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

[Enrique]

I have never used or seen used a capo on the 'cello (whatever the position), and a kontrabass neither. On guitars, of course!

Then this is pure bad English on my part. I thought the word could exist in Italian and mean the same as in Spanish. But perhaps you'll teach me, if you have patience, what is the true name. Where do you put you thumb on when playing in thumb position? Acording to Spanish, on the capotasto. That's it. But for notes below, e.g., A in the A string, we do not use the word capotasto (and this still sounds to my ear like an Italian word).

In other words, the "mastil" (another spanish word) is divided into two parts by the middle point of the strings. We call capotasto to the upper half (the one with the higher pitch).

[Enrique]

I have found this article in the Italian wikipedia, which agrees a little with you and a little with me. I don't know, but my 'cello professor, who was gold medal from the Paris Conservatoire, always used that word for the upper (in pitch) part of the tastiera.

[Sorrano]

K = Kontrabass! Key passages for this most unwieldy of instruments are in the 5th (scherzo) and of course the opening of the finale of the 9th.
I once had a term's worth of lessons on the kontrabass when I was younger. Gave up, couldn't deal with the strings being tuned in 4ths!

Do not the kontrabasses double the cellos during the trio of the 5th Symphony 3rd movement?

[Michael]

Where the L is today's L?

"Lost Beethoven Hymn" discovered very recently. (Thanks, Megan )

[Quijote]

Then this is pure bad English on my part. I thought the word could exist in Italian and mean the same as in Spanish. But perhaps you'll teach me, if you have patience, what is the true name. Where do you put you thumb on when playing in thumb position? Acording to Spanish, on the capotasto. That's it. But for notes below, e.g., A in the A string, we do not use the word capotasto (and this still sounds to my ear like an Italian word).

In other words, the "mastil" (another spanish word) is divided into two parts by the middle point of the strings. We call capotasto to the upper half (the one with the higher pitch).

I see what you mean now, Enrique. You mean the fingerboard. Yes, the thumb position is "usually" employed in higher positions above the mid point (where the natural harmonics lie). There are instances (e.g. in the Bach 'cello suite in C major, Prelude) where the thumb can be used even where we are nowhere near this mid-point (and usually is, though the passage can be rendered by shifting between 2nd/3rd/4th positions), or even the 3rd movement of Haydn's 'cello concerto in C, opening scale run for the solo 'cello. It's all about "ergonomics" - meaning as little movement (position shifting) as possible!

[Quijote]

Do not the kontrabasses double the cellos during the trio of the 5th Symphony 3rd movement?

I can't recall off hand, Sorrano, but I believe so. It's sure the basses doubled the 'cellos in that opening passage of the 9th finale.

[Enrique]

I see what you mean now, Enrique. You mean the fingerboard. Yes, the thumb position is "usually" employed in higher positions above the mid point (where the natural harmonics lie). [...]

And does this part of the fingerboard not have a special name in English (or some other language for that matter)?

[Megan]

Mechetti




Pietro Mechetti (1777-1850)History The Mechetti company had been in operation since 1798 and had gained prominence with first editions of works by Chopin, Mendelssohn, Nicolai, Schumann, Beethoven, Schubert, Beethoven and Johann Strauss Junior, among others. The firm was sold to Diabelli in 1855.

[Michael]

Nickelsberg, Carl Nicklas Edler von.
Beethoven dedicated the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat to this chap.

[Enrique]

Olmutz is/was the city nearby which Anton Schindler was born.

[Quijote]

P= Parallel fifths !! What Ries said there was in one of B's early quartets, and for which he got his ears boxed.

[Enrique]

P= Parallel fifths !! What Ries said there was in one of B's early quartets, and for which he got his ears boxed.

How disrespectful! He got what he deserved.

[Quijote]

Well, it's quite possible there were parallel fifths, Enrique (I'll have to check the scores to be sure). But in some harmony treatises certain parallel fifths are permitted, sometimes referred to a "Mozart parallel fifths". The 4-part harmony "rules" are that a perfect 5th followed by a diminished 5th or vice versa in the upper voices is permitted, but not with the bass. Even Bach does it sometimes in his chorale harmonizations, but uses rhythmic displacement to "hide" too direct a parallel 5th.

[Quijote]

Now, Q if for ...

[Quijote]

... PDG quivering at the thought that he wanted to keep all these difficult letters but he can't deliver the goods!