Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Begun

I am now about one quarter of the way through this latest Great Course, Beethoven's Piano Sonatas.

"Why are you listening to this?" you might ask.

Well, if you have been following my progress through the Teaching Company's Great Courses, you might remember that I have taken two music courses.  They were both taught by Dr. Robert Greenberg, and yes, this course is also.

I have learned so much about music in this way, and that has allowed me to appreciate it even more.

But why Beethoven?

It happens that one of my friends, Pascal, asked me this summer which composer I preferred, Mozart or Beethoven.  I told him that this was a tough question.  The music of each was so good.  But, if I had to pick, I would pick Mozart.  I gathered from Pascal's reaction that he would have chosen the other way.

I then had to admit to myself that I have given much more of a chance to Mozart's music over the years.  Probably because of the movie Amadeus.  In any case, I had not heard much Beethoven.  And I recalled that Dr. Greenberg described how each of these composers, whose lives actually overlapped a little, wrote music remarkably differently than those around them.  How?  Well, that is one of the key points of this course.

Beethoven was raised in a Classical period, and Mozart was the genius of Classical music.  Beethoven broke away from the definitions of Classical.  Consequently, it has been very important for my appreciation of this course that I took the prior courses, particularly How to Listen to and Understand Great Music.

I will write again, I am certain, when this course is done.  But I can already tell -- Schroeder was onto something.