Muhlenberg High School

Franz Schubert
Erlkonig
Gretchen am Spinnrade
Die Post
String Quartet in A Minor, II

Clara Schumann: Der Mond kommt still gegangen

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: Nachtwanderer (“Night Wanderer”) op. 7, No. 1
Josephine Lang: Frühzeitiger Frühling op. 1, No. 2 (“The first sign of spring”)

Robert Schumann
Dichterliebe - “Im wunderschonen Monat Mai”
Dichterliebe - “Die alten, bosen Lieder”
Carnaval - “Eusebius”
Carnaval - "Florestan"


Frederic Chopin
Polonaise in A, Op. 40, No. 1
Nocturne in F-sharp, Op. 15, No. 2

Felix Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hector Berlioz: Fantastic - Symphony, V

Louise Dumont Farrenc
Scherzo from the Trio in E Minor
Fourth movement of Nonetto op. 38: Adagio-Allegro 

The Classical Era: Chapters 12 & 13 - The Symphony & Other Classical Forms

Symphony No. 40 in G minor: 1st mvt. (Mozart)

Symphony No. 88 in G, I (Haydn)

Symphony No. 88 in G, II (Haydn)

Symphony No. 88 in G, III (Haydn)

Symphony No. 88 in G, IV (Haydn)

Piano Sonata in B flat: 3rd mvt. (Mozart)

Sonata in A, K. 331 “Alla turca” (Mozart)

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G: 3rd mvt. (Mozart)

Concerto for Violincello in B flat, G. 482 (Boccherini)

4 Little Duets for Harpsichord (C.P.E. Bach)

Flute Quartet in D, K. 285, 3rd mvt. (Mozart)

Don Giovanni excerpt: "Ho capito" (Mozart)

Don Giovanni excerpt: "Alfin siam liberati" (Mozart)

Don Giovanni excerpt: "Là ci darem la mano" (Mozart) 

Requiem in D minor, K. 626 (Mozart)

   “Dies Irae”   “Rex tremendae”   “Confutatis”  “Lacrymosa”

Beethoven

Symphony No. 5 in C minor: Mvt. 1   Mvt. 2   Mvt. 3   Mvt. 4 

Beethoven Supplementary Listening Guide 

FIRST STYLE PERIOD

String Quartet in A, Op. 18, no. 5, Menuetto

Piano Sonata in G, Op. 49, no. 2, II

Piano Sonatas

The “Moonlight” Sonata (titled “Sonata quasi una fantasia” by the composer) marks the beginning of a period when Beethoven produced increasingly experimental works, emancipating himself from the expected sonata-form first movement and substituting freer forms.  The first movement is improvisatory in character and prefigures such works as the impromptus of Schubert.  This short, lyrical and unusually slow movement is founded on a quiet, somber melody of rather narrow range, supported by a persistent arpeggiated triplet figure that barely changes from beginning to end.  It leads without pause into the Allegretto, with a tonal shift that produces a short-lived but much brighter mood.  The finale is a true sonata-form movement, and thus the structural weight of the work is transposed from the beginning to the end.

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor ('Moonlight'), Op. 27: Mvt. 1   Mvt. 2   Mvt. 3

Beethoven’s second period began with a number of dramatic, heroic works, including the Third (“Eroica”) and Fifth Symphonies, the opera Fidelio and the “Waldstein” and “Appassionata” Sonatas.  From the opening, the “Appassionata” assumes a sinister mood, a menacing “fate” motif presaging the passion soon to be unleashed.  Alan Rich calls the work one of “total tragedy ... even the warm-hearted contrasting theme in the first movement, which begins as a rebuke to the bleakness of the opening, itself breaks off before reaching completion, seemingly to capitulate to Beethoven’s singleness of purpose.” The beautiful slow movement, a set of variations, has a religious solemnity that provides a respite from the energy that surrounds it.  The finale opens with the startling repetition of a diminished seventh chord and builds into a whirlwind of fury.

Grande sonate pathétique in C minor, Op. 13

- from the liner notes, Beethoven Sonatas – Van Cliburn, BMG Music 1990

THIRD STYLE PERIOD 

Missa Solemnis

Beethoven began work on the Missa Solemnis in 1819, planning it for the grand ceremony in Cologne Cathedral at which Archduke Rudolph of Austria, his main pupil and patron, was to be installed as cardinal and archbishop.  The previous half dozen years had not been easy ones for the composer.  His personal life was in more or less constant turmoil, and he was evincing evident uncertainty about the direction his art was to take.  Indeed, he had written very little music at all, until achieving a kind of breakthrough with the long and radical “Hammerklavier” Sonata op. 106, of 1818.

The period of Beethoven's writing block had now ended - in the nine years that were left to him he composed three more piano sonatas, the Ninth Symphony, five string quartets, and more - but it is perhaps not surprising that the Mass took him an inordinate time to finish (till 1823, by which time Rudolph had long since been installed).  It is also not surprising that the Mass shares some of the fierce visionary intensity of the “Hammerklavier” Sonata.  Generally respected, one senses, rather than loved, the Missa Solemnis has found relatively few performances over the years, and has certainly not been a popular text for critical exegesis.

Donald Tovey's essay on the Mass contains much that is illuminating, as usual, and one point he makes stands out as criticism of the highest order.  Beethoven, says Tovey, studied the Mass text thoroughly and made his own personal decisions about the doctrinal aspects he would articulate.  “First then, he brings out an overwhelming and overwhelmed sense of the Divine glory, with which he invariably and immediately contrasts the nothingness of man.”  Reading this, one immediately thinks of places in the text which refer to majestic qualities and actions of the Godhead, and which Beethoven has set to music of an all-but-apocalyptic vehemence.  One does not forget such places.  Pitched very high in the voices, sung at a merciless fortissimo, supported by massive instrumental forces and often by drastic harmonies, they define an essential component of strain and extremity in Beethoven's conception.

The most famous of these places is the section in the Credo starting at “Credo in Spiritum Sanctum,” during which several important doctrinal items in the Christian's list of beliefs, running to 37 words, are rushed through in 22 bars of Allegro ma non troppo.  Most of the words are sung only once, by a single voice in the choir.  Meanwhile the other voices exclaim “Credo, credo” again and again.  Sheer intensity of belief, Beethoven seems to be saying, outweighs belief in any particular proposition.

In contrast, the final five words of the Credo, “Et vitam venturi saeculi, Amen” are extended into an immense fugue lasting for five minutes.  It is especially at the ends of the big movements (past the Kyrie) that Beethoven gives his expansive tendencies their head.  He may have felt that the many highly disruptive gestures earlier in the Credo required a broad stretch of fugal stability at the end.  The same could be true of the equally long fugue at the end of the Gloria, “In gloria Dei Patris, Amen.”

- Joseph Kerman

Piano Sonata in A-flat major, op. 110, 1st movement