Exhibition

Find out what it sounds like to be part of an orchestra. The walk-in sound exhibition “Inside Beethoven!” combines the latest musicological research with modern sound engineering to create a spectacular experience of being right inside the music – a perspective which is normally a closed book for the public and reserved for the musicians themselves.

You are invited to walk between the digital music stands and put yourself in the musicians’ shoes – an unusual, enriching experience for amateurs and professionals alike. This will shed light on the music itself, its polyphonic structure, the part played by each individual instrument, its contribution to the overall sound and its significance in the music as a whole.

Photo: Simon Waloschek

Visitors will hear Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet in E flat major op. 20, both the version for winds and strings and Beethoven’s own trio arrangement for piano, clarinet and cello. Each individual part and the changes made for the trio arrangement can be followed at digital music stands as the music plays.

“Inside Beethoven!” is an innovative joint project which was realized at Detmold University of Music in commemoration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday. The exhibition will be touring Germany and Austria during 2020 and 2021.

The installation can be experienced at the German National Library in Frankfurt am Main from 30 July to 22 August 2020 and in the German Music Archive in Leipzig from 27 August to 27 October 2020 as an accompaniment to the conference “Beethoven 2020/2030: Music in the Digital Present and Future”.

A publication and CD has been published to accompany the sound installation: "Inside Beethoven! Das begehbare Ensemble". Edited by Axel Berndt and Joachim Veit, Bonn 2019. The publication is available at 18.00 Euros at both of our sites during the exhibition period and can also be purchased from bookstores.

The exhibition at the German National Library is being funded by monies provided by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media in connection with Germany’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.