List of compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven

The musical works of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) are listed below. Two overlapping lists of Beethoven's works are presented here. The first is a listing of his most well-known works classified by genre. The second is a larger list of works, classified by various numbering systems. Years in parentheses denote dates of composition or publication.

The most common methods of numbering Beethoven's works are by Opus number, assigned by Beethoven's publishers during his lifetime, and by number within genre. For example, the 14th string quartet, published as Opus 131, may be referenced either as "String Quartet No. 14" or "the Opus 131 String Quartet".

Many works that were unpublished have been assigned either "WoO" or "Anh" numbers. For example, the short piano piece "Für Elise", is more fully known as the "Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59 ('Für Elise')". Some works are also commonly referred to by their nicknames, such as the 'Kreutzer' Violin Sonata, or the Eroica Symphony.

The listings that follow include all of these relevant identifiers. While other catalogues of Beethoven's works exist, the numbers here represent the most commonly used and widely known.

Contents

List of works by genre

Orchestral music

Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, nine concertos, and a variety of other orchestral music, ranging from overtures and incidental music for theatrical productions to other miscellaneous "occasional" works, written for a particular occasion. Of the concertos, seven are widely known (one violin concerto, five piano concertos, and one triple concerto for violin, piano, and cello); the other two are an unpublished early piano concerto (WoO 4) and an arrangement of the Violin Concerto for piano and orchestra (Opus 61a).

Symphonies

Once believed by some to be an early symphony by Beethoven, the "Jena" Symphony in C major is now thought to be by Friedrich Witt.[1]

Beethoven is believed to have intended to write a Tenth Symphony in the last year of his life; a performing version of possible sketches was assembled by Barry Cooper.[2]

Concerti

Other works for soloist and orchestra

Overtures and incidental music

Chamber music

Beethoven wrote 16 string quartets and numerous other forms of chamber music, including piano trios, string trios, and sonatas for violin and cello with piano, as well as works with wind instruments.

Trios

Piano trios

The numbering of Beethoven's twelve piano trios is fairly arbitrary, and other than the three trios in Op. 1 as being Nos. 1 through 3, sources including both recordings and authoritative publications use other numberings from those shown here, or more frequently, none at all. It's more usual to identify a piano trio only by its catalog number and key.

Piano quartets
String trios
Other

String quartets

Early
Middle
Late

String quintets

Chamber music with winds

Hess 19: Wind Quintet in E-flat

Sonatas for solo instrument and piano

Violin sonatas
Cello sonatas
Horn sonatas

Solo piano music

In addition to the 32 celebrated sonatas, Beethoven's work for solo piano includes many one-movement pieces, notably more than twenty largely unpublished sets of variations and over thirty bagatelles, including the well-known Für Elise.

Piano sonatas

Variations

Bagatelles

Other works

Vocal music

While he completed only one opera, Beethoven wrote vocal music throughout his life, including two Mass settings, other works for chorus and orchestra (in addition to the Ninth Symphony), arias, duets, art songs (lieder), and true song cycles.

Opera

Choral

Song

Folksong Arrangements

Secular Vocal Works

Music for Wind Band

List of works by number

The following is a list of Beethoven's works, sorted by Opus number, followed by works listed as WoO in the Kinsky-Halm catalog, and then works listed in the appendix of that catalog, which are given "Anh" numbers, whose composition by Beethoven has since been verified. These are followed by additional works listed in the catalog of Willy Hess that are not otherwise listed in the Kinsky-Halm catalog. The chronologically comprehensive Biamonti Catalogue is not listed here.

Works with opus numbers

Works without opus numbers

Works with WoO numbers

The numbers and categories used below are from the Kinsky catalog of 1955. WoO is an abbreviation of "Werke ohne Opuszahl", German for "Works without Opus number".

Instrumental works: WoO 1–86
Orchestral works

Orchestra alone

Concertante

Dances

Marches and dances for winds

Chamber works

Without piano

With piano

Piano works for 2 or 4 hands

Sonatas and single-movement works

Variations

Dances

Vocal works: WoO 87–205
Cantatas, choruses and arias with orchestra
Works for multiple voices with piano accompaniment, or unaccompanied
Lieder and songs for solo voice and piano
Folksong arrangements for one or more voices, with piano trio accompaniment
Vocal canons
Musical jokes, quips, and dedications

Works with Anhang (Anh) numbers

These are works from the Appendix (Anhang in German) of Kinsky's catalog that were attributed to Beethoven at the time the catalog was compiled, but might not have been written by him.

Anh 7 through 18 are works known by Kinsky to not have been written by Beethoven, but that were previously falsely attributed to him.

Selected works with Hess (H) numbers

These works have numbers that were assigned by Willy Hess. Many of the works in the Hess catalog also have WoO numbers; those entries are not listed here.

Works with Biamonti Numbers

Notes

  1. ^ Leavis, Ralph; Stanley Sadie (1980). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Macmillan Publishers Limited. ISBN 0-3332-3111-2. 
  2. ^ "Beethoven: The Immortal". http://www.lucare.com/immortal/cooper.html. Retrieved 20 November 2008. 
  3. ^ http://www.unheardbeethoven.org/search/search.pl?piece=hess15h.mid
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Howard Ferguson's 1986 edition of the Bagatelles for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music includes six of the piano pieces without opus numbers as they are "very similar in character to Bagatelles, though lacking that specific title". Other sources vary in whether they describe individual pieces as bagatelles or by their tempo markings.
  5. ^ a b Lühning 1997.

References

Catalogues and bibliographies
Works collections (scores)
Books

External links