57 Fun Facts About Beethoven

Which rock 'n' roll pioneer wrote and first recorded 'Roll Over Beethoven'?

Chuck Berry: he wrote it as a dig at his sister Lucy, who kept the family piano busy with classical music when he wanted to play.

In which country do rubbish trucks play Beethoven's 'Für Elise' to call residents out with their trash?

Taiwan: the tune tells people to bring their rubbish out to the truck, part of the clean-up of a place once nicknamed 'Garbage Island'.

When Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Ninth to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, which word replaced 'Joy'?

Freedom: Bernstein leaned on an old, unproven theory that the poem's 'joy' was really code for freedom.

Which composer met the young Beethoven in Bonn, then took him on as a pupil in Vienna?

Joseph Haydn: when Haydn set off for England again in 1794, Beethoven chose to stay in Vienna and never returned to Bonn.

In which Stanley Kubrick film is the violent young Alex devoted to 'Ludwig van'?

A Clockwork Orange: the aversion therapy meant to cure Alex's violence also leaves him sickened by the Beethoven he loves.

Beethoven's father billed him as younger than he really was; why?

To look like a child prodigy: his father hoped to copy the fame Leopold Mozart had won by touring young Wolfgang.

Which teacher, Beethoven's most important in Bonn, helped get his first work published?

Christian Gottlob Neefe: by 11 the boy was playing Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, which Neefe had put into his hands.

Beethoven's grandfather, also named Ludwig, rose to which post at the Bonn court in 1761?

Kapellmeister: he had first been passed over for Touchemoulin, a much younger violinist, before winning the post.

Which pupil of Beethoven joined two princes in promising him a yearly pension to keep him in Vienna?

Archduke Rudolf: he kept paying his share after Prince Kinsky died in a riding accident and Prince Lobkowitz went bankrupt.

From about 1818, how did visitors communicate with the almost totally deaf Beethoven?

Writing in notebooks: about 140 of these 'conversation books' survive, and his secretary Anton Schindler later slipped fake entries into some of them.

Which inventor built ear trumpets for Beethoven, then quarrelled with him over who owned a piece of music?

Johann Nepomuk Maelzel: the piece was 'Wellington's Victory', which Beethoven had first written for Maelzel's mechanical orchestra.

After his brother Kaspar died in 1815, Beethoven fought sister-in-law Johanna over custody of whom?

His nephew Karl: Beethoven won custody, but after years of bitter quarrels Karl tried to shoot himself in 1826.

Beethoven's Fifth is on the golden records carried beyond the planets by which spacecraft?

Voyager 1 and 2: Carl Sagan's team built the records for any spacefaring civilisation that finds them, with greetings in 55 languages beside the music.

Which English piano maker presented Beethoven with one of its instruments in 1818?

Broadwood: Beethoven kept it for the rest of his life and seems to have preferred it to the Érard he had been given in 1803.

What startled the room as Beethoven died, by Hüttenbrenner's account?

Thunder: Beethoven opened his eyes, raised his right hand with his fist clenched, and then died.

Which Peanuts character lives at a house number that matches Beethoven's birth year?

Schroeder: Charles Schulz's own favourite composer was Brahms, but he gave Schroeder Beethoven because the name sounded funnier.

The dying Beethoven murmured 'Pity, pity, too late!' when a gift from Schott of Mainz arrived; what was it?

A case of wine: that remark, not the famous 'Applaud, friends, the comedy is over', was his last recorded line.

To whom did Beethoven originally dedicate his Third Symphony before scratching the name off?

Napoleon Bonaparte: told Napoleon had made himself France's monarch, Beethoven reportedly called him a would-be tyrant and tore the title page in two.

What is the Italian nickname of Beethoven's Third Symphony?

Eroica: that title came only after Beethoven, in a rage, tore up the original title page and had it copied out again, his pupil Ferdinand Ries recalled.

The four-note opening of Beethoven's Fifth resembles the Morse code for which letter?

V: dot-dot-dot-dash is Morse V, for Victory, so in 1941 the motif became the BBC's wartime interval signal.

At Beethoven's marathon 1808 concert, which new work fell apart so badly that he stopped and restarted it?

The Choral Fantasy: it was barely finished in time to rehearse, and some players miscounted their rests.

In which key is Beethoven's Fifth Symphony written?

C minor: the 'Fate knocking at the door' idea is a story from his secretary Anton Schindler, whom experts often doubt.

Beethoven's five-movement Sixth Symphony backs centaurs and mythological gods in which Disney film?

Fantasia: Disney's myths are far from the scenes Beethoven himself spelled out in his movement titles.

What is the nickname of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, which he called 'more the expression of feeling than painting'?

Pastoral: the programme at its 1808 premiere billed it as Symphony No. 5, with today's Fifth listed as No. 6.

Which movement of Beethoven's Seventh drew an immediate encore at its 1813 premiere?

The Allegretto: the concert raised money for soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau.

Which of Beethoven's symphonies did he fondly call 'my little Symphony in F'?

The Eighth: asked why it was less popular than the Seventh, Beethoven reportedly said it was because the Eighth is so much better.

The finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sets a poem by which German writer?

Friedrich Schiller: yet the first words sung, 'O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!' ('not these sounds!'), are Beethoven's own, not Schiller's.

Who turned the deaf Beethoven around to see the applause at the 1824 premiere of the Ninth Symphony?

Contralto Caroline Unger: the players had been told to follow Michael Umlauf and ignore Beethoven's beat, and he was unaware of the ovation.

The 'Ode to Joy' melody from the Ninth Symphony was adopted in 1972 as the official anthem of which body?

