Beethoven's Orchestral Music: An Owner's Manual

by David Hurwitz

Overview

Veteran music critic David Hurwitz provides an accessible, comprehensive, and fresh survey of Beethoven’s symphonies, overtures, concertos, theatrical music, his single ballet and other music for the dance, and several short pieces worth getting to know.

Beethoven’s orchestral works include some of the most iconic and popular pieces of classical music ever written. This book offers chapters on Beethoven’s handling of the symphony orchestra and his contributions to its evolution, as well as his approach to musical form in creating large, multi-movement works. The musical descriptions provide helpful strategies for listening that invite both beginners and experienced enthusiasts to treat even the best known pieces as something fresh, new and relevant.

In addition, Hurwitz provides extensive lists of recommended recordings of all of the music surveyed, highlighting the wide range of issues in Beethoven interpretation and performance, as well as the history of his music. He encourages readers to listen actively and critically, as they build their own Beethoven discographies according to their personal tastes and preferences. The book is accompanied by online audio tracks of Beethoven works selected by Hurwitz.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538135600
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/15/2021
Series:	Unlocking the Masters , #33
Pages:	228
Sales rank:	252,448
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Music critic, percussionist, and author David Hurwitz is the founder and executive editor of Classicstoday.com, the Internet’s first classical music review magazine. Holding M.A. degrees from Johns Hopkins and Stanford University, Hurwitz is the author of books on Mozart, Mahler, Sibelius, Haydn, Dvorák, Brahms, Beethoven, Shostakovich, R. Strauss, CPE Bach, Bernstein, Handel, and Mendelssohn. His musicological articles have been published in noted journals such as Music & Letters, Nineteenth-Century Music Review, and Ad Parnassum. A native of Wilmington, DE, he currently divides his time between Brooklyn, NY and Milford, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I: Listening to Beethoven

1. Beethoven and the Orchestra
2. Beethoven’s Dynamic Forms

Part II: Overtures

Discography
3. Theatrical Overtures
4. Concert Overtures

Interlude 1: Dance Music

Part III: Concertos and Concerted Works

Discography
5. General Introduction to Concerto Forms
6. Concertos for Piano
7. Concerto and Romances for Violin
8. Triple Concerto and Choral Fantasy

Interlude 2: Incidental Music

Part IV: Symphonies

Discography
9. Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2
10. Symphonies Nos. 3 “Eroica” and 4
11. Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 “Pastoral”
12. Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8
13. Wellington’s Victory (a.k.a. “Battle Symphony”)
14. Symphony No. 9 “Choral”

Conclusion: The Quasi-Orchestral Beethoven

Editorial Reviews

Hurwitz provides a wonderful introduction to the deep and complex world of Beethoven, and this book is recommended for both academic and public libraries.

Music Reference Services Quarterly

Hurwitz provides a wonderful introduction to the deep and complex world of Beethoven, and this book is recommended for both academic and public libraries.

From the Publisher