The Unheard Beethoven

About the Unheard Beethoven

Who are these guys? What's wrong with them?

The MIDI files and the contents of this website are all produced by Mark S. Zimmer and Willem (sometimes also known as xickx). Willem is a computer programmer and lifelong Beethoven-lover in the Netherlands; Mark S. Zimmer is an attorney in Wisconsin, USA. They met in 1997 over the internet by talking on the DALnet #beethoven channel which xickx moderates, and where matters related to Beethoven and classical music in general are discussed (for more information on the #beethoven channel see http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/3948/), Both of them had over the preceding years developed an obsessive desire to accumulate recordings of all of Beethoven's works. Through the miracle of the internet, they were able to compare notes and see where each had been missing various items. But still, there were a multitude of works which sounded intriguing but which were unavailable on record or CD. Indescribable was their shock and horror upon learning the sheer quantity of works that really did exist but were quite inaccessible such as the Hess-list (containing 335 unknown works). Their shared frustration over the many works which had not been recorded was vented at about the same time as reasonably good computer soundcards became readily available.

Suddenly, the fog lifted, and they saw that they didn't need to wait for others to record and release the many missing pieces; they could, through creation of MIDI files, make their own "recordings" of these unheard pieces. Now they could hear these pieces, and in the process learned that there is indeed a wealth of interesting material amongst the unheard Beethoven. Willem and Zimmer assiduously began ferreting out these many mysterious pieces, with the tireless support of Patricia Elliott-Stroh, curator of the Ira F. Brilliant Beethoven Center at San Jose State University, and set to work on turning these scores into MIDI files.

After more than 100 MIDI files had been completed, Willem and Zimmer decided that they didn't want to keep all these unheard works to themselves; the world deserved to at least have an opportunity to hear all this unheard Beethoven. And now, the unheard Beethoven can be heard by you. We presently have on this site about 230 MIDI files, totalling more than ten hours of music. We trust that you will find much here that is, if nothing else, interesting and intriguing. We are still working on the other items which remain unheard, and will be adding more MIDI files from time to time.

Will My Soundcard Work?

For the best results on this site, you should have a good soundcard. For the orchestral pieces, you will need a soundcard with a large wavtable; soundcards which do not have a good wavtable may reproduce orchestral works as piano or other less likely instruments. Mark Zimmer uses an Ensoniq AudioPCI card with 8mb wavtable (now sold by Creative as the Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI); Willem (a.k.a. xickx) uses 1833/1835 soundcard, sound blaster compatible with wavtable. It is also possible to download software wavtables from the Internet at http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~hiroki/english/. With a proper soundcard, you can experience these MIDI files as a fairly close approximation of the recorded work with live musicians (provided you don't forget to enable your wavtable!). Of course, a MIDI file is no substitute for a genuine musician (MIDIS can often be more passionate than some (supposedly) living musicians!, but if the musicians aren't going to record these pieces, we have to get them to you somehow.

Thanks

We would like to thank our friends and families for their support in this project and putting up with the noise of MIDI files in progress. Willem wants to thank his cat Peter for graciously raising from the keyboard, thus allowing him to get on with the job. We particularly thank the Beethoven Center at San Jose State and the Beethoven-Archiv in Bonn for their generous assistance in tracking down elusive publications and unpublished manuscripts. Many, many thanks also to Steve Lange and Ivan Richwalski for setting up and hosting this website. This is strictly a non-profit effort of love, and we are gratified that others believe that this project is worth making available on the net.

The Legal Stuff

While the Unheard Beethoven website is dedicated to the dissemination of Beethoven's work as widely as possible, the content of this site and all MIDI files contained on this site are copyrighted by Mark S. Zimmer and/or Willem (aka xickx). Fair use of these MIDI files is encouraged; we ask, however, that in connection with any such use that the arranger of that particular MIDI file be credited and the URL of the Unheard Beethoven website be listed. Bulk download and copying and/or distribution of the MIDI files on this site is strictly prohibited. No more than 25 MIDI files may be downloaded or copied in any one day by one entity without the permission(s) of the copyright holder(s).

About the Project | Search the Works | "Seldom Heard" Beethoven | Our Links | Contributions