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Beethoven’s Freude theme—or “Ode to Joy”—is perhaps the most iconic melody ever created. This book sets out to show why the Freude theme has acquired this almost mythic status and what its use in the finale of the Ninth Symphony reveals about the mechanics of tonal composition. The book explains how the finale of the Ninth Symphony offers a crash course in music theory made possible by Beethoven’s extensive training with Neefe, Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and others, and his enormous library of theory treatises, by the likes of Fux, C. P. E. Bach, Riepel, and Koch. That course covers everything from the basics of tonal voice leading and motivic development to advanced topics such as double counterpoint, canon, and ars combinatoria. The book also draws on details from his own students such as Ries and Czerny.
“Brown’s book ingeniously bridges the gap between music history and theory. He deconstructs not only the famous “Joy” theme itself, but explores, step by step, the evolution of the entire finale of the Ninth Symphony by showing how Beethoven drew upon the lessons he learned from older and contemporary theoretical sources. A brilliant accomplishment!”—David B. Levy, Professor Emeritus, Wake Forest University, USA, and the author of Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony (Yale University Press, 2003).
"Matthew Brown’s Learning with Ludwig is a celebration of Beethoven’s An die Freude theme. Liberally illustrated with musical examples, Brown reveals his breadth of scholarship in a most accessible manner, and explores the theme with a variety of techniques through a virtuosic synthesis of ideas by such diverse and renowned theorists as Fux, C.P.E. Bach, Kirnberger, Koch, Czerny, and Schenker. While the latter’s influential monograph on the Ninth Symphony looms large, Brown also draws on many of the Viennese theorist’s later ideas, as well as other, more recent analytical methods. This comprehensive look at the theme culminates in a remarkable book on the Finale of Beethoven’s magnum opus from the perspectives of theory, history, and aesthetics.”—Professor Eric Wen, City University of New York, USA.
“This book offers a backstage pass into Beethoven’s workshop during the creation of the Ode to Joy. Brown maps Beethoven’s compositional world—from melodic design, variation, and text setting to harmony, counterpoint, and form—while placing improvisation at the center of the creative process. Step by step, he follows the Ode from modest sketchbook materials to its full-scale, powerhouse realization, culminating in double-fugue counterpoint. Drawing on figures as diverse as Darwin and Schenker, Fux and C. P. E. Bach, Brown delivers a historically informed, alltools-on-deck exploration of Beethoven’s musical thinking—an inside–out view that is unusually comprehensive and insightful.”—Dr Brian Ciach, San Jose State University, USA.
Born in London, Matthew Brown is a British American musicologist who specializes in tonal theory and the music of Claude Debussy. He is currently Professor of Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.
List of Examples; Lesson Plan; Lesson One Creating Tonal Melodies; Lesson Two Shaping Tonal Melodies; Lesson Three Harmonizing Tonal Melodies; Lesson Four Extending Tonal Melodies; Lesson Five Combining Tonal Melodies; Lesson Six Ars Combinatoria; Lesson Seven Improvising Tonal Cadenzas; Lesson Eight Improvising Tonal Forms; Bibliography; Index;