Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most respected and influential composers of all time.

Born in Bonn, then in the Electorate of Cologne (now in modern-day Germany), he moved to Vienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. Beethoven's hearing gradually deteriorated beginning in his twenties, yet he continued to compose masterpieces, and to conduct and perform, even after he was completely deaf.


Youth
Beethoven was born in Bonn on December 16, 1770. He was baptized on December 17th. The composer's birthday is often celebrated, based on the usual custom of rapidly baptizing infants at that time, as December 17th.

Beethoven was the eldest surviving child of Johann van Beethoven (1740–1792), and Magdalena Keverich (1744–1787). Johann worked as a tenor singer in the Electoral court, that is, in the musical establishment presided over by the grandfather. Beethoven's parents had a total of seven children, of whom only three survived infancy. These were Beethoven and his two younger brothers, Caspar Anton Carl, born 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, born 1776.

Beethoven began his musical education under the tutorship of his alcoholic father, who is believed to have beaten him in the course of his lessons. The child's musical talent manifested itself early — apparently he was advanced enough to perform at the age of nine, not seven as popularly believed. Johann, aware of Leopold Mozart's successes in this area, attempted unsuccessfully to exploit his son as a child prodigy. It was Johann who falsified Beethoven's actual age (which was nine) for seven on the posters for Beethoven's first public performance.

In 1779 Beethoven became the protegé of Christian Gottlob Neefe, who taught him composition. Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, first on an unpaid basis (1781), and then as paid employee (1784) of the court chapel conducted by the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi. His first three piano sonatas, the so-called "Kurfürst Sonaten" ("Elector sonatas"), were published in 1783. During this time, Beethoven's talent was noticed and appreciated by the Elector, Maximilian Franz (1756-1801), who subsidized his musical studies.

In 1787 another of Beethoven's early patrons, Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein, enabled him to travel to Vienna for the first time, hoping to study with Mozart. Scholars disagree on the authenticity of a story whereby Beethoven is said to have played for Mozart and impressed him. After just two weeks in Vienna, Beethoven learned that his mother was severely ill, and he was forced to return home. His mother died shortly thereafter, and the father lapsed deeper into alcoholism. As a result, Beethoven became responsible for the care of his two younger brothers, and he spent the next five years in Bonn.

In 1789, he succeeded in obtaining a legal order by which half of his father's salary was paid directly to him for support of the family. Another source of income was payment for Beethoven's service as a violist in the court orchestra. This familiarized Beethoven with three of Mozart's operas performed at court in this period.

Establishing his career in Vienna
With the Elector's help, Beethoven moved again to Vienna in 1792. Beethoven did not immediately set out to establish himself as a composer, but rather devoted himself to study and to piano performance. Working under the direction of Joseph Haydn, he sought to master counterpoint, and he also took violin lessons. At the same time, he established a reputation as a piano virtuoso and improviser in the salons of the nobility, often playing the preludes and fugues of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

With Haydn's departure for Wales in 1795, Beethoven was expected by the Elector to return home. He chose instead to remain in Vienna, continuing the instruction in counterpoint with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and other teachers. Although his stipend from the Elector expired, a number of Viennese noblemen had already recognized his ability and offered him financial support, among them Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowicz, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, and Baron Gottfried van Swieten.

Beethoven's first public performance in Vienna was in 1795, with his Second (or perhaps First) Piano Concerto, and in the same year were published the first of his compositions to which he assigned an opus number, the piano trios of Opus 1. By 1800, with the premiere of his First Symphony, Beethoven was considered one of the most important of a generation of young composers who followed after Haydn and Mozart.

During his early career as a composer, Beethoven concentrated first on works for piano solo, then string quartets, symphonies, and other genres. This was a pattern he was to repeat in the "late" period of his career (see below). Thus, 12 of Beethoven's famous series of 32 piano sonatas date from before 1802, and could be considered early-period works; of these, the most celebrated today is probably the "Pathétique", Op. 13. The first six quartets were published as a set (Op. 18) in 1800, and the First and Second Symphonies premiered in 1800 and 1802.

All musical authorities agree that Beethoven's early work was closely modeled on that of Haydn and Mozart. However, Beethoven's own musical personality is still very much evident even at this stage. This is seen, for instance, in his frequent use of the musical dynamic sforzando, found even in the "Elector" sonatas for piano that Beethoven wrote as a child. Some of the longer piano sonatas of the 1790s are written in a rather discursive style quite unlike their models, making use of the so-called "three-key exposition".

Teaching and financial support
Beethoven had few students. From 1801 to 1805, he tutored Ferdinand Ries, who would go on to become a composer and later published a book about their encounters, Beethoven remembered.

Carl Czerny was taught by Beethoven from 1801 to 1803. He went on to become a renowned music teacher himself, taking on Franz Liszt as one of his students. He also gave the Vienna premiere of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" in 1812.

In 1803 or 1804, Archduke Rudolph, youngest son of Emperor Leopold II, began to study piano and composition with Beethoven. The two became friends, and their meetings continued until 1824. Beethoven dedicated 14 compositions to Rudolph, including the Archduke Trio (1811) and his great Missa Solemnis (1823). Rudolph, in turn, dedicated one of his own compositions to Beethoven. The letters Beethoven wrote to Rudolph are today kept at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.

In 1808, after having been rejected for a position at the royal theatre, Beethoven received an offer from Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte, then king of Westphalia, for a well-paid position as musical director at the court in Cassel. He was about to accept, but then three Viennese aristocrat patrons, Archduke Rudolph being one of them, joined to top the offer with an annual "working scholarship", and so he stayed in Vienna.

Loss of hearing
Around 1801, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered a severe form of tinnitus, a "roar" in his ears that made it hard for him to appreciate music; he would avoid conversation. The cause of Beethoven's deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to syphilis, lead poisoning, typhus, and even his habit of immersing his head in cold water to stay awake. The oldest explanation, from the autopsy of the time, is that he had a "distended inner ear" which developed lesions over time.

Russell Martin has shown from analysis done on a sample of Beethoven's hair that there were alarmingly high levels of lead in Beethoven's system. High concentrations of lead can lead to bizarre and erratic behaviour, including rages. Another symptom of lead poisoning is deafness. In Beethoven's time, lead was used widely without an understanding of the damage it could lead to: for sweetening wine, in finishes on porcelain, and even in medicines. The investigation of this link was detailed in the book, Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved. However, while the likelihood of lead poisoning is very high, the deafness associated with it seldom takes the form that Beethoven exhibited.

Over time, his hearing loss became acute: there is a well-attested story that, at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned round to see the tumultuous applause of the audience, hearing nothing. In 1802, he became depressed, and considered committing suicide. He left Vienna for a time for the small Austrian town of Heiligenstadt (see the 1802 Heiligenstadt Testament), where he resolved to continue living through his art. Beethoven's hearing loss did not affect his ability to compose music, but it made concerts — lucrative sources of income — increasingly difficult. After a failed attempt in 1811 to perform his own Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor", he never performed in public again.

As a result of Beethoven's hearing loss, a unique historical record has been preserved: he kept conversation books discussing music and other issues, and giving an insight into his thought. Even today, the conversation books form the basis for investigation into how he felt his music should be performed and his relationship to art, which he took very seriously.

The Middle period
Around 1802 Beethoven declared "I am but lately little satisfied with my works, I shall take a new way." The first major work of this new way was the "Eroica" Symphony in E flat. While other composers had written symphonies with implied programs, or stories, this symphony was longer and larger in scope than any other written. It made huge demands on the players, because at that time there were few orchestras devoted to concert music that were independent of royal or aristocratic patrons, and hence performance standards at concerts were often haphazard. Nevertheless, it was a success.

The Eroica was one of the first works of Beethoven's so-called "Middle period", or "Heroic Period", a time when Beethoven composed highly ambitious works, often heroic in tone, that extended the scope of the classical musical language Beethoven had inherited from Haydn and Mozart. The Middle period work includes the Third through Eighth Symphonies, the string quartets 7-11, the Waldstein and Appassionata piano sonatas, the opera Fidelio, the Violin Concerto and many other compositions. During this time Beethoven earned his living partly from the sale and performance of his work, and partly from subsidies granted by various wealthy nobles who recognized his ability.

The work of the Middle period established Beethoven's reputation as a great composer. In a review from 1810, he was enshrined by E. T. A. Hoffman as one of the three great "Romantic" composers; Hoffman called Beethoven's Fifth Symphony "one of the most important works of the age".

A particular trauma for Beethoven occurred during this period in 1809, when the attacking forces of Napoleon bombarded Vienna. Beethoven, very worried that the noise would destroy what remained of his hearing, hid in the basement of his brother's house, covering his ears with pillows. He was composing the "Emperor" Concerto at the time.

The Middle period ended with a flourish around 1812, with the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies and the third — and at last, successful — version of Fidelio. It was around this time that Beethoven's popularity with the contemporary public reached its apogee, and he was almost universally regarded as the greatest of living composers.

Late Beethoven
However, there soon followed a deep crisis in Beethoven's personal life, and possibly in his artistic life as well. His output dropped, and one critic even wrote that "the composing of great works seems behind him". The few works that date from this period are often of an experimental character. They include the song cycle "An die ferne Geliebte" and the piano sonata Opus 90, works which inspired later generations of Romantic composers. This period also produced the extraordinarily expressive, but almost incoherent, song "An die Hoffnung" (Opus 94).

Beethoven began a renewed study of older music, including works by J. S. Bach and Handel, then being published in the first attempts at complete editions. He composed "The Consecration of the House" overture, which was the first work to attempt to incorporate his new influences. But it is when he returned to the keyboard to compose his first new piano sonatas in almost a decade, that a new style, now called his "late period", emerged.

The works of the late period are commonly held to include the last five piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations, the last two sonatas for cello and piano, the late quartets (see below), and two works for very large forces: the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony, perhaps Beethoven's best known work.

