The music unit of Writing 109HU includes a listening assignment: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in Eb major. You can choose any of the following ways to complete the assignment:

Visit the Music Library and listen to one of their recordings: The music listening library is upstairs in the Arts Library, located next to Lotte Lehman Concert Hall in the Music building. There are several good recordings available at the Music Service Desk. Recordings cannot be checked out, so you must listen to them at the Music Library with headphones; the person at the service desk will help you. Catalog number XCD 994 is a good recording.

If the particular recording you want is not available, ask the person at the service desk to help you find another (they usually have good taste), or look one up yourself by typing a beethoven into Pegasus and looking for that particular work, followed by <sound>. For those of you who can read music and would like to read the score as you listen, find the same listing followed by <musical score>. If all this sounds like too much trouble, choose one of the other methods.

Go to a store and buy a CD: It's a simple process; almost any recording will do. Most stores have a resident music snob who can help you out with more advice than you want.

Go to Amazon.com and buy a CD: I assume you know how to do this. Here's a link to one of my favorites: Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. You can watch him conduct this symphony on YouTube, but the sound isn't very good.

Listen online for free: NPR's story on the San Francisco Symphony includes a full-length recording; the audio link is at the top of the page.

Download it to your iPod or a similar gadget: If you own one of these, you know how to do it. Choose a brand-name orchestra, and you won't go wrong.