Actually, the title of this thread is a bit inaccurate but I don't know how to change it. It should read: Beethoven's last work for PIANO.
There have been so many bits and pieces put forward as Beethoven's last "work" that it has become something of a joke. I suppose we are back to the argument of what constitutes a work, which has been done to death on another thread. I think the new finale to the B flat quartet is generally considered to be his last complete composition. After that, various canons and the Diabelli mock-up have been brought forward as candidates. "The Unheard Beethoven" have described one of their midis as the last four notes written by B. and I would trust them more than others.
Anyway, what prompted all this is the following news item about a discovery of Beethoven's last PIANO work. I wonder is Gardibolt aware of it and, if so, can we hear it soon on the "Unheard" site? Maybe it's already there but I don't see anything resembling it among the new additions.
News item:
Scholar finds 'Beethoven's last piano work' in library
By Pauline Askin in Sydney
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
An Australian musicologist has discovered what he believes to be the last piano work written by Beethoven.
Peter McCallum, associate professor of musicology at the University of Sydney, found the 32 bars of handwritten music while looking at one of the composer's sketchbooks in Berlin's state library. Most of his books have been studied in detail but the final one has attracted less attention.
McCallum said that he didn't know instantly that it was a piano piece because Beethoven often used a chaotic sort of shorthand. "The sketchbooks ... are very difficult to read and need a bit of deciphering, but you can work it out if you look at it for long enough," he said.
McCallum said he believed the piece was written in October 1826, five months before Beethoven died.
"It's got a few little unusual harmonic features which we don't normally associate with Beethoven," he said.
McCallum's pianist wife Stephanie used her husband's transcription to make the first recording of the piece - Bagatelle in F minor – which lasts just 54 seconds. McCallum said he believed the piece, although brief, was complete.
"I suspect if Beethoven had come to it as he very often did with these things he would have added more because it's not very long," he said.
There have been so many bits and pieces put forward as Beethoven's last "work" that it has become something of a joke. I suppose we are back to the argument of what constitutes a work, which has been done to death on another thread. I think the new finale to the B flat quartet is generally considered to be his last complete composition. After that, various canons and the Diabelli mock-up have been brought forward as candidates. "The Unheard Beethoven" have described one of their midis as the last four notes written by B. and I would trust them more than others.
Anyway, what prompted all this is the following news item about a discovery of Beethoven's last PIANO work. I wonder is Gardibolt aware of it and, if so, can we hear it soon on the "Unheard" site? Maybe it's already there but I don't see anything resembling it among the new additions.
News item:
Scholar finds 'Beethoven's last piano work' in library
By Pauline Askin in Sydney
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
An Australian musicologist has discovered what he believes to be the last piano work written by Beethoven.
Peter McCallum, associate professor of musicology at the University of Sydney, found the 32 bars of handwritten music while looking at one of the composer's sketchbooks in Berlin's state library. Most of his books have been studied in detail but the final one has attracted less attention.
McCallum said that he didn't know instantly that it was a piano piece because Beethoven often used a chaotic sort of shorthand. "The sketchbooks ... are very difficult to read and need a bit of deciphering, but you can work it out if you look at it for long enough," he said.
McCallum said he believed the piece was written in October 1826, five months before Beethoven died.
"It's got a few little unusual harmonic features which we don't normally associate with Beethoven," he said.
McCallum's pianist wife Stephanie used her husband's transcription to make the first recording of the piece - Bagatelle in F minor – which lasts just 54 seconds. McCallum said he believed the piece, although brief, was complete.
"I suspect if Beethoven had come to it as he very often did with these things he would have added more because it's not very long," he said.
. I am by no means, even some sort of musician, but thought that I would post this for the heck of it. Perhaps we should start a thread for music that was written by members? It is very repetitive, and it is just not that good. But, it is the best I can do for now. I wrote in about thirty minutes, so a lot of the timing and sounds are off. I did it through Audacity and Gigastudio, so that is why the instruments sound out of place, and you have to listen oh so closely to hear the violas, and violins, etc. I called it fantasy_2 because of a darker powerful fantasy picture. It is all orchestral instuments, and only 30 seconds. Try not to laugh to hard, it is only my third try towards writing music.
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