Author: georgepapajohn
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Beethoven’s Conceptual Motive or: Why Does the Fifth Symphony Need Trombones?
George Papajohn | Beethoven Glosses 1 It is more or less the general opinion that the opening motto of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony serves not just as a germ motive for the first movement, but occurs in some guise in the three subsequent movements as a unifying idea of sorts. This notion dates back at least…
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Beethoven Glosses: 0
A Brief Foreword Since moving to California in 2021, I have developed a few brief and casual analyses of moments in Beethoven’s music. Many of these have been shared with colleagues and students over the years, though I rarely formalized them in writing. For some, I have not yet come across any published work that…
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Found in Translation:
On Compositional Praxis in Andante Scherzoso Originally delivered as a virtual lecture on June 3rd, 2020 To discuss how I wrote Andante Scherzoso seems somewhat silly, and perhaps an almost embarrassing admission. On a cloudy day in winter, without any snow, I went for a walk down by the Milwaukee River and listened, occasionally jotting down notes on…
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In defense of Mahler 7’s Finale
I don’t intend this to be some sort of academic paper—I’ll still mention sources where ideas are not my own, although no formal citations are offered. Mahler’s Seventh symphony is one of the more esoteric of his works. It’s also very divisive. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a report of it that speaks…
George Papajohn: Composer 