{+} Listening Journal

The readings in this lesson mention multiple times that ideas, personal expression, and themes characterized Beethoven’s work, especially after his early period of imitating Mozart.

• Take a piece not discussed at length in the reading (perhaps from the audio playlists), and explain how the opening section or movement displays the characteristics of a theme. At this stage in your learning, try to distinguish the tune (an important part of the piece you can hum) from a theme (a musical building block that gets used at different times, speeds, dynamics, and among different instruments).
• One of the ways to more easily hear the personal expression present in a lot of Beethoven’s works is to listen to a piano sonata and, immediately after, a harpsichord sonata by Handel or Bach. This is not to say that there is no expressiveness in the work of those earlier composers; but there is a recognizably different quality in how the compositions are written to take advantage of the elements of music—like frequent dynamic changes in Beethoven’s work.