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Music GCSE: A profile of Beethoven

BBC Teach > Secondary Resources > GCSE Music > Howard Goodall's Story of Music

In this short film Howard Goodall offers a profile of Beethoven and his development from classical composer to romanticism.

Includes extracts from Jan Dussek's Piano Sonata Opus 35, Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, Eroica, and Pastoral Symphony.

This short film is from the BBC series, Howard Goodall's Story of Music.

Teacher Notes

This could be used as part of a composer study.

Ask students to compile a profile on Beethoven, with key dates and examples of compositions.

Students could also include an index of key terms associated with classical music. For example: sonata form, movement, symphony.

Students could also discuss how music is used to express and feelings and emotions.

Curriculum Notes

This short film will be useful for teaching music, particularly in the areas of music history, notation, composition, music theory and understanding styles.

More from Howard Goodall's Story of Music:

Notation and melodic movement
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Notation and melodic movement

How do you write down a melody? In this short film Howard Goodall gives an introduction to early notation and how music was first written down.

Harmony, intervals, triads and cadences
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Harmony, intervals, triads and cadences

In this short film Howard Goodall looks at the late medieval period and the development of harmony by composers such as John Dunstaple.

Harmony, dissonance and an introduction to opera
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Harmony, dissonance and an introduction to opera

In this short film Howard Goodall looks at the importance of Claudio Monteverdi, the 16th century composer who introduced more emotive, dissonant harmonies.

Key signatures, equal temperament and the 12-tone tuning system
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Key signatures, equal temperament and the 12-tone tuning system

In this short film Howard Goodall explains the origin of the 12-tone tuning system that has become the foundation of classical and popular western music.

Handel, the pianoforte and oratorio
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Handel, the pianoforte and oratorio

In this short film Howard Goodall explores 18th century music, the invention of the piano and the establishment of opera as a major art form.

Mozart, melodic writing and the symphony
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Mozart, melodic writing and the symphony

In this short film Howard Goodall analyses Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's importance in musical history, exploring his symphonies and operas, and his relationship to his contemporaries, Haydn and Beethoven.

Haydn, symphonies and melodic writing
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Haydn, symphonies and melodic writing

In this short film Howard Goodall analyses 18th century music, Joseph Haydn' impact on composition, and the rise of the symphony and opera as prominent musical forms.

Franz Liszt, symphonic poems and orchestral music
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Franz Liszt, symphonic poems and orchestral music

In this short film Howard Goodall profiles Franz Liszt and developments in 19th century music, including his innovations with themes of death and destiny.

Saint-Saëns and developments in French composition
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Saint-Saëns and developments in French composition

In this short film Howard Goodall asks how French composers changed the direction of music in the 19th century. Includes a focus on Erik Satie and Gabriel Fauré.

Debussy, world music and impressionism
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Debussy, world music and impressionism

In this short film Howard Goodall examines Claude Debussy and the transition away from traditional composition methods.

Shostakovich and the effects of Nazi rule on composers
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Shostakovich and the effects of Nazi rule on composers

In this short film Howard Goodall looks at how musicians such as Dmitri Shostakovich and Richard Strauss adapted to survive Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.

Minimalism and the advance of music technology
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Minimalism and the advance of music technology

In this short film Howard Goodall explores the rise of modern popular music such as hip hop and looks at music technology and sampling.

Stravinsky, Russian music and modernism
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Stravinsky, Russian music and modernism

In this short film Howard Goodall finds out how Igor Stravinksy's spiky, aggressive, complicated music took the musical establishment by storm in the early 20th century.

Blues and ragtime
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Blues and ragtime

In this short film Howard Goodall explores the origins of blues music and ragtime and looks at how the invention of recorded music popularised folk and spiritual African American music.