Council of Europe: EU leaders adopted the same melody in 1985, and the official anthem has no words, only music.

German prisoners of war gave which country its first performance of Beethoven's Ninth, now a year-end favourite there?

Japan: the 1918 concert came from the Bandō camp, where the Japanese staff allowed a lively cultural life, and exchanges with local people outlasted the camp.

Which city's Philharmonic Society paid Beethoven for his Ninth Symphony before its 1824 premiere in Vienna?

London: yet Beethoven dedicated the printed score to King Frederick William III of Prussia.

What is the title of Beethoven's only opera?

Fidelio: it opened in November 1805 while French troops occupied Vienna, and Beethoven kept reworking it until 1814.

Under what disguise does Leonore infiltrate the prison in Beethoven's opera?

A guard: the disguise fools the jailer's daughter Marzelline, who falls in love with her.

Which kind of short piano piece is Beethoven's 'Für Elise'?

A bagatelle: it was published only in 1867, forty years after his death, from a manuscript that has never been found.

In which key is 'Für Elise' written?

A minor: its title may be a misreading, since some scholars think the manuscript really said 'Für Therese', for Therese Malfatti.

Which poet and critic inspired the nickname of Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata'?

Ludwig Rellstab: he likened the first movement to moonlight on a lake.

To which pupil did Beethoven dedicate the 'Moonlight' Sonata in 1802?

Countess Giulietta Guicciardi: he probably meant her when he wrote of a girl he loved who, unfortunately, was not of his class.

To whom was Beethoven's 1802 Heiligenstadt Testament, confessing despair over his deafness, addressed?

His brothers: he kept the letter among his papers, and it was published only after his death.

In which spa town, now in Czechia, did Beethoven write his 1812 'Immortal Beloved' letter?

Teplitz: the pencilled love letter turned up among his own papers after his death.

Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto is known in English-speaking countries by what nickname?

Emperor: he finished it in 1809, and when French guns shelled Vienna that May he hid in a cellar with pillows over his head.

Fearing a 'curse of the ninth' that had struck Beethoven, which composer tried to dodge it by not numbering a symphony?

Gustav Mahler: after passing off Das Lied von der Erde as a song cycle, he wrote a Ninth anyway and died with his Tenth unfinished.

Beethoven's 'Wellington's Victory' celebrates a British win over the French at which 1813 battle?

Vitoria: the piece was an instant hit with Vienna's concertgoers when it premiered that December.

Which violinist, the original dedicatee of Beethoven's 'Kreutzer' Sonata, premiered it by sight-reading at a morning concert?

George Bridgetower: after a reported quarrel over a woman, Beethoven moved the dedication to Rodolphe Kreutzer.

Beethoven's 'Hammerklavier' Sonata takes its name from a German word he wanted used instead of which term?

Pianoforte: in a burst of patriotism in 1817 he ordered German terms for his works, but only two sonatas carried the word.

What was Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, namesake of the 'Waldstein' Sonata, to Beethoven?

His friend and patron: ballet music Beethoven wrote for Waldstein in Bonn was credited to the count himself.

Which 12-year-old violinist played Beethoven's Violin Concerto in 1844 with Mendelssohn conducting?

Joseph Joachim: Beethoven finished the concerto so late that its first soloist, Franz Clement, reportedly played part of it at sight.

Beethoven's 1827 autopsy found which organ badly shrunken by disease?

His liver: in his final months doctors had operated on him four times to drain the fluid swelling his abdomen.

Beethoven's Egmont overture became an unofficial anthem of which 20th-century uprising?

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: the revolution's radio played its record again and again during the fighting.

In 1888 Beethoven's remains were moved from Währing to which famous Viennese burial ground?

Zentralfriedhof: Viennese disliked the new cemetery for lying far out of town, so the city added graves of honour to make it more attractive.

Which younger composer, who died just a year later, was among the torchbearers at Beethoven's funeral?

Franz Schubert: the next year he was buried near Beethoven in the village cemetery at Währing.

Which musician was a leading champion of Bonn's Beethoven Monument, unveiled in 1845?

Franz Liszt: when the project was close to collapse for lack of money, he raised funds for it with his concerts.

Which Viennese artist painted the 'Beethoven Frieze' for the 1902 Secession exhibition?

Gustav Klimt: meant to be scrapped after the show, it was saved, bought by the Jewish Lederer family, and seized by the Nazis in 1938.

The 1992 family comedy 'Beethoven' is named after a dog of which breed?

St. Bernard Beethoven is targeted by a vet who tests weapons on dogs and fakes an attack to get him, and the dad who never wanted a dog helps rescue him.

Beethoven's Op. 131 drives the plot of which film?

A Late Quartet (2012) follows a famous ensemble after its cellist, played by Christopher Walken, learns he has Parkinson's and plans Op. 131 as his farewell concert.

Which Beethoven symphony did a Viennese critic call 'a crass ogre, a stabbed, unbound writhing dragon'?

Beethoven wrote it during his 1802 stay in Heiligenstadt, at the same time as his despairing Testament, yet it is one of his sunniest works.

Beethoven's Missa solemnis was first performed in full in 1824 not in Vienna but in which city?

Saint Petersburg got the premiere because Beethoven's Russian patron Prince Nikolai Golitsyn arranged it; Vienna heard only three movements a month later.

Beethoven's Rondo a capriccio, Op. 129, is nicknamed 'Rage Over a Lost' what?

Penny: despite its late opus number, Beethoven wrote the rondo in the 1790s, and it was not published until 1828.