Robert Greenberg - How to Listen to and Understand Great Music

Did I not mention this amazing series before?! I must have.

On the 5th Symphony of Beethoven, 3 courses!

The Allies used it as their victory: ta da da daaaa... short short short long.... = v in morse code! Ironic, considering Beethoven was very German.

The opening unit is called the Fate Motive. His assistent said Beethoven had told him he once thought of Fate knocking on his door... Apocryphal! He was using a bird song! But that didn't sound angst laden enough.

Beethoven, though still called a composer of the classic era, uses much more rhythm; in his Fifth, rhythm is almost more important than melody.

Robert Greenberg - "Rondo"

Rondo always comes back to its theme.

Its structure is very much like opera. In part one, themes are introduced. In part two, the exposition, they are changed. Part three combines the themes once more, but changed, different. Finally, a coda, to round it off, to signify the end.

Mozart did not "write" music, he "copied" it from his head. He wrote the scores completely, no abbreviation.

"I write music like horses piss", he said. Originally (one of his) name was "Gottlieb", but since he was a wonderchild, a prodigy, they used the Latin version, "Amadeus".

Robert Greenberg - "How to listen to and understand great music"

How I love this guy!

A baroque minuet: is always, a minuet-trio-decapo
decapo meaning: coming back to the head, to the beginning, providing closure

Macro scheme therefore: A-B-A

Within each part, binary form:
minuet: aa-bb
trio: cc-dd
decapo: a-b
No need to repeat the repetition in the decapo, that would be overkill.

Minuets are fairly slow, majestic. (Think of Louis the XIVth immense girth)

Mozart, the minuet in the classical era: provide a kind of closure within each part! Called a rounded binary:
minuet: aa-ba-ba
trio: cc-dc-dc
decapo: a-b

Mozart left his Requiem unfinished in 1791 when he died.