9/28 Online Books about Beethoven's Music

A little while ago I posted about all the "tell-all" Beethoven books available to view (in their entirety) on the internet.  Today's round up is a selection of books about B's music.  I actually have some of the books below in physical dead-tree form, but for search-ability and the ability to cut and paste (since I actually hate typing, believe it or not) these resources are very handy for daily blogging about Beethoven.

From Google Books:

Beethoven and his 9 Symphonies (Grove)
This is a very readable book with plenty of very brief music examples.  Sir George gives a good overview of the important themes and outstanding rhythms of each movement of the 9 Symphonies.  You only need a little music background to appreciate this.

Beethoven (Kinderman)
This version of Kinderman's book is the first edition. It has since been revised (which is why this version is available for free here I imagine).  A few degrees more technical than the Grove book, Kinderman does a great job of concentrating on the music in greater depth and covers all the important works including the string quartets, piano sonatas and other chamber works.  To savored slowly.

There's alot more here.

From The Internet Archive:

Beethoven Studies (Misch, 1953)
A pretty interesting collection of topics about B's music - individual essays covering specific works and concepts, haven't read it yet but looks pretty good.
Here's the TOC:
i The Grand Fugue 3
ii Alia danza tedesca 14
in Two B Flat Major Themes 19
iv The Finale of the C Major Quartet 3 2
v The "Problem" of the D minor Sonata 3 9
vi T*wo Comments on the A Flat Major Sonata 54
vn The Thematic Treatment of the Egmont Overture 76
vni Pseudo and Riddle Canons by Beethoven 106
ix Why Did Beethoven Write the Fourth Overture to Fidelio? 139
x The Battle of Victoria 153
xi Annotations on Some Piano-forte Sonatas 163
xn "The Upper Pitches of the Voices ...." 167
xiii Beethoven Studies
xm Non si fa una cadenza 1 7 1
xiv Fidelia : an Ethical Confession 179

Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas (Elterlein)
A somewhat dated overview of each of B's piano sonatas, each sonata gets it's own chapter.  Actually how dated can it be, Beethoven can't exactly make revisions now can he?  Not too technical, more descriptive.No music examples.

Analysis of form in Beethoven's Sonatas (Harding)
This is an awesome book for structural analysis, like the kind I do on this blog.  Harding charts out the structure of each piano sonata with accompanying notes.  Why is this not in bookstores?  Next to the Tovey "Guide to the Pianoforte Sonatas" this is the one to go to.  Not cut-and-paste-able unfortunately (otherwise I could practically do an HOURLY Beethoven blog).

Here you find a whole truckload of Beethoven books.  Even the one by Wagner.  (Spoiler alert - if you ever come across Wagner's account of how he met Beethoven - it's a fantasy.  Interesting read tho).

Read all those books and you can start your own daily Beethoven blog!