. Because of this appalling lapse of your part, you will kindly furnish us with a new "U".

[Megan]

U niversity.

Beethoven born in the university town of Bonn.

In 1789 he attended lectures on philosophy at the University of Bonn. Beethoven’s views on political and social phenomena were characterized by militant democratism and love of freedom.





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[Quijote]

Thank you, PDG !
PS: Hegel's lectures, I think it was, that Beethoven followed in Bonn.

[Quijote]

V = Viola. Beethoven played one in the Bonn court orchestra. In the Beethovenhaus there is even his viola on display. Apparently, it was made somewhere in the Black Forest. Not the same workshop where cuckoo clocks were also made, I hope !

[Megan]

Work Routine



Beethoven rose at daybreak, no matter what season, and went at once to his work-table. There he worked until two or three o' clock, when he took his midday meal. In the interim he usually ran out into the open two or three times, where he also "worked while walking." Such excursions seldom exceeded a full hour's time, and resembled the swarming out of the bee to gather honey. They never varied with the seasons and neither cold nor heat were noticed. The afternoons were dedicated to regular promenades; and at a later hour Beethoven was wont to hunt up some favorite beer-house, in order to read the news of the day, if he had not already satisfied this need at some cafe. At the time when the English parliament was sitting, however, the Allgemeine Zeitung was regularly read at home for the sake of the debates. It will be easily understood that our politico was arrayed on the side of the Opposition. Nor was his great predilection for Lord Brougham, Hume, and other Opposition orators necessary to this end. Beethoven always spent his winter evenings at home, and devoted them to serious reading. It was but seldom that one saw him busy with music-paper in the evening, since writing music was too taxing for his eyes. In former years this may not have been the case; yet it is quite certain that at no time did he employ the evening hours for composition (creation). At ten o' clock at the latest he went to bed.


-- Anton Schindler --
Life of Beethoven - 1840

[Roehre]

Work Routine



Beethoven rose at daybreak, no matter what season, and went at once to his work-table. There he worked until two or three o' clock, when he took his midday meal. In the interim he usually ran out into the open two or three times, where he also "worked while walking." Such excursions seldom exceeded a full hour's time, and resembled the swarming out of the bee to gather honey. They never varied with the seasons and neither cold nor heat were noticed. The afternoons were dedicated to regular promenades; and at a later hour Beethoven was wont to hunt up some favorite beer-house, in order to read the news of the day, if he had not already satisfied this need at some cafe. At the time when the English parliament was sitting, however, the Allgemeine Zeitung was regularly read at home for the sake of the debates. It will be easily understood that our politico was arrayed on the side of the Opposition. Nor was his great predilection for Lord Brougham, Hume, and other Opposition orators necessary to this end. Beethoven always spent his winter evenings at home, and devoted them to serious reading. It was but seldom that one saw him busy with music-paper in the evening, since writing music was too taxing for his eyes. In former years this may not have been the case; yet it is quite certain that at no time did he employ the evening hours for composition (creation). At ten o' clock at the latest he went to bed.


-- Anton Schindler --
Life of Beethoven - 1840

To be taken with the standard pound of salt necessary with nearly all Schindler's statements.

[Michael]

X is also the symbol for multiplication and it's a well-known fact that Beethoven could not do the simplest multiplication task.

I think one of his manuscripts shows him by-passing this problem by using addition. Let's say, he wanted to multiply 9 by 5. Well, he simply wrote five nines (all under each other) and added them.