Beethoven then turned to writing string quartets — the war between Austria and France had devastated his finances — on a commission from Prince Nikolay Golitsin of St. Petersburg (the Prince was to pay an honorarium of 50 gold ducats per quartet). This series of quartets — the "late quartets" — would go far beyond what either musicians or audiences were ready for at that time. One musician commented that "we know there is something there, but we do not know what it is." Composer Louis Spohr called them "indecipherable, uncorrected horrors," though that opinion has changed considerably from the time of their first bewildered reception. They would continue to inspire musicians — from Richard Wagner to Béla Bartók — for their unique forms and ideas. Of the late quartets, Beethoven's favourite was the Fourteenth Quartet, op. 131 in C# minor, upon hearing which Schubert is said to have remarked, "After this, what is left for us to write?"

Beethoven wrote the last quartets amidst failing health. In 1821, a bad case of jaundice afflicted him, a sign of his impending liver failure. In April 1825 he was bedridden, and remained ill for about a month. The illness—or more precisely, Beethoven's recovery from it—is remembered for having given rise to the deeply felt slow movement of the Fifteenth Quartet, which Beethoven called "Holy song of thanks ('Heiliger dankgesang') to the divinity, from one made well". Beethoven went on to complete the (misnumbered) Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Sixteenth Quartets.

Final illness and death (The Late Beethoven)
The last work completed by Beethoven was the substitute final movement of the Thirteenth Quartet, deemed necessary to replace the difficult Grosse Fuge. Shortly thereafter (December 1826), illness struck again, with episodes of vomiting and diarrhea that nearly ended his life.

As it became apparent that Beethoven would not recover, his friends gathered to help and to pay their final respects. Beethoven's doctors conducted four minor operations to relieve ascites (abdominal swelling), of which the first resulted in infection, the others not. On March 24, he was given his last rites, and two days later slipped into an unconscious state and then died the same day, March 26, 1827.

Beethoven's last recorded words were "Pity, pity — too late!", as the dying composer was told of a gift of twelve bottles of wine. Some sources have listed his last words as, "I shall hear in heaven", but this is almost certainly apocryphal. Likewise, the popular belief that his last words were: "Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est" ("Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over"), the typical conclusion to performances of Italian Commedia dell'Arte.

Autopsy revealed a severely damaged and shrunken liver, of which ascites is a common consequence. Scholars disagree over whether Beethoven's liver damage was the result of heavy alcohol consumption.

Austrian pathologist Christian Reiter asserts that Beethoven's doctor, Andreas Wawruch, accidentally killed the composer by giving him an overdose of a lead-based cure. According to Reiter, Wawruch used the cure to alleviate fluid in the abdomen; the lead penetrated Beethoven's liver and killed him. Reiter's hypothesis however is at odds with Dr. Wawruch's written instruction "that the wound was kept dry all the time". Furthermore human hair is a very bad biomarker for lead contamination and Reiter's hypothesis must be considered dubious as long as proper scholarly documentation remains unpublished.

In 1863 Beethoven's body was exhumed, studied and reburied. Fragments from the back of his skull were acquired by the Austrian doctor Romeo Seligmann. The fragments are now in the Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University, CA.

Huttenbrenner's "fist"
Beethoven biographer A. W. Thayer, in his Life of Beethoven (1866), wrote the following concerning the moment of Beethoven's death:

Huttenbrenner's eye-witness report is sometimes recast to imply that Beethoven "shook his fist at the heavens" in the moment before death. Since any imputations as to the dying man's emotional state are impossible to verify, they tend to be glossed over or ignored as irrelevant by modern-day Beethoven scholars.

Funeral and burial
Unlike Mozart, who was buried in a common grave (as was the custom at the time), 20,000 Viennese citizens lined the streets at Beethoven's funeral on March 29, 1827. Schubert was a torch bearer. Beethoven was buried in the Währinger cemetery, west of Vienna. His remains were moved in 1888 to the Zentralfriedhof.



Beethoven's personal life was troubled. His encroaching deafness led him to contemplate suicide (documented in his Heiligenstadt Testament). Beethoven was often irascible and may have suffered from bipolar disorder[13] and irritability brought on by chronic abdominal pain beginning in his 20s that has been attributed to his lead poisoning.[14] He, nevertheless, had a close and devoted circle of friends all his life, thought to have been attracted by his reputed strength of personality. Towards the end of his life, Beethoven's friends competed in their efforts to help him cope with his incapacities.[4]

Sources show Beethoven's disdain for authority, and for social rank. He stopped performing at the piano if the audience chatted among themselves, or afforded him less than their full attention. At soirées, he refused to perform if suddenly called upon to do so. Eventually, after many confrontations, the Archduke Rudolph decreed that the usual rules of court etiquette did not apply to Beethoven.[4]

Romantic difficulties
The women who attracted Beethoven were unattainable because they were either married or aristocratic. Beethoven never married, although he was engaged to Giulietta Guiccardi. Her father was the main obstacle to their marriage. Giulietta's marriage to a nobleman was unhappy, and when it ended in 1822, she attempted unsuccessfully to return to Beethoven. His only other documented love affair with an identified woman began in 1805 with Josephine von Brunswick, young widow of the Graf von Deym. It is believed the relationship ended by 1807 because of Beethoven's indecisiveness and the disapproval of Josephine's aristocratic family.[5]

In 1812, Beethoven wrote a long love letter to a woman he identified only as "Immortal Beloved". Several candidates have been suggested, including Antonie Brentano, but the identity of the woman to whom the letter was written has never been proven.

Custody struggle
On 15 November 1815 Beethoven's brother Karl van Beethoven died of tuberculosis leaving a son Karl, Beethoven's nephew. Although Beethoven had shown little interest in the boy up to this point, he now became totally obsessed with the possession of this nine year old child. The fight for custody of his nephew brought out the very worst aspects of Beethoven's character. In the lengthy court cases Beethoven stopped at nothing to ensure that he achieved this goal. At this time Beethoven stopped composing for long periods.

The Austrian court system had one court for the nobility, The R&I Landrechte, and another for commoners, The Civil Court of the Magistrate. Beethoven disguised the fact that the Dutch "van" in his name did not denote nobility as does the Germanic "von",[15] and his case was tried in the Landrechte. Due to his influence with the court, he felt assured of a favorable outcome. Beethoven was awarded sole guardianship. Karl's mother, Johanna, a commoner and a widow with little money, was not only refused access to her son, except under exceptional circumstances, but Beethoven insisted that she pay for her son's education out of her inadequate pension. While giving evidence to the Landrechte, however, Beethoven inadvertently[16] admitted that he was not nobly born. The case was transferred to the Magistracy on 18 December 1818, where he lost sole guardianship.

Beethoven appealed, and regained custody of Karl. Johanna's appeal for justice and human rights to the Emperor was not successful: the Emperor "washed his hands of the matter". Beethoven stopped at nothing to blacken both[clarify] their characters, as can be read in surviving court papers. When Karl could stand his tyrannical uncle no longer, he attempted suicide on 31 July 1826 by shooting himself in the head. He survived, and later asked to be taken to his mother's house. This desperate action finally freed Karl from the bonds of Beethoven.

Illness and death
After Beethoven lost custody of his nephew, he went into a decline that led to his death on Monday 26 March 1827[17] during a thunderstorm.

This was Romain Rolland's description of Beethoven’s final day:

A Viennese pathologist and forensic expert Christian Reiter (head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at Vienna Medical University) claimed that Beethoven's physician, Andreas Wawruch, inadvertently hastened Beethoven's death. According to Reiter, Wawruch worsened Beethoven's already lead poisoned condition with lead poultices applied after repeated surgical draining of his bloated abdomen. Various theories attempt to explain how Beethoven's lead poisoning first developed, and he was very sick years before his death in 1827 at the age of 56.[14] Reiter's hypothesis however is at odds with Wawruch's written instruction "that the wound was kept dry all the time". Furthermore human hair is a very bad biomarker for lead contamination and Reiter's hypothesis must be considered dubious, because of the lack of proper scholarly documentation in his article.[18]

Beliefs and their musical influence
Beethoven was attracted to the ideals of the Enlightenment and by the growing Romanticism in Europe. He initially dedicated his third symphony, the Eroica (Italian for "heroic"), to Napoleon, believing that the general intended to sustain the democratic and republican ideals of the French Revolution. But in 1804, when Napoleon's imperial ambitions became clear, Beethoven took hold of the title-page and scratched the name Bonaparte out so violently that he made a hole in the paper. He later changed the work's title to "Sinfonia Eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire d'un grand'uom" ("Heroic Symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man"), and he rededicated it to his patron, Prince Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz, at whose palace it was first performed. The fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony features an elaborate choral setting of Schiller's Ode An die Freude ("Ode to Joy"), an optimistic hymn championing the brotherhood of humanity. Since 1972, an orchestral version of this part of the fourth movement, arranged by the conductor Herbert von Karajan, has been the European anthem as announced by the Council of Europe. In 1985 it was adopted as the anthem of the European Community / European Union.

Scholars disagree about Beethoven's religious beliefs, and about the role they played in his work: see Ludwig van Beethoven's religious beliefs. It has been asserted, but not proven, that Beethoven was a Freemason.[19]

Like the earlier composer Handel, Beethoven worked freelance—arranging subscription concerts, selling his compositions to publishers, and gaining financial support from a number of wealthy patrons—rather than seeking out permanent employment by the church or by an aristocratic court.

Beethoven is acknowledged as one of the giants of classical music; occasionally he is referred to as one of the "three Bs" (along with Bach and Brahms) who epitomize that tradition. He was also a pivotal figure in the transition from 18th century musical classicism to 19th century romanticism, and his influence on subsequent generations of composers was profound.[4]

Overview
He was one of the first composers of the post-Renaissance era to use, systematically, interlocking thematic devices, or "germ-motifs", to achieve inter-movement unity in long compositions. Equally remarkable was his use of "source-motifs", which recurred in many different compositions.[citation needed] He brought innovations to most of the genres in which he worked; for example, he introduced an elasticity to the previously well-crystallized form of the rondo, drawing it closer to sonata form.

