The Beethoven Thesaurus http://beethoven.multites.net/

User Guide Introduction

The Beethoven Thesaurus is a list of approximately 9,000 subject and category (formerly known as genre) terms used for searching in the library catalog of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, the Beethoven Bibliography Database (BBD), and to some extent the digital collections and auction index. As such, it is one component of a suite of five resources that make up the Beethoven Gateway, an online portal created by the Beethoven Center to assist with Beethoven research. The four other resources of the Beethoven Gateway are:

Beethoven Bibliography Database (BBD): beethovenbib.sjsu.edu

Beethoven Center catalog/OneSearch: library.sjsu.edu

Digital collections (image database): digitalcollections.sjsu.edu

Beethoven Auction Database: library.sjsu.edu/beethoven-auction-database

The online thesaurus provides an alphabetical list that can be browsed or searched by keywords. Terms are organized in hierarchies that can also lead researchers to related terms. Each listing might also include information on how indexers applied the term to a particular subject area.

For deep searching of the Center’s catalog and the BBD, we recommend using the Thesaurus for locating the most appropriate search terms for your research. In addition to serving as a tool for searching the Beethoven Gateway resources, the Beethoven Thesaurus is a helpful reference tool for identifying Beethoven’s works and the documents associated with his life and music. For example, a search using the phrase Fifth Symphony will direct you to the correct work number (Opus 67), and a search on the phrase Corrected copies will provide a list of all known manuscript sources under that category.

Please note that the terms in the thesaurus are not hyperlinked to the Beethoven Center’s databases. We recommend that you keep the Thesaurus open in a separate browser window while using the bibliographical databases, and then copying and pasting in terms in the search indexes of the bibliographical databases.

Access

The Beethoven Thesaurus is an open access database maintained in the Multites system and platform: http://beethoven.multites.net No user name or password is required for access.

Browsing terms in the Thesaurus

To browse terms in the nine hierarchies, click on the “top terms” button:

Then select from the displayed list:

• CATEGORIESTerms that describe the type or format of material (e.g. essays, biographies, academicdissertations, etc.) or sections within books (e.g. bibliographies, chronologies, etc.) These can besearched in the “category/genre” index of the BBD or as a keyword in the library catalog.

All of the other terms can be used in the “subject” index of the BBD or as keywords in the library catalog.

• DOCUMENTSTerms that identify all Beethoven manuscripts (e.g. Autographs, Corrected copies, Copies inother hands, Sketchbooks, etc.) and other documents of his life and work (e.g. Conversationbooks, Diaries, Letters, etc.), as well as terms associated with the study of those documents (e.g.Editing, Textual criticism, etc.)

• FREE-FLOATERS

Terms used as a subdivision to Beethoven’s name that describe Beethoven as a person, such as his physical appearance and character traits, relationship with other people, views on various subjects, his daily activities and events of his life (e.g. Alcohol use; Conducting; Travels; Guardianship; Views on critics, etc.)

• FREE-FLOATERS (SUPPLEMENTAL LIST)

Terms used as subdivisions to names other than Beethoven, including individuals (e.g. Liszt, Franz) and institutions (e.g. Beethoven-Haus) to identify specific activities, events, or ideas associated with the name.

• GENERAL SUBJECTS

Terms from fields external to music, such as general history, medicine, psychology, sociology, philosophy etc. (e.g. French Revolution; Economics---Vienna---1800, etc.).

• GEOGRAPHICAL SUBJECTS

Terms used to identify locations where Beethoven lived and worked, or locations of Beethoven-related events, which can be used alone (e.g. Vienna---Austria---History---19th century) or as subdivisions to topical headings (e.g. Travels---Prague; Romanticism---Literature---Germany; Opus 125---Performances---Prague---20th century, etc.).

• GRAPHIC MATERIALS

These terms describe different types of pictorial materials in the Beethoven Center’s collection and can be used as keywords when searching in the library catalog or the digital collections database. They are rarely used in BBD indexing.

