String theory

The nineteenth century was a very important time for music, an age often defined by two composers - Ludwig van Beethoven and Gioachino Rossini. These two composers represented and were key to the development of that era’s musical powerhouses, German instrumental music and Italian opera respectively. Despite the composers’ similar importance to their respective genres, Beethoven and Rossini are often viewed as polar opposites with Beethoven reigning as superior; however, the veracity and…

On the other hand, he advanced quartet-writing towards a creative class, requiring the masses to comprehend and compose string quartets. Beethoven mastered the transformation of boring melodic symphonies independently. Under the circumstances of evolving them in the exposition, recurring the melody, disassembling it into segments, eventually fitting the tune back simultaneously…

married or had children, however he was madly in love with a married woman. Despite his tumultuous personal life, physical appearance and deafness, Beethoven composed his greatest music near the end of his life. One of them was Missa Solemnis and String Quartet No. 14, which contains the seven linked movements played without a single break. Beethoven died on March 26, 1827 at the age of fifty…

When one thinks of the word Kaleidoscope, their mind usually shifts to the almost telescope-like device that contains a colorful pattern that changes as it is rotated. The image that manifests from the moving pieces within or the curvature of the lens give off a picture that is pleasant to the eye no matter how many times it is rotated. Although the never ending pattern will repeat itself over and over again, it always seems new each time it 's picked up and looked at. The band “Kaleidoscope”…

Fanny Hensel was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1805 to Berlin banker Abraham Mendelssohn and his wife, Lea. Along with her younger brother, Felix, Fanny was considered to be musically gifted and received exceptional music education from renowned music experts, such as Ludwig Berger and Carl Friedrich Zelter (Fanny, 2010). As a piano composer, Fanny began orchestrating pieces and performing at a young age; however, her ability to continue her education and make her works public became restricted…

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, on December 16, 1770. He was the eldest of three children of Johann and Maria Magdalena van Beethoven. At an early age, van Beethoven took an interest in music and his father taught him day and night, on returning to the house from music practice or the tavern. Without a doubt, the child was gifted and his father Johann envisioned creating a new Mozart, a child prodigy. On March 26th 1778, at the age of 7 ½, Ludwig Van Beethoven gave his first…

The ukulele ; variant: ukelele) sometimes abbreviated to uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments; it generally employs four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings. The ukulele originated in the 19th century as a Hawaiian adaptation of the Portuguese machete, a small guitar-like instrument, which was introduced to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants, many from Madeira and the Azores. It gained great popularity elsewhere in the United States during the early 20th century, and from…

Ludwig van Beethoven was an amazing composer in the late 1700s to early 1800s composing 9 symphonies in his lifetime. Beethoven was only a small child when his father introduced him to music. In the time in between the birth of his two little brothers, his father introduced him to music. Beethoven’s First Symphony was composed in the year 1799-1800 and was released later that year in 1800. In the next few years Beethoven created his 2nd Symphony in the years 1801-1802. At the time he was…

Diddley Bow guitar generally consists of one single string attached to a board or pole that runs through both ends of a cigar box. The cigar box, made of wood or a wood-cardboard hybrid, is cut on both sides with one or more sound holes drilled through the lid to increase resonance. Our cigar box guitar features a flat pine board to allow for 3 strings (tuned to E, A, and D respectively) and 21 toothpick frets hot glued down at the…

Beethoven was an interesting character. He has gone through much in his lifetime that it is understandable that his character is an interesting and complex one. In Chapter 27 of Downs’s Classical Music, Downs gives his interpretation of Beethoven and what kind of person he was. From what was gathered in this chapter, Downs is not just stating the facts, but gives Beethoven a variety of personalities. In my sense of the composer from Downs’s text, Beethoven was an infant prodigy turned to a…