Beethoven composed in various genres, including symphonies, concerti, piano sonatas, other sonatas (including for violin), string quartets and other chamber music, masses, an opera, and lieder. He is viewed as one of the most important transitional figures between the Classical and Romantic eras of musical history.

Working with the traditions of the classical sonata forms, he continued the work of Haydn and Mozart in expanding and loosening the structures and becoming increasingly reliant on motivic development.

The three periods
Beethoven's compositional career is usually divided into Early, Middle, and Late periods.[4] In this scheme, his early period is taken to last until about 1802, the middle period from about 1803 to about 1814, and the late period from about 1815.[20]

In his Early (Classical) period, while starting out under the influence of his great predecessors Haydn and Mozart, he explored new directions and gradually expanded the scope and ambition of his work. Some important pieces from the Early period are the first and second symphonies, the first six string quartets, the first three piano concertos, and the first twenty piano sonatas, including the famous "Pathétique" and "Moonlight" sonatas.

His Middle (Heroic) period began shortly after Beethoven's personal crisis brought on by his recognition of encroaching deafness. It is noted for large-scale works that express heroism and struggle, many of which have become very famous. Middle-period works include six symphonies (Nos. 3–8), the fourth and fifth piano concertos, the triple concerto and violin concerto, five string quartets (Nos. 7–11), the next seven piano sonatas (including the "Waldstein" and the "Appassionata"), the "Kreutzer" Violin Sonata and Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio.

Beethoven's Late (Romantic) period began around 1815. Works from this period are characterized by their intellectual depth, their formal innovations, and their intense, highly personal expression. For example, the String Quartet, Op. 131 has seven linked movements, and the Ninth Symphony adds choral forces to the orchestra in the last movement.[4] Other compositions from this period include the "Missa Solemnis", the last five string quartets (including the massive "Grosse Fuge") and the last five piano sonatas, of which the "Hammerklavier" Sonata is the best known.

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Beethoven and music architecture
Above all, his works distinguish themselves from those of any prior composer through his creation of large, extended architectonic structures characterized by the extensive development of musical material, themes, and motifs, usually by means of modulations, or key changes. Although Haydn's later works often showed a greater fluidity between distant keys, Beethoven's innovation was the ability to rapidly establish a solidity in juxtaposing different keys and unexpected notes to join them. This expanded harmonic realm creates a sense of a vast musical and experiential space through which the music moves, and the development of musical material creates a sense of unfolding drama in this space.

In this way Beethoven's music parallels the simultaneous development of the novel in literature, a literary form focused on the life drama and development of one or more individuals through complex life circumstances, and of contemporaneous German idealism's philosophical notion of self, mind, or spirit that unfolds through a complex process of contradictions and tensions between the subjective and objective until a resolution or synthesis occurs in which all of these contradictions and developmental phases have been resolved or encompassed in a higher unity.

Development sections
Beethoven continued to expand the "development" section of works, extending a trend in the works of Haydn and Mozart, who had dramatically expanded both the length and substance of instrumental music. As Beethoven's major immediate predecessors and influences, he looked to their harmonic and formal models for his own works. However, while both Mozart and Haydn placed the great weight of a musical movement in the statement of ideas called the exposition, for Beethoven the development section of a sonata form became the heart of the work. Beethoven was able to do this by making the development section not merely longer, but also more structured. The very long development section of the Eroica Symphony, for example, is divided into four roughly equal sections. The first movement alone of this symphony is as long as an entire typical Italian-style Mozart symphony from the 1770s.

Rhythm
Although Beethoven wrote many beautiful and lyrical melodies, another radical innovation of his music, compared especially to that of Mozart and Haydn, is his extensive use of forceful, marked, and even stark rhythmic patterns throughout his compositions and, in particular, in his themes and motifs, some of which are primarily rhythmic rather than melodic. Some of his most famous themes, such as those of the first movements of the Third, Fifth, and Ninth symphonies, are primarily non-melodic rhythmic figures consisting of notes of a single chord, and the themes of the last movements of the Third and Seventh symphonies could more accurately be described as rhythms rather than as melodies. This use of rhythm was particularly well suited to the primacy of development in Beethoven's music.

Size of the orchestra
He also continued another trend—towards larger orchestras—that went on until the first decade of the 20th century, and moved the center of the sound downwards in the orchestra, to the violas and the lower register of the violins and cellos, giving his music a heavier and darker feel than Haydn or Mozart. Gustav Mahler modified the orchestration of some of Beethoven's music—most notably the 3rd and 9th symphonies—with the idea of more accurately expressing Beethoven's intent in an orchestra that had grown so much larger than the one Beethoven used: for example, doubling woodwind parts to compensate for the fact that a modern orchestra has so many more strings than Beethoven's orchestra did. Needless to say, these efforts remain controversial.

Beethoven and Romanticism
Beethoven's place as a transitional figure between the neo-classical period in the arts, called the "classical" period in music, and the Romantic period was a conscious intention of the many 19th century writers and composers, who pointed to his work as the radical departure from the past. As a result, a great deal of literature, including writing by ETA Hoffman, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler, placed his work at the pinnacle of what they were trying to achieve in music.

Because of his central importance, methods of conducting and playing, as well as music theory, were centered around his most important works, particularly his symphonies, concerti, string quartets, piano trios and sonatas for piano or piano and other instrument. Beginning from his pupil Carl Czerny and moving forward, basic terms such as tonality, sonata form and Allegro were defined or redefined in reference to his musical practice.

As importantly Beethoven's life was seen as the model for the "heroic artist", who cast his personal experiences, perceptions and biography into works, which would then be experienced by the audience members who would be transported to the emotional state of the artist, and thus participate in a "sublime" experience. That Beethoven had great difficulties in his life was joined to the sense of struggle and difficulty in his music, and used as the basis for an entire mythology of the role of the artist in society, and the difficulties of artistic creation. A biography by Anton Schindler was in accordance with this sense of Beethoven as Romantic, constantly putting direct emotional symbols into his work, such as saying "Thus Fate Knocks at the Door!" for the opening of the C Minor Symphony, number 5. Beethoven as icon can be seen in the efforts to erect a monument to him, led by Franz Liszt, and in the arguments over whether Johannes Brahms or Richard Wagner better represented the tradition of music that Beethoven was thought to have created.

With the 20th century a reaction against this "cult of the Romantic artist" began to be seen. In a sense it was a continuation of the Romantic cult in a different form: a new generation of artists wanted to claim Beethoven as their own, and place him in the context as the pinnacle figure of musical enlightenment and rationality. The emphasis on harmonic practice led to arguments that Beethoven was not "really" a romantic because of his general rejection of chromaticism in melodies, and his structural practices in preparing modulations. By the 1950's it was common to deny that Beethoven was a Romantic at all.

In the late 20th century, the pendulum began to swing back in the other direction, in some measure because of a revival of interest in Romanticism, and in part because of a change in the status of musical technique. With the falling out of favor of the idea that music was about "progress", the need to see Beethoven in technical terms diminished. The differences between his work and Mozart's became accentuated, in part because of the rise of neo-classical styles of playing or historically informed performance. Beethoven came to many to be seen in relation to contemporaries such as Goethe and Jacques-Louis David - having both neo-classical and Romantic elements to their work.

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The composer has been depicted in a number of biopic films for both theatrical and television release. They include a 1909 silent film from the French writer/director Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, Beethoven, starring Harry Baur as the composer[21] and a 1927 German film from Hans Otto Löwenstein, Das Leben des Beethoven.[22] Another French writer/director, Abel Gance, made a film in 1936, Un grand amour de Beethoven (Harry Baur once again starred as the composer);[23] the film has been praised for its depiction of Beethoven's struggle with deafness and touches upon the romantic themes from the composer's life, which would later be explored in the 1994 film Immortal Beloved. Also of note is the Emmy Award winning 1992 television movie, Beethoven Lives Upstairs[24], a 1985 film Le Neveu de Beethoven (or Beethoven's Nephew), which deals with the composer's custody battle for his nephew,[25] and the 2006 theatrical release of Copying Beethoven from director Agnieszka Holland, with Ed Harris starring as the composer. On the comedic side, Clifford David played the composer in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in 1989.

Beethoven's music has been used in the soundtracks of over 250 films and television programs.[26] In 2007 the critically acclaimed play 33 Variations by Moises Kaufman was first produced at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. The play depicts a modern-day researcher struggling to understand the process of creativity as she delves into how Beethoven composed his Diabelli Variations.[27] In September 2008 the dance play Ward 9, set to an all-Beethoven score, will be performed at the New York Musical Theatre Festival.[28]

1.) Beethoven was baptized on 17 December; his date of birth—usually given as 16 December —is not known with certainty, but is inferred from circumstantial evidence: this is explained in more detail below 2.) Johann van BEETHOVEN, Tenorist an der kurfürstlichen Hofkapelle zu Bonn, geboren um 1740 in Bonn? (Religion: rk), gestorben am 18.12.1792 in Bonn, Sohn von Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (siehe IIb) und Maria Josepha BALL. Kirchliche Trauung am 12.11.1767 in Bonn, St. Remigius mit Maria Magdalena KEVERICH, 20 Jahre alt, geboren am 19.12.1746 in Ehrenbreitstein (Religion: rk), gestorben am 17.07.1787 in Bonn mit 40 Jahren. Schwindsucht, Tochter von Johann Heinrich KEVERICH, Kurfürstlich Trierscher Oberhofkoch, und Anna Clara WESTORFF. [1] 3.) Well into adulthood, Beethoven believed he had been born in 1772, and told friends the 1770 baptism was of his older brother Ludwig Maria, who died in infancy; but Ludwig Maria's baptism is recorded as taking place in 1769. Some biographers assert that his father falsified his date of birth in an attempt to pass him off as a child prodigy like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but this is disputed. Children of that era were usually baptized the day after birth, but there is no documentary evidence that this occurred in Beethoven's case. It is known that his family and his teacher Johann Albrechtsberger celebrated his birthday on 16 December. While the evidence supports the probability that 16 December 1770 as Beethoven's date of birth, this cannot be stated with certainty. This is discussed in depth in Solomon's biography, chapter 1. 4.) a b c d e f Kerman and Tyson 5.) a b H. C. Robbins Landon, Beethoven, Macmillan Company 1970 6.) Jim Powell, "Ludwig van Beethoven's Joyous Affirmation of Human Freedom", The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, December 1995 Vol. 45 No. 12 7.) Milton Cross, David Ewen, The Milton Cross New Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and Their Music, Doubleday 1953 p79 8.) JOSEPH KERMAN, ALAN TYSON (with SCOTTG. BURNHAM). "Ludvig van Beethoven:5. 1801–2: deafness", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed November 29, 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access). 9.) "Some Tributes to Beethoven in English Verse" — Felix White The Musical Times, Vol. 68, No. 1010 (1 April 1927) mentions this

