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Do you know how many symphonies Beethoven wrote?

Ludwig van Beethoven

This Music quiz is called 'Ludwig van Beethoven' and it has been written by teachers to help you if you are studying the subject at middle school. Playing educational quizzes is a fabulous way to learn if you are in the 6th, 7th or 8th grade - aged 11 to 14.

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By all accounts Beethoven was a giant of Western classical music, overshadowed perhaps only by Bach. He is still one of the most famous and inspiring composers of all time.

Did you know that the third-largest crater on the planet Mercury is named after Beethoven? There have also been many films made about him and his music.

1 .

One of the most remarkable facts about Beethoven's life is that he spent his last 25 years or so with a major, and relevant, disability. What was this?

He went deaf

He lost the use of his right hand

He went blind

He suffered from fainting fits and lapses of memory

Beethoven lived from 1770 to 1827 and lost his hearing around 'halfway' in 1800. He continued to pound away at his piano and to compose music that he would never hear. He did not know the audience was applauding his final symphony (1824) until he turned round and could see them clapping.

2 .

As with many composers, several of Beethoven's greatest works were given titles or nicknames. Which ONE of these classical descriptive pieces was his work?

The Moonlight Sonata

Clair de Lune

The Raindrop Prelude

Butterflies in the Rain

Another piece that fairly recent beginners like to try (they rarely get far into it!) and which you'd almost certainly recognize at once. The other answers were from more recent composers (2: Debussy; 3: Chopin).

3 .

How many symphonies did he write, altogether?

It is strange how many great composers ended up writing this many, no more nor less.

4 .

Beethoven played a vital part in the development of many forms of music. Which of the following was NOT a field in which he was musically active?

The piano sonata

Brass bands

The string quartet

Symphonies

There are many classic examples in all the other genres.

5 .

We think of Beethoven as 'German' (born in Bonn, after all; but there 'wasn't a Germany' yet, as we know it, back then), but he did most of his work in another German-speaking city: which one?

Vienna

Venice

Berlin

Leipzig

Vienna seemed almost to be the center of the musical universe about 200 years ago.

6 .

There is one Beethoven piece that almost all learners of the classical piano try to play. It is dedicated to a woman (nobody quite seems to know exactly who she was), and its simple title is 'Fuer ~' (i.e., 'for') ... (what was her name?)

Suzanne

Maria

Elise

Grethe

The chances are that you would recognize Fuer Elise from its first four or five notes! (Try it!)

7 .

At least in the early days of the symphony as an art-form, how many movements ( = separate sections or pieces) would one symphony contain?

Two

Three

Four

Five

There would be a fairly fast or serious movement to begin with, another to end with; and in between, a 'slow movement' followed either by a minuet (a dance in triple-time) or a scherzo (a quick, usually more light-hearted movement).

8 .

Dramatic to the last, Beethoven died at the height of a thunderstorm and was buried with great honor. One of the close supporters at his funeral was another, younger composer who would die and be buried beside him the following year. Who was he?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Franz Schubert

'Papa' Jozef Haydn

Christoph von Gluck

This was indeed the young Schubert.

9 .

Many of these famous composers began their active learning and making of music at astonishingly young ages (some of them, of course, hadn't long to live, so an early start may have been no bad thing!). Which of these age data are believed to be correct for Beethoven?

First public piano performance aged 7; first published composition aged 13

First public piano performance aged 6; first published composition aged 11

First public piano performance aged 8; first published composition aged 14

First public piano performance aged 5; first published composition aged 12

If you are in middle school you had better look to your own laurels!

10 .

The German national anthem (as it now is) was composed by Beethoven's colleague Haydn, but a piece by Beethoven has now been adopted as the European Anthem. From which of Beethoven's larger works does this piece come?

The Fifth Symphony

The Ninth Symphony

One of his operas

The Requiem Mass

It is a fine, joyous, stirring piece for orchestra and singers.

Author: Ian Miles