Beethoven Course - Musical Terms

Main Musical Formats in Beethoven's Era          Wiki Article:  Musical Forms by Era 


Orchestral Music

     Symphony  -  strings, woodwinds, brass & percussion, usually in four movements.

     Concerto  -  one or more featured lead instruments (piano, cello, violin, trumpet, horn, flute)
                        with an orchestra, usually in three movements.

     Others:

           Overtures (opening music to an opera or play)

           Program music  - 
            
           Often, but not necessarily, a single movement of music written for a special purpose
           (e.g. Beethoven's Wellington's Victory (1813) celebrates the defeat of the French army in Spain).
 
           Also, a symphony about a specific subject (Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, Hector Berlioz's
           Symphony Fantastique) is program music.

           Symphonic Poem (Tone Poem) -

           A  single movement orchestra piece (usually program music) common in the later
          19th century (e.g.  Richard Strauss'  Also Sprach Zarathrustra, 
          the theme music to the movie 2001, A Space Odyssey).   


Chamber Music

     String Trios - 1 Violin, 1 Viola, & 1 Cello  or  2 Violins & a Cello

     String Quartet - 2 Violins, 1 Viola, 1 Cello

     String Quintet - 2 Violins, 2 Violas, 1 Cello or 2 Violins, 1 Violas, 2 Cellos  

     Piano Quartet or Quintet (piano with 3 or 4 string players)

     Sextets (6 musicians), Septets (7 musicians) & Octets (8 musicians) 


     (There are also wind trios, quartets, quintets, etc. of flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, and English and French Horns)


Sonatas 
  
     Piano Sonata - a multi-movement solo piano piece

     Other sonatas - one instrument (violin, cello, clarinet, etc) and piano.
 
     A bagatelle is a short piece ,"a trifle".  Fur Elise is Beethoven's most famous piano bagatelle.


Vocal or Choral music 

     Opera - A story with lead singers, chorus, and orchestra that tells a story in two to four acts (Wagner wrote several four hour operas)

    Religious music - Masses (Beethoven wrote 2, Mozart's Requiem),  Oratorio (Handel's Messiah)

    Secular music -  Lied (plural: lieder) (art songs)
                              Song Cycles (multiple lieder on a theme) 


Beethoven's Most Used Musical Forms:

Note:  In some cases, musical forms can be used on other forms, e.g.  Sonata Form - Used in sonatas, first movements of symphonies, concertos, string quartets, etc.  In general;  1)  an exposition,  2)  a development, and 3)  a recapitulation.


Sonata-Rondo

Concerto-Sonata

Theme and variations - e.g. Beethoven's 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120, 1819 - 1823


Fugue  

Canon


(Italian) Musical Temp Markings (i.e. Allegro, Andante, etc)  

     Wiki Article:  Musical Tempo Markings.