10.) http://www.jstor.org/pss/746569 11.) An incident described in Maynard Solomon's biography. 12.) Stanley, Glenn (2000). The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521589347. 13.) Beethoven bipolar? http://www.gazette.uottawa.ca/article_e_1529.html 14.) a b Cold Case in Vienna: Who Killed Beethoven? — CBS News 15.) On 18 December 1818, The Landrechte, the Austrian court for the nobility, handed over the whole matter of guardianship to the Stadtmagistrat, the court for commoners " It .... appears from the statement of Ludwigvan Beethoven,as the accompanying copy of the court minutes of 11 December of this year shows, that he is unable to prove nobility: hence the matter of guardianship is transferred to an honorable magistrate" Landrechte of the Magisterial tribunal. 16.) see previous ref 17.) 1827 Calendar 18.) Josef Eisinger: "The lead in Beethoven's hair", Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry, Volume 90, Issue 1 January 2008, pp. 1–5 19.) Ludwig van Beethoven — Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon 20.) The Art Of Beethoven, Volumes I & II, Peter Dimmond 21.) Beethoven (1909) at the Internet Movie Database 22.) Das Leben des Beethoven (1927) at the Internet Movie Database 23.) Un grand amour de Beethoven (1937) at the Internet Movie Database 24.) Beethoven Lives Upstairs (1992) (TV) at the Internet Movie Database 25.) Le Neveu de Beethoven at the Internet Movie Database 26.) Ludwig van Beethoven at the Internet Movie Database 27.) Freymann-Weyr, Jeffrey (8 September 2007). "Play Dramatizes Beethoven's '33 Variations'". National Public Radio. Retrieved on 2008-08-07. 28.) "Ward 9 — A New Dance Play". The New York Musical Theatre Festival (2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-07.

• Alexander Wheelock Thayer, Ludwig van Beethoven's Leben, 5 vols., Berlin 1866–1908 (vols. 4 and 5 posthumously ed. by Hugo Riemann).
• Joseph Kerman and Alan Tyson (and others): "Beethoven, Ludwig van", Grove Music Online ed L.Macy (accessed 18 March 2007), grovemusic.com, subscription access.
• Albrecht, Theodor, and Elaine Schwensen, "More Than Just Peanuts: Evidence for December 16 as Beethoven's birthday." The Beethoven Newsletter 3 (1988): 49, 60–63.
• Bohle, Bruce, and Robert Sabin. The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians. London: J.M.Dent & Sons LTD, 1975. ISBN 0-460-04235-1.
• Clive, Peter. Beethoven and His World: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-816672-9.
• Davies, Peter J. The Character of a Genius: Beethoven in Perspective. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. ISBN 0-313-31913-8.
• Davies, Peter J. Beethoven in Person: His Deafness, Illnesses, and Death. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001. ISBN 0-313-31587-6.
• DeNora, Tia. "Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna, 1792–1803." Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN 0-520-21158-8.
• Geck, Martin. Beethoven. Translated by Anthea Bell. London: Haus, 2003. ISBN 1-904341-03-9 (h), ISBN 1-904341-00-4 (p).
• Hatten, Robert S. Musical Meaning in Beethoven (in English). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 372. ISBN 0-253-32742-3.
• Kropfinger, Klaus. Beethoven. Verlage Bärenreiter/Metzler, 2001. ISBN 3-7618-1621-9.
• Martin, Russell. Beethoven's Hair. New York: Broadway Books, 2000. ISBN 978-0767903509
• Meredith, William. "The History of Beethoven's Skull Fragments." The Beethoven Journal 20 (2005): 3-46.
• Morris, Edmund. Beethoven: The Universal Composer. New York: Atlas Books / HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-075974-7.
• Rosen, Charles. The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. (Expanded ed.) New York: W. W. Norton, 1998. ISBN 0-393-04020-8 (hc); ISBN 0-393-31712-9 (pb).
• Solomon, Maynard. Beethoven, 2nd revised edition. New York: Schirmer Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8256-7268-6.
• Solomon, Maynard. Late Beethoven: Music, Thought, Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. ISBN 0-520-23746-3.
• Stanley, Glenn, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-521-58074-9 (hc), ISBN 0-521-58934-7 (pb).
• Thayer, A. W., rev and ed. Elliot Forbes. Thayer's Life of Beethoven. (2 vols.) Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09103-X

The musical works of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) are known by various designations, including:

• by the opus numbers assigned by Beethoven's publishers during his lifetime, e.g. "the Opus 131 String Quartet";
• by catalogue numbers assigned by later editors to works without opus numbers, e.g. "the Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59 ('Für Elise')" (see below for a further explication of these numbers);
• by genre, in separately numbered groups, e.g. "the Fifth Symphony";
• by nickname, e.g. "the Kreutzer Sonata".

Two overlapping lists of Beethoven's works follow below. The first is a listing of works classified by genre. The second is a more exhaustive list of works, classified by the various numbering systems. Genres, subgroups of works, and individual pieces with dedicated articles on Wikipedia are linked. Years in parentheses denote dates of composition or publication.


Orchestral music

Beethoven may be most famous for his nine symphonies. He also wrote several concertos, mostly for his own performance, as well as other orchestral music, principally overtures and incidental music for theatrical productions, and works to mark various occasions.

Symphonies

• Opus 21: Symphony No. 1 in C major (composed 1799-1800, premièred 1800)
• Opus 36: Symphony No. 2 in D major (composed 1801-02, premièred 1803)
• Opus 55: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major ("Eroica") (composed 1803, premièred 1804)
• Opus 60: Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major (composed 1806, premièred 1807)
• Opus 67: Symphony No. 5 in C minor ("Fate") (composed 1805-08, premièred 1808)
• Opus 68: Symphony No. 6 in F major ("Pastoral") (composed 1805-08, premièred 1808)
• Opus 92: Symphony No. 7 in A major (composed 1811-12, premièred 1813)
• Opus 93: Symphony No. 8 in F major (composed 1811-12, premièred 1814)
• Opus 125: Symphony No. 9 in D minor ("Choral") (composed 1817-24, premièred 1824)

What was once believed by some to be an early Symphony by Beethoven, the "Jena" Symphony in C major, is now thought to be by Friedrich Witt.

Beethoven is believed to have intended to write a Tenth Symphony in the last year of his life; a performing version of possible sketches was assembled by Barry Cooper.

Concertos

• WoO 4: Piano Concerto No. 0 (Beethoven) in E-flat major (1784)
• Opus 15: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major (1795)
• Opus 19: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major (Before 1793)
• Opus 37: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor (1803)
• Opus 56: Triple Concerto for violin, cello, and piano in C major (1805)
• Opus 58: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major (1807)
• Opus 61: Violin Concerto in D major (1806)
• Opus 61a: Beethoven's arrangement of Opus 61 for piano, sometimes called Piano Concerto No. 6
• Opus 73: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major ("Emperor") (1809)

Other works for soloist and orchestra

• WoO 6: Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in B flat major (1793)
• Opus 40: Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G major (1802)
• Opus 50: Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in F major (1798)
• Opus 80: "Choral Fantasy" (Fantasia in C minor for piano, chorus, and orchestra) (1808)

Overtures and occasional music

• Opus 43: The Creatures of Prometheus, overture and ballet music (1801)
• Opus 62: Coriolan Overture (1807)
• Overtures composed for Beethoven's opera Fidelio:
• Opus 72: Fidelio Overture (1814)
• Opus 72a: Leonore Overture "No. 2" (1805)
• Opus 72b: Leonore Overture "No. 3" (1806)
• Opus 138: Leonore Overture "No. 1" (1807)
• Opus 84: Egmont, overture and incidental Music (1810)
• Opus 91: Wellington's Victory ("Battle Symphony") (1813)
• Opus 113: Die Ruinen von Athen (The ruins of Athens), overture and incidental music (1811)
• Opus 117: König Stephan (King Stephen), overture and incidental music (1811)
• Opus 115: Zur Namensfeier Overture (Feastday) (1815)
• Opus 124: Die Weihe des Hauses Overture (Consecration of the House) (1822)

Beethoven's string quartets are nearly as famous as his symphonies. He also wrote chamber music for several other types of ensembles, including piano trios, string trios, and sonatas for violin and cello with piano, as well as works with wind instruments.

