One of the delights of the recent BBC Radio 3 Beethoven Week was the wealth of songs and arrangements that were played - I especially like the collections of Irish, Welsh and Scottish folksongs - there must be approaching 100 of them! And the performances were excellent - I think specially recorded for the series.
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell
Originally posted by jdidlock: One of the delights of the recent BBC Radio 3 Beethoven Week was the wealth of songs and arrangements that were played - I especially like the collections of Irish, Welsh and Scottish folksongs - there must be approaching 100 of them! And the performances were excellent - I think specially recorded for the series.
You'll be hearing some of these folk song arrangements when we get to op108 at the mp3 page. I agree they are excellent, but many of Beethoven's own Leider are first rate too.
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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin
[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 07-26-2005).]
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell
Originally posted by jdidlock: You say "but" - I wasn't dismissing anything!
The 'but' want not particularly in reference to your comment. The folksongs have been discussed here before and are very popular, whereas with the leider I'm not sure if that is so much the case.
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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin
Originally posted by Rod: The 'but' want not particularly in reference to your comment. The folksongs have been discussed here before and are very popular, whereas with the leider I'm not sure if that is so much the case.
Because they are not all of the highest Beethoven standard, many fine songs (such as Op.83/1) are overlooked and not generally well known. Perhaps we can do something here to address this! Possibly a new page devoted to the best of them, though I still haven't got round to completing the quartets page after all these years!
Originally posted by Peter: Because they are not all of the highest Beethoven standard, many fine songs (such as Op.83/1) are overlooked and not generally well known. Perhaps we can do something here to address this! Possibly a new page devoted to the best of them, though I still haven't got round to completing the quartets page after all these years!
Critics look at many of the songs from the wrong angle - some are what could be classed as 'student songs', some are humorous trifles lasting barely a minute on the clock. This is 'occasional' music and should not be though of in the same manner as say 'To A distant Beloved', for which Beethoven had a consciously different purpose. For Beethoven the medium of the Leider was not simply that of the romantic epic. Why this obvious point has been lost to scholars is a mystery to me, but then again perhaps I should expect it.
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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin
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