• MUSIC TERMS

Terms that describe aspects of Beethoven’s musical compositions (e.g. Heroic style; Metronome markings; Key relationships; etc.) or approaches to the study of these works (e.g. Analysis; Criticism, etc.). Most of these can be used as subdivisions to specific Beethoven works; for example, a discussion of the Ninth Symphony that includes both historical information and analysis would be assigned the heading “Opus 125---Criticism---21st century.”

• WORKS LIST

Terms that classify Beethoven’s complete works by genre (e.g. Symphonies, Concertos, etc.) and identify each individual work by Opus, WoO, Hess, Anhang, or other thematic catalog number, with cross references. We use these thematic catalog numbers instead of the more generic labels for Beethoven’s works (for example, we use Opus 67 rather than Fifth Symphony or Symphony no. 5). However, a search on Symphony no. 5 in the Thesaurus will direct you to the correct opus number, or you can search on Symphonies to retrieve a complete list by opus number. As subject headings, work numbers will always be subdivided by a topical heading; or, in the case of more than one work qualified by a single topic, may appear as string in the BBD, e.g.:

Compositional process --- Opus 130 --- Opus 132 --- Opus 135

You can also browse terms in an alphabetical listing. This listing will show main terms as well as cross references:

For example, clicking on the letter “P” will display this first page of 473 terms that begin with that letter. The unused forms are displayed in italics with the correct terms listed underneath:

Searching for terms in the Thesaurus

In addition to browsing terms in the hierarchies, you can also search for specific terms. The options are:

The “terms which contain text” option is useful for discovering use of words within search phrases. For example, a search on the term “process” yields the following result:

The “terms that start with” option is useful for finding truncated keywords. For example, a search on the truncated term “harmon” will display subjects using the terms “harmonic” and “harmony.”

Interpreting the thesaurus record display

When you click on a specific term, the full thesaurus record will display. This record may include a scope note (SN), an indication of whether the term can be modified by date or other terms, as well as a list of broader (BT), narrower (NT), or related (RT) terms. These relationships will help you determine the most appropriate terms for your search in the bibliographical databases. An example is this detailed record for the term “analysis.”

Clicking on any of the hyperlinked terms will open up the full record for that term.

Using the Thesaurus as a reference tool

The Thesaurus is also useful for quickly generating lists of Beethoven’s works, autographs and their locations, locations of his homes, etc. For example, a search on the term Songs provides a

list of solo vocal music by work number. Titles of songs may also be searched to determine the correct opus number. For example, a search on An die Hoffnung leads to both Opus 32 and Opus 94. Common or popular titles are also entered as cross references; for example, a search on Rage over a lost penny leads to Opus 129.

Searches by particular Opus numbers will also generate a list of manuscript sources (except sketches). For example, a search on Opus 73 leads to various sources, including a correction list, which is described in the scope note.

Beethoven’s sketches are listed by manuscript name rather than work. However, the scope notes contain information about the content of particular sketches or sketchbooks. To find sources for a particular work, try searching the work number (e.g. 29 for Opus 29) in the “relationship contains word(s)” search type:

This will lead to a list of terms that include “29” (and potentially “Opus 29”) in the scope note:

The “29” could also be part of a date, another manuscript number, etc.

The Geographical Subjects hierarchy is quite broad but includes detailed lists of sites in Vienna and other locations that are pertinent to Beethoven research. For example, a search on Vienna leads to the narrower term “Vienna---Homes” and the many possible locations where Beethoven lived and worked:

Correspondence from, to, and about Beethoven is also listed under the broad term Letters, which is a narrower term within the Document hierarchy. Letters can be searched by the “Brandenburg” number (the listing in Beethoven Briefwechsel Gesamtausgabe edited by Sieghard Brandenburg) as well as cross references from numbers in the collections edited by Emily Anderson (as “Anderson L”), Theodore Albrecht (Albrecht L), and others:

These are only a few examples of how the Thesaurus itself can serve as a handy reference tool.

Updates

The Thesaurus is updated irregularly. To suggest new terms and report errors, please contact Patricia Stroh at: Patricia.Stroh@sjsu.edu.

We welcome your feedback!

Rev. 2/2020

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