String quartets

Early

• Opus 18: Six String Quartets
  • No. 1: String Quartet No. 1 in F major (1799)
  • No. 2: String Quartet No. 2 in G major (1800)
  • No. 3: String Quartet No. 3 in D major (1798)
  • No. 4: String Quartet No. 4 in C minor (1801)
  • No. 5: String Quartet No. 5 in A major (1801)
  • No. 6: String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat major (1801)

Middle

• Opus 59: Three String Quartets ("Rasumovsky") (1806)
  • No. 1: String Quartet No. 7 in F major
  • No. 2: String Quartet No. 8 in E minor
  • No. 3: String Quartet No. 9 in C major
• Opus 74: String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major ("Harp") (1809)
• Opus 95: String Quartet No. 11 in F minor ("Serioso") (1810)

Late

• Opus 127: String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major (1823-1825)
• Opus 132: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor (1824-1825)
• Opus 130: String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major (1825)
• Opus 133: Große Fuge in B-flat major — originally finale of Opus 130 (1825)
• Opus 134: Beethoven's arrangement of the Große Fuge, Opus 133, for piano duet (four-hands) (1826)
• Opus 131: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor (1826)
• Opus 135: String Quartet No. 16 in F major (1826)

String quintets

• Opus 4: String Quintet in E flat major (1795)
• Opus 29: String Quintet in C major (1801)
• Opus 104: String Quintet in C minor (1817)
• Opus 137: Fugue for String Quintet in D major (1817)

Trios

Piano trios

• Opus 1: Three Piano Trios (1795)
  • Piano Trio No. 1 in E-flat major
  • Piano Trio No. 2 in G major
  • Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor
• Opus 11: Piano Trio No. 4 in B-flat major ("Gassenhauer") (1797) (version with violin)
• Opus 70: Two Piano Trios (1808)
  • Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, "Ghost"
  • Piano Trio No. 6 in E-flat major
• Opus 97: Piano Trio No.7 in B-flat Major ("Archduke") (1811)

String trios

• Opus 3: String Trio No. 1 in E-flat major (1794)
• Opus 8: String Trio No. 2 (Serenade) in D major (1797)
• Opus 9: Three String Trios (1798)
  • String Trio No. 3 in G major
  • String Trio No. 4 in D major
  • String Trio No. 5 in C minor.

Chamber music with winds

• Opus 11: Piano Trio No. 4 in B-flat major ("Gassenhauer") (1797) (version with clarinet)
• Opus 16: Quintet for piano and winds in E-flat major (1796)
• Opus 20: Septet for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and contrabass in E-flat major (1799)
• Opus 71: Sextet for clarinets, horns, and bassoons in E-flat major (1796)
• Opus 87: Trio for two oboes and English horn in C major (1795)
• Opus 103: Octet for oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons in E-flat major (1792)
• Opus 105: Six sets of variations for Piano and Flute (1819)
• Opus 107: Ten sets of variations for Piano and Flute (1820)

Sonatas for solo instrument and piano Violin sonatas

• Opus 12: Three Violin Sonatas (1798)
  • No. 1: Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major
  • No. 2: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major
  • No. 3: Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major
• Opus 23: Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor (1801)
• Opus 24: Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major ("Spring") (1801)
• Opus 30: Three Violin Sonatas (1803)
  • No. 1: Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major
  • No. 2: Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor
  • No. 3: Violin Sonata No. 8 in G major
• Opus 47: Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major ("Kreutzer") (1803)
• Opus 96: Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major (1812)

Cello sonatas

• Opus 5: Two Cello Sonatas (1796)
  • Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major
  • Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor.
• Opus 69: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major (1808)
• Opus 102: Two Cello Sonatas (1815)
  • Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major
  • Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major

Horn sonatas

• Opus 17: Horn Sonata in F major (1800)

In addition to the 32 celebrated sonatas, Beethoven's work for solo piano includes many one-movement pieces, notably the sets of variations, and the bagatelles.

Piano sonatas

• Opus 2: Three Piano Sonatas (1796)
  • No. 1: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor
  • No. 2: Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major
  • No. 3: Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major
• Opus 7: Piano Sonata No. 4 in E-flat major (1797)
• Opus 10: Three Piano Sonatas (1798)
  • No. 1: Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor
  • No. 2: Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major
  • No. 3: Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major
• Opus 13: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor ("Pathétique") (1798)
• Opus 14: Two Piano Sonatas (1799)
  • No. 1: Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major
  • No. 2: Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major
• Opus 22: Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-flat major (1800)
• Opus 26: Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-flat major ("Funeral March") (1801)
• Opus 27: Two Piano Sonatas (1801)
  • No. 1: Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major
  • No. 2: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor 'Sonata quasi una fantasia' ("Moonlight")
• Opus 28: Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major ("Pastoral") (1801)
• Opus 31: Three Piano Sonatas (1802)
  • No. 1: Piano Sonata No. 16 in G major
  • No. 2: Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor ("Tempest")
  • No. 3: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat major ("The Hunt")
• Opus 49: Two Piano Sonatas (1792)
  • No. 1: Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minor
  • No. 2: Piano Sonata No. 20 in G major
• Opus 53: Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major ("Waldstein") (1803)
  • WoO 57: Andante Favori - Original middle movement of the "Waldstein" sonata (1804)
• Opus 54: Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major (1804)
• Opus 57: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor ("Appassionata") (1805)
• Opus 78: Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major ("A Thérèse") (1809)
• Opus 79: Piano Sonata No. 25 in G major ("Cuckoo") (1809)
• Opus 81a: Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major ("Les adieux/Lebewohl") (1810)
• Opus 90: Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor (1814)
• Opus 101: Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major (1816)
• Opus 106: Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major ("Hammerklavier") (1819)
• Opus 109: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major (1820)
• Opus 110: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major (1821)
• Opus 111: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor (1822)

Variations

• Opus 34: Six variations on an original theme in F major (1802)
• Opus 35: Fifteen variations and a fugue on an original theme in E-flat major ("Eroica Variations") (1802)
• Opus 76: Six variations on an original theme in D major (1809)
• Opus 120: Thirty-three variations on a waltz by Diabelli in C major ("Diabelli Variations") (1823)
• WoO 80: Thirty-two variations on an original theme in C minor (1806)

Bagatelles

• Opus 33: Seven Bagatelles (1802)
• Opus 119: Eleven new Bagatelles (1822)
• Opus 126: Six Bagatelles (1823)
• WoO 52: Presto (Bagatelle) for piano in C minor (1795, rev. 1798 and 1822)[1]
• WoO 53: Allegretto (Bagatelle) for piano in C minor (1796-97)[1]
• WoO 54: Lustig-Traurig (Bagatelle) for piano in C major (1802)[1]
• WoO 56: Allegretto (Bagatelle) for piano in C major (1803, rev. 1822))[1]
• WoO 59: Poco moto (Bagatelle) in A minor, "Für Elise" (c. 1810))[1]
• WoO 60: Ziemlich lebhaft (Bagatelle) for piano in B-flat major (1818))[1]

While he completed only one opera, Beethoven wrote vocal music throughout his life, including two Mass settings, other works for chorus and orchestra (in addition to the Ninth Symphony), arias, duets, art songs (lieder), and one of the first true song cycles.

Opera

• Opus 72: Leonore (1805) The first version in three acts
• Opus 72: Leonore (1806) The second version in two acts
• Opus 72: Fidelio (1814) The final version in two acts

Choral

• Opus 80: Choral Fantasy for solo piano, chorus, and orchestra (1808)
• Opus 85: Christus am Ölberge (Christ on the Mount of Olives) — oratorio (1803)
• Opus 86: Mass in C major (1807)
• Opus 112: Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage), for chorus and orchestra (1815)
• Opus 123: Missa Solemnis in D major (1822)

Song

• Opus 46: "Adelaide" — song (1794-1795)
• Opus 48: "Gellert Songs" -- song set (1802)
• Opus 98: An die ferne Geliebte — song cycle (1816)
• Opus 108: Twenty-five Scottish Songs

History of the various numbering systems
For cataloguing purposes, pieces by Beethoven are identified in four ways:

• by opus number. These were assigned by his publishers, and follow the order in which his works were published, rather than the order they were written. This is why, for example, the Wind Octet of 1792 can be Opus 103, when Opus 102 and Opus 104 were written in 1815 and 1817 respectively. Some opus numbers comprise multiple pieces, thus 172 works are divided among 138 opus numbers. Everything up to and including Opus 135 was published in Beethoven's lifetime; later numbers were published posthumously.
• by WoO (Werke ohne Opuszahl – literally, "works without opus number") number. These were assigned by Georg Kinsky and Hans Halm (who took over from Kinsky after his death) in their 1955 catalogue of Beethoven's works. The 205 WoO numbers are assigned by categories.
• by AnH number - 18 works listed in the appendix (German: Anhang, hence the abbreviation) of Kinsky's catalogue as being either doubtfully attributed, or simply spurious. Some of those listed as doubtful have since been shown to be authored by Beethoven.
• by Hess (abbreviated to H) number. These were assigned by Willy Hess in a listing published shortly after Kinsky's which includes pieces not included in the 19th century Complete edition published by Breitkopf and Härtel. Hess includes many more fragmentary works than does Kinsky; and his catalog runs to 335 entries in the "Hauptkatalog", and 66 "doubtful and falsely-attributed" works in an appendix. Many pieces have both WoO and H numbers - in these cases, WoO numbers are generally favoured over Hess numbers.

There is also the Biamonti catalogue, compiled by Giovanni Biamonti and published in 1968. This combines the pieces with opus numbers and all the works from Kinsky's and Hess' catalogue with hitherto uncatalogued fragments to make a single chronological listing, in 849 entries, some encompassing multiple pieces. Biamonti's numbers, however, are rarely used.

Most of Beethoven's best-known pieces have opus numbers, but there are exceptions, one of the most notable being "Für Elise", WoO 59.

