Just a book of Beethoven, why is this hard?
July 31, 2020 9:52 AM Subscribe
I had a great Beethoven Piano book growing up, it had to bought in the early 80s. I would love to find that one, but if not, just a complete book of Beethoven will be great but everything I find online seems to have just have pieces of his piano works or is otherwise edited for ease. Pbbt. I don't feel like this should be hard.
I just got a piano in the first time in forever, I am raring to go, I was working on this book and I'd like to pick up where I left off. For example, got the first two movements of Moonlight down, ready to tackle the crazy third. Almost mastered the first part of Pathetique and lots of the second. I lost it in a very silly turn of events involving very drunk and earnest artsy grad students. I would like to replace it for my mom as an apology for being a terrible spoiled early adult and for me, because it was a good book.
I remember that it started with a lovely little shortish piece that usually isn't attributed to him. It had the complete versions of everything you'd guess, Fur Elise, Moonlight, Pathitique. The cover was green and had him looking to the left in a slightly stylized version of the portrait that is a lot of piano books of his works. It wasn't so huge that it was unwieldy and just a regular bound paperback book.
If I can't find that, I would at least like a more or less complete piano collection of his works that is not dumbed down at all. At the least it should contain the ones I've mentioned, but there are a lot more than I can remember. I would like it to be able to sit on the piano and I don't have to run off copies of pieces to make it easier to read and turn pages. Can anyone help?
I just got a piano in the first time in forever, I am raring to go, I was working on this book and I'd like to pick up where I left off. For example, got the first two movements of Moonlight down, ready to tackle the crazy third. Almost mastered the first part of Pathetique and lots of the second. I lost it in a very silly turn of events involving very drunk and earnest artsy grad students. I would like to replace it for my mom as an apology for being a terrible spoiled early adult and for me, because it was a good book.
I remember that it started with a lovely little shortish piece that usually isn't attributed to him. It had the complete versions of everything you'd guess, Fur Elise, Moonlight, Pathitique. The cover was green and had him looking to the left in a slightly stylized version of the portrait that is a lot of piano books of his works. It wasn't so huge that it was unwieldy and just a regular bound paperback book.
If I can't find that, I would at least like a more or less complete piano collection of his works that is not dumbed down at all. At the least it should contain the ones I've mentioned, but there are a lot more than I can remember. I would like it to be able to sit on the piano and I don't have to run off copies of pieces to make it easier to read and turn pages. Can anyone help?
Is this it? On Amazon the cover looks black but seems like in some cases green.
posted by lemonade at 10:12 AM on July 31, 2020
posted by lemonade at 10:12 AM on July 31, 2020
Hmm maybe not, I missed the part about late 80s. It does have the pieces mentioned though, so might still work. Do you remember how big the book was? Because looks like he wrote about 70 solo piano works, so to complete learning it would be a pretty big job.
posted by lemonade at 10:23 AM on July 31, 2020
posted by lemonade at 10:23 AM on July 31, 2020
Response by poster: I don't want to thread sit but to add more detail. Maybe 200ish pages, maybe more. I am sure it wasn't "complete" after looking at some lists.
The portrait is def. a version of the portrait that you can see here. Looking to the left and all. It is really hard to tell when there isn't a note on whether or not it has been arranged and what all it includes. the one linked is promising since it looks like the original arrangements.
posted by stormygrey at 10:30 AM on July 31, 2020
The portrait is def. a version of the portrait that you can see here. Looking to the left and all. It is really hard to tell when there isn't a note on whether or not it has been arranged and what all it includes. the one linked is promising since it looks like the original arrangements.
posted by stormygrey at 10:30 AM on July 31, 2020
Another option: Beethoven - Favorite Piano Works: Schirmer Library of Classics
posted by lemonade at 10:32 AM on July 31, 2020
posted by lemonade at 10:32 AM on July 31, 2020
Best answer: I feel like I'm hogging this thread, sorry, obviously a slow day. There's this one on eBay that has that portrait and is green... List of pieces in description also has the ones mentioned.
posted by lemonade at 10:44 AM on July 31, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by lemonade at 10:44 AM on July 31, 2020 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: I am glad you are a little bored because THAT IS FUCKING IT.
posted by stormygrey at 10:52 AM on July 31, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by stormygrey at 10:52 AM on July 31, 2020 [4 favorites]
Best answer: :D Excellent, that was fun! I saw there is at least one other copy in eBay, that looked like it had a spiral binding added which might be nice for keeping it open. Good luck!
posted by lemonade at 10:57 AM on July 31, 2020
posted by lemonade at 10:57 AM on July 31, 2020
Response by poster: Yeah, I saw that. I'm grabbing both so my poor mother can have one back. (Though not her painstaking pencil marks with accidentals and fingering cues, sigh. Selfish youth!)
posted by stormygrey at 11:00 AM on July 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by stormygrey at 11:00 AM on July 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
[just as a heads-up re. music books sold with "spiral binding added" on eBay. These are more often than not photo copies, dressed up like the real thing. Triple-check the quality of the reproduction in such a case; I've seen ones where the sixteenths- or thirty-seconds-beams were all caked together into one fat black line].
posted by Namlit at 11:22 AM on July 31, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Namlit at 11:22 AM on July 31, 2020 [3 favorites]
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