Composer Study: Beethoven

This term's composer is the notorious Beethoven.  Ever heard of him?  heheh.  I know.  Kinda obvious.

But just to clarify, I'm not referring to the dog.
(I'm sure there are actually kids out there these days, who would in fact need me to explain this... sad.  Yay, for homeschooling!)






I actually think I'd heard of Beethoven even before I knew classical music for the first time.  Beethoven, after all, is kind of a memorable name.  I even remember where I was when I learned about him... or at least where I was when I contemplated him for the first time.  It was in front of a baby grand piano at my friend's house when I was young.  I remember marveling about the art of composing... how to hear all those notes of different instruments in your head at the same time and for them to make into something beautiful... yes.  I was awed.  In fact, I still am.  Composing is AMAZING to me.

I even had dreams growing up about composers.  Dreams that I still remember.  weird.  Or else it is memories of what I envisioned while reading a book from long ago... either way, I remember it vividly.

But, I'll spare you the details and get on with this post.

You're welcome.

So this term's composer studies are focusing on Beethoven... surely you guessed that already ;)

Here are the AO selections (all free downloads)...

Piano Sonata 8 (Pathetique) Opus 13
Piano Sonata 14 (Moonlight) Op 27
Symphony No. 3 (Erocia-meaning 'heroic') Opus 55
String Quartets opus 59, no.1-3 (Razumovsky Quartets)
          they look like this (click ctrl+F to find on the page):

Quartetto d'Archi in Fa maggiore op. 59 n° 1
Quartetto d'Archi in Mi minore op. 59 n° 2
Quartetto d'Archi in Do maggiore op. 59 n° 3

Piano Concerto 5 (Emporer) Op 73 - sheet music here
Symphony No. 9  Opus 125 (the one with Ode to Joy at the end)
           it looks like this (at the way bottom of the page):

Sinfonia n° 9 in Re minore op. 125

(thanks goes to Kathy on the AO list for several of these links!)

Here's a link to a playlist on GrooveShark that has all these selections to listen online.  Thanks Phyllis!







A book we're reading:





Helpful tips:
This term I discovered a REALLY helpful thing that I'd never thought of before.  There are 6 selections per term (see above) and as there are 12 weeks per term, that means you can make it nice and straight forward by studying each selection for 2 weeks!  (Well, yes, it is obvious... but it takes me a while sometimes to catch on.)
*AO terms are as follows, Term 1 / Sept-Nov; Term 2 / Jan-Mar; Term 3 / Apr-June

Helpful links:
Ludwig van Beethoven - classics for kids
AWESOME resource - by arts alive! canada (39 pages - pg11-35 has info in kid-friendly format and workbook activities, if you're into those)
Beethoven squidoo w/ LOTS of info
Mini-unit study from HomeschoolShare with coloring sheet, copywork selections and other notebook pages... if your kids like that sort of thing) - having the book is not necessary to using the resources.