• Opus 1: Three Piano Trios (1795)
  • Piano Trio No. 1 in E-flat major
  • Piano Trio No. 2 in G major
  • Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor
• Opus 2: Three Piano Sonatas (1796)
  • Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor
  • Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major
  • Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major.
• Opus 3: String Trio No. 1 in E-flat major (1794)
• Opus 4: String Quintet (1795)
• Opus 5: Two Cello Sonatas (1796)
  • Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major
  • Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor.
• Opus 6: Piano Sonata for four hands (1797)
• Opus 7: Piano Sonata No. 4 in E-flat major (1797)
• Opus 8: String Trio No. 2 (Serenade) in D major (1797)
• Opus 9: Three String Trios (1798)
  • String Trio No. 3 in G major
  • String Trio No. 4 in D major
  • String Trio No. 5 in C minor.
• Opus 10: Three Piano Sonatas (1798)
  • Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor
  • Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major
  • Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major
• Opus 11: Piano Trio No. 4 in B-flat major ("Gassenhauer") (1797) (*for clarinet (or violin), cello (sometimes bassoon), and piano)
• Opus 12: Three Violin Sonatas (1798)
  • Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major
  • Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major
  • Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major
• Opus 13: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor ("Pathetique") (1799)
• Opus 14: Two Piano Sonatas (1799)
  • Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major
  • Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major.
• Opus 15: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major.
• Opus 16: Quintet for Piano and Winds (1796)
• Opus 17: Horn Sonata in F major (1800)
• Opus 18: Six String Quartets (1800)
  • String Quartet No. 1 in F major
  • String Quartet No. 2 in G major
  • String Quartet No. 3 in D major
  • String Quartet No. 4 in C minor
  • String Quartet No. 5 in A major
  • String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat major
• Opus 19: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major (1795)
• Opus 20: Septet in E-flat major (1799)
• Opus 21: Symphony No. 1 in C major (1800)
• Opus 22: Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-flat major (1800)
• Opus 23: Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor (1801)
• Opus 24: Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, "Spring" (1801)
• Opus 25: Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola in D major (1801)
• Opus 26: Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-flat major (1801)
• Opus 27: Two Piano Sonatas (1801)
  • Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major
  • Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor ("Moonlight")
• Opus 28: Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major (1801)
• Opus 29: String Quintet in C major (1801)
• Opus 30: Three Violin Sonatas (1803)
  • Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major
  • Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor
  • Violin Sonata No. 8 in G major
• Opus 31: Three Piano Sonatas (1802)
  • Piano Sonata No. 16 in G major
  • Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor ("Tempest")
  • Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat major ("Hunt")
• Opus 32: Song - An die Hoffnung (1805)
• Opus 33: Seven Bagatelles for piano (1802)
• Opus 34: Six variations on an original theme for piano in F major (1802)
• Opus 35: Fifteen variations and a fugue for piano on an original theme in E-flat major ("Eroica Variations") (1802)
• Opus 36: Symphony No. 2 in D major (1803)
• Opus 37: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor (1803)
• Opus 38: Piano Trio No. 8 (Arrangement of the Septet, Opus 20) (1803)
• Opus 39: Two Preludes through all twelve major keys for piano (1789)
• Opus 40: Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G major (1802)
• Opus 41: Serenade for Piano and Flute or Violin in D major (1803)
• Opus 42: Notturno for Viola and Piano in D major (1803)
• Opus 43: The Creatures of Prometheus, overture and ballet music (1801)
• Opus 44: Piano Trio No. 10 (Variations on an original theme in E-flat major) (1792)
• Opus 45: Three Marches for Piano, 4 hands (1803)
• Opus 46: Song - Adelaide (1795)
• Opus 47: Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major ("Kreutzer") (1802)
• Opus 48: Six Songs (1802)
  • "Bitten"
  • "Die Liebe des Nächsten"
  • "Vom Tode"
  • "Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur"
  • "Gottes Macht und Vorsehung"
  • "Bußlied"
• Opus 49: Two Piano Sonatas (1792)
  • Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minor
  • Piano Sonata No. 20 in G major.
• Opus 50: Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in F major (1798)
• Opus 51: Two Rondos for Piano (1797)
  • Rondo in C major
  • Rondo in G major
• Opus 52: Eight Songs (1804-1805)
  • "Urians Reise um die Welt"
  • "Feuerfab"
  • "Das Liedchen von der Ruhe"
  • "Maigesang"
  • "Mollys Abschied"
  • "Die Liebe"
  • "Marmotte"
  • "Das Blümchen Wunderhold"
• Opus 53: Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major ("Waldstein") (1803)
• Opus 54: Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major (1804)
• Opus 55: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major ("Eroica") (1805)
• Opus 56: Triple Concerto for violin, cello, and piano in C major (1804-1805)
• Opus 57: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor ("Appassionata") (1805-1806)
• Opus 58: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major (1805-1806)
• Opus 59: Three String Quartets ("Rasumovsky") (1806)
  • String Quartet No. 7 in F major
  • String Quartet No. 8 in E minor
  • String Quartet No. 9 in C major,
• Opus 60: Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major (1806)
• Opus 61: Violin Concerto in D major (1806)
• Opus 62: Coriolan Overture (1807)
• Opus 63: Arrangement of String Quintet (Opus 4) for Piano Trio (1806)
• Opus 64: Arrangement of String Trio (Opus 3) for Piano and Cello (1807)
• Opus 65: Aria - "Ah perfido!" (1796)
• Opus 66: 12 Variations for cello & piano in F major on Mozart's "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen," Op. 66 (1796)
• Opus 67: Symphony No. 5 in C minor (1807-1808)
• Opus 68: Symphony No. 6 in F major ("Pastoral") (1807-1808)
• Opus 69: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major (1808)
• Opus 70: Two Piano Trios (1808)
  • Piano Trio No. 5 in D major ("Ghost")
  • Piano Trio No. 6 in E-flat major
• Opus 71: Wind sextet in E-flat (1796)
• Opus 72: Fidelio, opera (c. 1803-5; Fidelio Overture composed 1814)
• Opus 72a: Leonore (earlier version of Fidelio, with Leonore Overture No. 2) (1805)
• Opus 72b: Leonore (earlier version of Fidelio, with Leonore Overture No. 3) (1806)
• Opus 73: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major ("Emperor") (1809)
• Opus 74: String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major ("Harp") (1809)
• Opus 75: Six Songs (1809)
  • "Mignon"
  • "Neue Liebe neues Leben"
  • "Es war einmal ein König" from Goethe's Faust
  • "Gretels Warnung"
  • "An die fernen Geliebten"
  • "Der Zufriedene"
• Opus 76: Six variations on an original theme for piano in D major (1809)
• Opus 77: Piano Fantasia (1809)
• Opus 78: Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major (1809)
• Opus 79: Piano Sonata No. 25 in G major (1809)
• Opus 80: "Choral Fantasy" (Fantasia in C minor for piano, chorus, and orchestra) (1808)
• Opus 81a: Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major ("Les Adieux") (1809)
• Opus 81b: Sextet in E-flat major (1795)
• Opus 82: Four Ariettas and a Duet (1809)
  • "Dimmi, ben mio, che m'ami"
  • "T'intendo si, mio cor"
  • "L'amante impaziente" (first version)
  • "L'amante impatiente" (second version)
  • Duet: "Odi 'laura che dolce sospira"
• Opus 83: Three Songs (1810)
  • "Wonne der Wehmut"
  • "Sehnsucht"
  • "Mit einem gemalten Band"
• Opus 84: Egmont, overture and incidental music (1810)
• Opus 85: Oratorio - Christus am Ölberge (Christ on the Mount of Olives) (1803)
• Opus 86: Mass in C major (1807)
• Opus 87: Trio for two Oboes and English Horn in C major (1795)
• Opus 88: Song - "Das Gluck der Freundschaft" (1803)
• Opus 89: Polonaise in C major (1814)
• Opus 90: Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor (1814)
• Opus 91: Wellington's Victory ("Battle Symphony") (1813)
• Opus 92: Symphony No. 7 in A major (1811)
• Opus 93: Symphony No. 8 in F major (1812)
• Opus 94: Song - "An die Hoffnung" (1814)
• Opus 95: String Quartet No. 11 in F minor ("Serioso") (1810)
• Opus 96: Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major (1812)
• Opus 97: Piano Trio No. 7 in B-flat major ("Archduke") (1811)
• Opus 98: An die ferne Geliebte, song cycle (1816)
• Opus 99: Song - "Der Mann von Wort" (1816)
• Opus 100: Song - "Merkenstein" (1814)
• Opus 101: Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major (1816)
• Opus 102: Two Cello Sonatas (1815)
  • Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major
  • Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major.
• Opus 103: Wind octet in E-flat (1792)
• Opus 104: String Quintet (arrangement of Piano Trio No. 3, 1817)
• Opus 105: Six sets of variations for Piano and Flute (1819)
• Opus 106: Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major ("Hammerklavier") (1818)
• Opus 107: Ten sets of variations for Piano and Flute (1820)
• Opus 108: Twenty-Five Scottish Songs (1818)
• Opus 109: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major (1822)
• Opus 110: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major (1822).
• Opus 111: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor (1822)
• Opus 112: Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage), for chorus and orchestra (1815)
• Opus 113: Die Ruinen von Athen (The ruins of Athens), overture and incidental music (1811)
• Opus 114: Die Ruinen von Athen (The ruins of Athens), March and Chorus (1822).
• Opus 115: Zur Namensfeier (Feastday), overture (1815)
• Opus 116: "Tramte, empi tremate", vocal trio with orchestra (1802)
• Opus 117: König Stephan (King Stephen), overture and incidental music (1811)
• Opus 118: "Elegischer Gesang" for four voices and string quartet (1814)
• Opus 119: Eleven new Bagatelles for piano (1822)
• Opus 120: Thirty-three variations on a waltz by Diabelli for piano in C major ("Diabelli Variations") (1823)
• Opus 121: Piano Trio No. 11 (Variations on "Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu") (1803)
• Opus 121b: "Opferlied" for soprano, chorus and orchestra (1822)
• Opus 122: "Bundeslied" for voices, chorus and wind instruments (1824)
• Opus 123: Missa Solemnis in D Major (1822)
• Opus 124: Die Weihe des Hauses (Consecration of the House), overture (1822)
• Opus 125: Symphony No. 9 in D minor ("Choral") (1824)
• Opus 126: Six Bagatelles for piano (1823)
• Opus 127: String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major (1825)
• Opus 128: Song - "Der Kuss" (1822)
• Opus 129: Rondo Capriccio for piano in G major ("Rage over a lost penny") (1795)
• Opus 130: String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major (1825)
• Opus 131: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor (1826)
• Opus 132: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor (1825)
• Opus 133: Große Fuge in B-flat major for string quartet (originally finale of Opus 130) (1826)
• Opus 134: Piano arrangement (4 hands) of the Große Fuge, Opus 133 (1826)
• Opus 135: String Quartet No. 16 in F major (1826)
• Opus 136: Cantata - Der glorreiche Augenblick (1814)
• Opus 137: Fugue for String Quintet in D major (1817)
• Opus 138: Leonore, opera (earlier version of Fidelio, with Leonore Overture No. 1) (1807)

Works with WoO numbers
Both numbers and categories are from the Kinsky catalog of 1955. WoO is an abbreviation of "Werke ohne Opuszahl", German for "Works without Opus number".

