Glossary

The vocabulary of Beethoven's world, in plain language. Every term used on this site is defined here.

Adagio

“At ease” — a slow tempo marking, slower than andante. Beethoven’s great adagios (the Ninth’s third movement, Op. 106’s) are among his most profound pages.

Allegro

“Cheerful” — a fast, lively tempo. Most Beethoven first movements are some flavor of allegro.

Andante

“Going” — a moderate walking tempo, between adagio and allegro.

Bagatelle

A short, light piano piece. Für Elise (WoO 59) is a bagatelle — the most famous one ever written.

Cantata / Choral finale

A work for voices with instrumental accompaniment. The Ninth Symphony’s finale is the first symphonic movement to use soloists and chorus.

Coda

“Tail” — the concluding section of a movement. Beethoven’s codas are famously enormous: the Fifth Symphony’s finale coda feels like a second development.

Concerto

A work for solo instrument(s) with orchestra. Beethoven wrote five piano concertos, one violin concerto, and the Triple Concerto.

Conversation books

The notebooks Beethoven carried from 1818 in which visitors wrote their half of conversations. One side of the dialogue survives; Schindler destroyed many of them.

Counterpoint

The art of combining independent melodic lines. Beethoven’s late style fuses Baroque counterpoint (fugue) with his own dramatic language.

Development

The middle section of sonata form, where themes are broken apart and recombined. Beethoven’s developments — the Eroica’s above all — became the music’s dramatic battlefield.

Exposition

The opening section of sonata form, presenting the main themes. Traditionally repeated in early works; Beethoven often wrote out the repeat with changes.

Fortepiano

The early piano of Beethoven’s lifetime — lighter, wood-framed, with leather-covered hammers. His music was written for its sound and its (growing) range, not the modern grand’s.

Fugue

A contrapuntal form in which a theme (subject) is imitated by each voice in turn. The Große Fuge, the Hammerklavier finale, and passages of the Missa Solemnis are Beethoven’s great fugues.

Große Fuge

“Great Fugue” — Op. 133, originally the finale of the Op. 130 quartet; published separately. Stravinsky called it “an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever.”

Heiligenstadt Testament

Beethoven’s unsent 1802 letter to his brothers, confronting his deafness and resolving to live for his art. Quoted verbatim in The Deafness Story.

Kapellmeister

Music director of a court or chapel — the post Beethoven’s grandfather held at Bonn, and the career Beethoven declined to pursue after 1792.

Maestoso

“Majestic” — a tempo/mood marking. The Missa Solemnis’s “Gloria” and the Ninth’s slow movement carry maestoso weight.

Minuet and trio

The stately third-movement dance of the Classical symphony — which Beethoven replaced with the scherzo.

Motif / motive

A short musical cell (the Fifth’s four notes) that a movement is built from. Beethoven’s sketchbooks show motifs reworked dozens of times.

Ode to Joy

Schiller’s 1785 poem An die Freude, set by Beethoven in the Ninth Symphony’s finale (1824) — now the anthem of the European Union (melody only, no words, adopted 1985).

Opus (Op.)

“Work” — the catalogue number of a published composition. WoO (Werk ohne Opuszahl) marks works published without opus number, like Für Elise (WoO 59).

Recapitulation

The closing section of sonata form, restating the exposition’s themes in the home key. Beethoven often disguises or delays it for drama.

Rondo

A form alternating a refrain with episodes (A-B-A-C-A…). Several Beethoven finales — the Pathétique’s, the Waldstein’s — are rondos.

Scherzo

“Joke” — the fast, driving third movement that replaced the minuet in Beethoven’s symphonies and quartets. Often Beethoven’s most rhythmically radical music.

Sketchbooks

Beethoven’s working notebooks, full of drafts, revisions, and rejected ideas. They prove his music was labor, not dictation — themes reworked dozens of times.

Sonata form

The structural mold of most first movements: exposition (themes presented), development (themes transformed), recapitulation (themes return), often with introduction and coda. Beethoven stretched it to symphonic drama — see Musical Innovations.

String quartet

Two violins, viola, cello — the most intimate and intellectually demanding chamber form. Beethoven’s sixteen quartets run from apprenticeship (Op. 18) to the otherworldly late five.

Symphony

A large-scale orchestral work, usually in four movements. Beethoven’s nine (1800–1824) redefined the form’s scale and ambition.

Theme and variations

A form presenting a theme then transforming it repeatedly. The Eroica’s finale and Op. 111’s second movement are monumental variation sets.

Tutti

“All” — a passage for the full ensemble, as opposed to soloists. The Ninth’s finale alternates soloists, chorus, and full tutti.

Source notes

• Definitions follow standard musicological usage; German terms give Beethoven’s own markings where used.
• The EU anthem adoption (1985, melody only): Council of Europe / European Union records.
• Stravinsky on the Große Fuge: reported remark, widely cited — treated as reported.