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Where can I find a thematic index to the works of Beethoven? In many hymn books there is a tune which is supposed to be from one of his works, but I do not recognize it and would like to find out if it is from his output or not.

Aaron
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Christina Eastwood
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  • There are quite of few thematic catalogues of Beethoven's works available online (e.g. here: http://www.henle.com/us/detail/index.html?Title=Ludwig+van+Beethoven_2207), but if you don't know which Beethoven work you're looking for, you could end up searching for a long time. Have you tried putting the melody into http://www.musipedia.org ? Could you post the melody as part of your question? This would really help, as somebody might recognise it... – Bob Broadley Jul 02 '15 at 19:01
  • You must be talking about his "Ode to Joy" from his Symphony No. 9. Or something else? –  Jul 06 '15 at 22:19
  • Wikipedia is generally pretty good at providing lists like this, assuming all you want is a list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Ludwig_van_Beethoven – Lin Jul 10 '15 at 17:12
  • On the other hand, what are the titles of some of the hymns which use this melody from Beethoven ? As @user546 says, melody is likely to be "Ode to Joy", but some searching reveals that other melodies from Beethoven have also been adapted as hymn tunes. – Angst Apr 10 '16 at 13:27

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  • There is an online index of some of his best-known themes: Beethoven — Thematic Index.
  • There is a complete index published by Henle: Beethoven: Thematic-Bibliographical Catalogue of Works. (This is a revised edition of the catalog cited below by Kinsky and Halm.)
  • "The standard thematic and bibliographical catalogue of Beethoven's works" (Wikipedia): Kinsky, G. and H. Halm. Das Werk Beethovens: thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner sämtlichen vollendeten Kompositionen. München: G. Henle, 1955. OCLC 334667. (Also published by Henle, but not the same as the one linked above.)

Both editions of Kinsky and Halm are widely available, particularly in university libraries.

Aaron
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