Instrumental works: WoO 1-86

Orchestral works

Orchestra alone

• WoO 1: Musik zu einem Ritterballett (Music for a ballet on horseback) – eight movements
• WoO 2a: Triumphal March for orchestra for Christoph Kuffner's tragedy Tarpeja
• WoO 2b: Prelude to Act II of Tarpeja
• WoO 3: "Gratulations-Menuett", minuet for orchestra

Concertante

• WoO 4: Piano Concerto in E-flat major (solo part only with indications of orchestration), occasionally referred to as Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 0
• WoO 5: Violin Concerto movement in C major, fragment
• WoO 6: Rondo in B-flat major for piano and orchestra, fragment, possibly part of initial version of the Piano Concerto No. 2

Dances

• WoO 7: Twelve minuets for orchestra
• WoO 8: Twelve German Dances for orchestra (later arranged for piano)
• WoO 9: Six minuets for two violins and cello
• WoO 10: Six minuets for orchestra (original version lost, only an arrangement for piano is extant)
• WoO 11: Seven Ländler for two violins and cello (original version lost, only an arrangement for piano is extant)
• WoO 12: Twelve minuets for orchestra (probably spurious, actually by Beethoven's brother Carl)
• WoO 13: Twelve German Dances for orchestra (only a version for piano is extant)
• WoO 14: Twelve contredanses for orchestra
• WoO 15: Six Laendler for two violins and cello (also arranged for piano)
• WoO 16: Twelve Ecossaises for orchestra (probably spurious)
• WoO 17: Eleven "Mödlinger Tänze" for seven instruments (probably spurious)

Marches and dances for winds

• WoO 18: March for Military Band (trio added later)
• WoO 19: March for Military Band (trio added later)
• WoO 20: March for Military Band (trio added later)
• WoO 21: Polonaise for Military Band
• WoO 22: Ecossaise for Military Band
• WoO 23: Ecossaise for Military Band (only a piano arrangement by Carl Czerny is extant)
• WoO 24: March for Military Band

Without piano

• WoO 25: Rondo for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons (original finale of the Octet, opus 103) (1792)
• WoO 26: Duo for two flutes
• WoO 27: Three duets for clarinet and bassoon (possibly spurious)
• WoO 28: Variations for two oboes and cor anglais on "Là ci darem la mano" from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni
• WoO 29: March for wind
• WoO 30: Three Equale for four trombones — Vocal arrangements of these were performed at Beethoven's funeral.
• WoO 31: Fugue for organ
• WoO 32: Duo for viola and cello, "mit zwei obligaten Augengläsern" ("with two obbligato eyeglasses")
• WoO 33: Five pieces for mechanical clock or flute
• WoO 34: Duet for two violins
• WoO 35: Canon for two violins

With piano

• WoO 36: Three piano quartets
• WoO 37: Trio for flute, bassoon, and piano in G major (1786)
• WoO 38: Piano Trio No. 8 in E-flat major
• WoO 39: Allegretto for piano trio in B-flat major
• WoO 40: Twelve variations for piano and violin on "Se vuol ballare" from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
• WoO 41: Rondo for piano and violin in G major
• WoO 42: Six German Dances for violin and piano
• WoO 43a: Sonatina for mandolin and harpsichord
• WoO 43b: Adagio for mandolin and harpsichord
• WoO 44a: Sonatina for mandolin and piano
• WoO 44b: Andante and variations for mandolin and harpsichord
• WoO 45: Twelve Variations for cello & piano in G major on Handel's "See, the Conqu'ring Hero comes,"
• WoO 46: Seven Variations for cello & piano in E flat major on Mozart's "Bei Männern,"

Sonatas and single-movement works

• WoO 47: Three piano sonatas (E-flat major, F minor, D major) ("Kurfürsten Sonatas") (1783)
• WoO 48: Rondo for piano in C major (1783)
• WoO 49: Rondo for piano in A major (1783)
• WoO 50: Piano Sonata in F major (1790-92)
• WoO 51: Piano Sonata in C major (1797-98, fragment)
• WoO 52: Presto (Bagatelle) for piano in C minor (1795, rev. 1798 and 1822)[1]
• WoO 53: Allegretto (Bagatelle) for piano in C minor (1796-97)[1]
• WoO 54: Lustig-Traurig (Bagatelle) for piano in C major (1802)[1]
• WoO 55: Prelude for piano in F major (1803)
• WoO 56: Allegretto (Bagatelle) for piano in C major (1803, rev. 1822))[1]
• WoO 57: Andante Favori – original middle movement from Piano Sonata No. 21 (Waldstein) (1805)
• WoO 58: Cadenzas for 1st and 3rd movements of Mozart's D minor Piano Concerto (K. 466)
• WoO 59: Poco moto (Bagatelle) in A minor, "Für Elise" (c. 1810))[1]
• WoO 60: Ziemlich lebhaft (Bagatelle) for piano in B-flat major (1818))[1]
• WoO 61: Allegretto for piano in B minor (1821)
• WoO 61a: Allegretto quasi andante in G minor (1825)
• WoO 62: String Quintet in C major (Fragment, Piano Transcription)

Variations

• WoO 63: Nine variations for piano on a march by Ernst Christoph Dressler
• WoO 64: Six Variations on a Swiss song for piano or harp
• WoO 65: Twenty-four variations for piano on Vincenzio Righini's aria "Venni Amore"
• WoO 66: Thirteen variations for piano on the aria "Es war einmal ein alter Mann" from Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf's opera Das rote Käppchen
• WoO 67: Eight variations for piano four hands on a theme by Count Waldstein
• WoO 68: Twelve variations for piano on the "Menuet a la Vigano" from Jakob Haibel's ballet La nozza disturbate
• WoO 69: Nine variations for piano on "Quant'e piu bello" from Giovanni Paisiello's opera La Molinara
• WoO 70: Six variations for piano on "Nel cor piu non mi sento" from Giovanni Paisiello's opera La Molinara
• WoO 71: Twelve variations for piano on the Russian dance from Paul Wranitzky's ballet Das Waldmädchen
• WoO 72: Eight variations for piano on "Mich brennt ein heisses Fieber" from André Ernest Modeste Grétry's opera Richard Löwenherz
• WoO 73: Ten variations for piano on "La stessa, la stessissima" from Antonio Salieri's opera Falstaff
• WoO 74: "Ich denke dein" - song with six variations for piano four hands
• WoO 75: Seven variations for piano on "Kind, willst du ruhig schlafen" from Peter Winter's opera Das unterbrochene Opferfest
• WoO 76: Eight variations for piano on "Tandeln und scherzen" from Franz Xaver Süssmayr's opera Soliman II
• WoO 77: Six easy variations on an original theme for piano
• WoO 78: Seven variations for piano on "God Save the King"
• WoO 79: Five variations for piano on "Rule Britannia"
• WoO 80: Thirty-two variations on an original theme in C minor for piano

Dances

• WoO 81: Allemande for piano in A major
• WoO 82: Minuet for piano in E-flat major
• WoO 83: Six Ecossaises for piano and orchestra
• WoO 84: Waltz for piano in E-flat major
• WoO 85: Waltz for piano
• WoO 86: Ecossaise for piano in E-flat major

Vocal works: WoO 87-205 Cantatas, choruses and arias with orchestra

• WoO 87: Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II
• WoO 88: Cantata on the Accession of Emperor Leopold II
• WoO 89: Aria "Prüfung des Küssens"
• WoO 90: Aria "Mit Mädeln sich vertragen"
• WoO 91: Two arias for Die Schöne Schusterin
• WoO 92: Aria "Primo Amore"
• WoO 92a: Aria "No, non turbati"
• WoO 93: Duet "Nei giorni tuoi felice"
• WoO 94: "Germania," aria with chorus in B-flat major
• WoO 95: Chorus for the Congress of Vienna
• WoO 96: Incidental Music to Leonore Prohaska
• WoO 97: "Es ist vollbracht" for Die Ehrenpforten
• WoO 98: "Wo sich die Pulse," chorus for The Consecration of the House

Works for multiple voices with piano accompaniment, or unaccompanied

• WoO 99: Italian Partsongs
• WoO 100: Musical joke for three voices "Lob auf den Dicken"
• WoO 101: Musical joke for three voices and chorus "Graf, Graf, liebster Graf"
• WoO 102: Chorus for male voices "Abschiedsgesang"
• WoO 103: Cantata Un lieto Brindisi
• WoO 104: "Gesang der Moenche" from Schiller's Wilhelm Tell for three male voices
• WoO 105: Song for solo voice, chorus and piano "Hochzeitslied"
• WoO 106: Birthday Cantata for Prince Lobkowitz

Lieder and songs for solo voice and piano

• WoO 107-130: Twenty-four songs
• WoO 131: Unfinshed song "Erlkönig"
• WoO 132: Song "Als die Geliebte sich trennen wollte"
• WoO 133: Song "In questa tomba oscura"
• WoO 134: Song "Sehnsucht" in four settings
• WoO 135-151: Seventeen Songs

Folksong arrangements for one or more voices, with piano trio accompaniment

• WoO 152: Twenty-five Irish folksongs
• WoO 153: Twenty Irish folksongs
• WoO 154: Twelve Irish folksongs
• WoO 155: Twenty-six Welsh folksongs
• WoO 156: Twelve Scottish folksongs
• WoO 157: Twelve folksongs of various nationalities
• WoO 158a: Twenty-three continental folksongs
• WoO 158b: Seven British folksongs
• WoO 158c: Six assorted folksongs
• WoO 158d: "Air Français"

Vocal canons

• WoO 159-198: Forty-three Canons

Musical jokes, quips, and dedications

• WoO 199: Musical joke "Ich bin der Herr von zu"
• WoO 200: Piano Exercise "O Hoffnung!"
• WoO 201: Musical joke "Ich bin bereit!"
• WoO 202: Riddle canon "Das Schöne zu dem Guten" (first version)
• WoO 203: Riddle canon "Das Schöne zu dem Guten" (second version)
• WoO 204: Musical joke "Holz, Holz, Geigt die Quartette So"
• WoO 205: Ten musical quips (Kinsky's word is "Notenscherze") from Beethoven's letters

Works with Anhang (AnH) numbers Doubtfully or spuriously attributed to Beethoven, from the Appendix (Anhang) of Kinsky's catalog.

• AnH 1: Symphony in C major ("Jena") – now attributed to Friedrich Witt
• AnH 2: Six string quartets
• AnH 3: Piano Trio in D major
• AnH 4: Flute Sonata in B-flat major
• AnH 5: Two Piano Sonatinas
• AnH 6: Rondo for piano in B-flat major

Selected works with Hess (H) numbers

• H 12: Oboe Concerto in F (fragment only)
• H 13: Romance in E minor for 3 soloists and orchestra
• H 15: Piano Concerto No. 6 (unfinished)
• H 19: Wind quintet in E-flat major
• H 28: Movement in A-flat major for string trio
• H 29: Prelude and Fugue for String Quartet
• H 30: Prelude and Fugue for String Quartet
• H 31: Prelude and Fugue for String Quartet
• H 33: Minuet for string quartet
• H 34: String Quartet arrangement of Opus 14 No. 1
• H 36: Handel Fugue arranged for String Quartet
• H 38: Bach Fugue arranged for String Quartet
• H 39: String Quintet in F major (lost)
• H 40: Movement in D minor for String Quintet
• H 46: Violin Sonata in A major
• H 48: Allegretto in E-flat major for piano trio
• H 64: Fugue for keyboard
• H 65: Concerto excerpt (arrangement of Opus 37)
• H 69: Bagatelle in C minor for piano
• H 87: March for piano (arrangement of WoO 29)
• H 88: Minuet for piano (arrangement of Hess 33)
• H 89: Musik zu einem Ritterballett (Music for a ballet on horseback) (piano arrangement of WoO 1)
• H 90: The Creatures of Prometheus (piano arrangement of Opus 43)
• H 91: Opferlied (piano arrangement of Opus 121b)
• H 92: Bundeslied (piano arrangement of Opus 122)
• H 93: "Freudvoll" (piano accompaniment for Opus 84)
• H 97: Wellington's Victory ("Battle Symphony") (piano arrangement of Opus 91)
• H 99: March for piano (arrangement of WoO 18)
• H 107: Grenadier's March
• H 108: Wellington's Victory ("Battle Symphony") (panharmonicon arrangement of Opus 91)
• H 115: Vestas Feuer (unfinished Opera)
• H 118: Music for The Consecration of the House (from Opus 113)
• H 133: Folksong
• H 134: Folksong
• H 137: Song "Ich wiege dich" (lost)
• H 139: Song "Minnesold" (lost)
• H 143: Song "An die Freude" (lost)
• H 152-207: Folksong settings
• H 208-232: Italian partsongs
• H 233-246: Counterpoint exercises
• H 274-277: Four Canons
• H 297: Adagio for three horns
• H 300-301: Two Canons

Catalogues and bibliographies

• Biamonti, Giovanni. Catologo cronologo e tematico delle opere di Beethoven. Torino: ILTE, 1968. OCLC 2028666 —Encompasses works with and without opus numbers, as well as sketches and fragments, in 849 chronologically arranged entries.
• Green, James (ed. and trans). The new Hess catalog of Beethoven’s works. West Newbury, Vermont: Vance Brook, 2003. ISBN 0-964-05703-4. —An English translation of Willy Hess's important 1957 catalogue and study, updated to reflect more recent scholarship.
• Hess, Willy. Verzeichnis der nicht in der Gesamtausgabe verö ffentlichen Werke Ludwig van Beethovens. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1957. OCLC 18406510 —Hess's original study and catalogue; still more widely available in libraries than Green's edition.
• Johnson, Douglas and Scott G. Burnham. "Beethoven, Ludwig Van (Works)", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Subscription access). Accessed 2007-04-19. —Includes categorized works list with bibliographical and other information.
• Kinsky, G. and H. Halm. Das Werk Beethovens: thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner sämtlichen vollendeten Kompositionen. München: G. Henle, 1955. OCLC 334667 —The standard thematic and bibliographical catalogue of Beethoven's works. —Full title (translated): Beethoven's Works: thematic and bibliographic catalogue of all his completed compositions by Georg Kinsky, completed and edited after the author's death by Hans Helm.
• Nottebohm, Gustav. Thematisches Verzeichnis der im Druck erschienenen Werke von Ludwig van Beethoven. Leipzig, Breitkopf & Hä rtel, 1925 OCLC 4763103. Reprinted Wiesbaden: M. Sändig, 1969 OCLC 1828776. —Historically important thematic catalogue, by a pioneering 19th Century Beethoven scholar.
• Solomon, Maynard. Beethoven (1st edition). New York: Schirmer, 1977. ISBN 0-02-872460-7. pp. 372, 386-391. —Popular biographical study; includes bibliographical notes and (incomplete) works lists.

Works collections

• Ludwig van Beethovens Werke: Vollständige kritisch durchgesehene überall berechtigte Ausgabe. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel,
  vols i–xxiv, 1862–65; vol xxv (supplement), 1888. OCLC 24931728
  —Original critical "complete works" edition, commonly known as the Beethoven Gesamtausgabe.
• Beethoven: Sämtliche Werke: Supplemente zur Gesamtausgabe, ed. W. Hess. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1959. OCLC 13654118
  —Hess's supplement to the 19th century Breitkopf edition.
• Beethovens Werke: neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, ed. Joseph Schmidt-Görg, Martin Staehelin, et al. München: G. Henle, 1961 – (current). OCLC 13654118
  —New critical edition, "herausgaben vom Beethoven-Archiv, Bonn"; 56 volumes in 13 categories, approx. 60% complete as of May, 2006.

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Orchestral
Piano concerto No.1 performed by Unknown
Piano concerto No.5,1 performed by Arrau
Piano concerto No.5,2 performed by Arrau
Piano concerto No.5,3 performed by Arrau
Piano concerto No.5,4 performed by Arrau
Symphony No. 1 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 2 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 3 Mov 1,2 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 3 Mov 3,4 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 4 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 5 Mov 1,2 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 5 Mov 3,4 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 6 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 7 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 8 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 9 Mov 1,2 performed by Karajan
Symphony No. 9 Mov 3,4 performed by Karajan
Violin concerto Mov 1,1 performed by Ann-Sophie Mutter
Violin concerto Mov 1,2 performed by Ann-Sophie Mutter
Violin concerto Mov 1,3 performed by Ann-Sophie Mutter
Violin concerto Mov 2 performed by Ann-Sophie Mutter
Violin concerto Mov 3 performed by Ann-Sophie Mutter

Piano
Bagatelles Op 126 1-3 performed by David Fung
Bagatelles Op 126 4-6 performed by David Fung
Sonata 08 Pathetique Mov 1 performed by Freddy Kempf
Sonata 08 Pathetique Mov 2 performed by Freddy Kempf
Sonata 08 Pathetique Mov 3 performed by Freddy Kempf
Sonata 1 Mov 1,2 performed by Sviatoslav Richter
Sonata 1 Mov 3,4 performed by Sviatoslav Richter
Sonata 21 Waldstein Mov 1 performed by Claudio Arrau
Sonata 21 Waldstein Mov 2 performed by Claudio Arrau
Sonata 21 Waldstein Mov 3 performed by Claudio Arrau
Sonata 23 Appassionata Mov 1 performed by Claudio Arrau
Sonata 23 Appassionata Mov 2 performed by Claudio Arrau
Sonata 23 Appassionata Mov 3 performed by Claudio Arrau
Sonata 32 Mov 1 performed by Arrau
Sonata 32 Mov 2,1 performed by Arrau
Sonata 32 Mov 2,2 performed by Arrau

This is a collection of links to the best free music available on the net. The collection is evergrowing - or perhaps everchanging - since we do not host these files ourselves. We try to keep our database as up to date as possible but sometimes we just can't keep up with all the changes. If you find a dead link please contact us and we will remove it as soon as possible.

If you find some other high quality recording that is not featured in our database, and which is free to the public. Please contact us as well so we can keep the quality of this database as high as possible.

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Beethoven - "Consecration of the House" Overture, Op. 124
Beethoven - Grosse Fuge
Beethoven - Overture to "Fidelio," Op. 72b
Beethoven - Pianokonsert (Violin) i D, Op. 61
Beethoven - Pianokonsert Nr.2
Beethoven - Pianokonsert Nr.3
Beethoven - Pianokonsert Nr.4
Beethoven - Pianosonat i C moll Op,111
Beethoven - Rondino for Woodwind Octet, E-flat Major
Beethoven - Scherzo-Allegro from D Major Symphony, Op. 36
Beethoven - Seven Variations on God Save the King
Beethoven - Symfoni Nr.3 "Eroican"
Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 in c, Op. 67
Beethoven - Symphony Nr. 1 in C-Major, Op. 21
Beethoven - Symphony Nr. 2 in D Major, Op. 36
Beethoven - Woodwind Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 103

Let's see if I can read your mind! Your first thought about this page was - "Why make a page with almost the same content as Wikipedias classical section, YouTube and the top free classical music download sites on the internet?". Were I right? Well even if that wasn't your first thought it is a question worth answering!

The internet is a wonderful place - never before has so much information been so easily accessible and never before have so many people been able to work together so easily. However, the strength of the web is also it's weakness - for too much information published in an unorganized fashion will deter most people from ever digging deep enough to find the real nuggets.

In other words - the internet is full of amazing content but sometimes it can be hard to find.

That's where Al Segno comes in, well at least that's the idea. If what you're looking for is related to classical music and classical composers we hope that you will be able to find it here! For the first release of this website we have added four composers - Ludvig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For each of these composers you will find:

• An extensive biography including a list of their works (From Wikipedia)
• A comprehensive and easily browseable index of videos of high quality performances (YouTube)
• MP3s, podcasts and recordings of their music (Different pages).

As of now - August, 27th 2008 - Al Segnos composer portraits database has been officially launched.