Beethoven's musical style and innovations
Encyclopedia
Ludwig van Beethoven
is generally viewed as one of the most influential figures in the history of European classical music. Since his lifetime, when he was "universally accepted as the greatest living composer," Beethoven's music has remained among the most performed, discussed and reviewed. Scholarly journals are devoted to analysis of his life and work, he has been the subject of numerous biographies and monographs and his music was the driving force behind the development of Schenkerian analysis
. He is widely considered as among the most important Western composers, and along with Bach and Mozart, his music is the most frequently recorded.
Beethoven's stylistic innovations encompass two achievements. First, they brought the Classical form to its highest expressive level, expanding in formal, structural and harmonic terms the musical idiom developed by predecessors such as Mozart and Haydn. Additionally, they proved immensely influential over the musical language and thinking of the Romantic
era, whether as a source of direct inspiration, as with the music of Richard Wagner
and Johannes Brahms
, or in terms of defining a musical reaction against his stylistic language, as with music of Mendelssohn
.
's influential work Beethoven et ses trois styles (Beethoven and his Three Styles). Lenz proposed that Beethoven's creative output be marked by three periods of distinct stylistic personality and he identified specific compositions as milestones for each period. In Lenz's work, the first period opens with Beethoven's Trio set, Opus 1 and culminates with the performances in 1800 of his first symphony
and Septet
. The second period spans the period from the publication of his Moonlight Sonata
to the Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 90
in 1814. The last period covers Beethoven's mature works to his death in 1827.
Although later scholars have called into question such a simplistic categorisation, the periodisation is still widely used. Extensive subsequent analytical consideration of Lenz's thesis has resulted in a slight revision of his original dates and broad consensus regarding Beethoven's three periods is as follows:
Generally, each period demonstrates characteristic stylistic evolutions in Beethoven's musical language and preoccupations as well as important developments in the composer's personal life.
and heavily indebted to the works of contemporaries, especially Mozart and his teacher, Christian Gottlob Neefe
. These early efforts can be seen in a set of three Piano Sonatas
and Piano quartet
s (WoO 36) that Beethoven wrote before 1792. The Quartets, for instance, are each specifically modelled after three Violin sonata
s Mozart published in 1781 - K 296, 379 and 380 - and Beethoven would later draw upon this familiarity in the composition of several of his own Violin Sonatas.
Second, a number of more substantial and original works written after Beethoven moved to Vienna
and commenced studies with the famed Austrian composer and leading musical figure of the period, Joseph Haydn.
's influential Musikalischer Almanack compared Beethoven's efforts to those of rank beginners. Whatever the case, most of Beethoven's earliest works were written after he turned twenty, between 1790 and 1792. Some of this music was later published by Beethoven, or incorporated into later works. As such, they provide an important foundation for judging the later evolution of his style.
In general, Beethoven's earliest compositions show his struggles to master the prevailing classical style, both in structural and idiomatic terms. Several works, including two he later published, show the incipient signs of his later individual style: twelve Lieder, several of which he published in 1805 as Opus 52, his Wind Octet, later published as Opus 103, and several sets of Variations, including one (WoO 40) for violin and piano on Mozart’s aria Se vuol ballare
(later reworked in Vienna). Although these works largely conform to the formal conventions of the classical style, including a strict observance of form and, in the variations, the decorative filigree associated with the genre, they also show early signs of Beethoven's later tendency to more substantive treatment of thematic material.
In 1790, Beethoven was commissioned to write a funeral cantata (WoO 87) on the death of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Joseph II, the first of his extant compositions written in C minor. A number of concert arias also date to this period including "Prüfung des Küssens" (WoO 89) and "Mit Mädeln sich vertragen" (WoO 90).
Beethoven also produced numerous fragments of larger-scale works, including a symphonic movement (also written in C minor), a violin concerto, an oboe concerto, an early draft of his B-flat Piano concerto
(both now vanished), and a concertante for piano, flute and bassoon. Scholars generally regard these early efforts as bland and uninspired and have concluded that his first efforts at writing in the classical sonata style (with the exception of his Wind Octet) were poorly conceived. Gustav Nottebohm
, for example, wrote of Beethoven's Dressler Variations (WoO 63), "they show not a trace of contrapuntal independent part-writing. They are figural variations of the simplest kind". Téodor de Wyzewa
considered his early "Kurfürsten Sonatas" written in 1783 (WoO 47) as merely "correct imitations of Haydn.". Considered as a whole, Beethoven's compositional efforts in Bonn demonstrate the importance of his move to Vienna in terms of the development of his musical style and the sophistication of his grasp of classical form and idiom.
, a trip which secured Haydn's reputation, already considerable, as the foremost composer of his day. In addition to his association with Haydn, Beethoven also studied under Antonio Salieri
, who was among the most popular opera
tic composers then active, and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
, the leading expert on musical theory.
There is evidence that Beethoven composed very little for the first year or so after his arrival at Vienna, devoting his time instead to securing his position in the leading salon
s of the city as a performer and improviser. What little compositional activities did occupy Beethoven seem to have been put to revising earlier works (such as his Wind Octet, Op. 103) to conform to Viennese musical tastes. Between 1793 and 1795, Beethoven seems to have pursued his compositional studies diligently, working through ideas and texts such as Johann Joseph Fux's important treatise on counterpoint
, Gradus ad Parnassum, and working on those compositions that he would later publish under his first opus numbers.
The first of these, the three piano trios grouped together under op. 1 (July 1795) and three piano sonatas under op. 2 (March 1796), demonstrate many of the characteristics of Beethoven's early Viennese period.
s—that went on until the first decade of the 20th century, and moved the center of the sound downwards in the orchestra, to the violas and the lower register of the violins and cellos, giving his music a heavier and darker feel than Haydn
or Mozart
. Gustav Mahler
modified the orchestration of some of Beethoven's music—most notably the 3rd and 9th symphonies—with the idea of more accurately expressing Beethoven's intent in an orchestra that had grown so much larger than the one Beethoven used: for example, doubling woodwind parts to compensate for the fact that a modern orchestra has so many more strings than Beethoven's orchestra did. Needless to say, these efforts remain controversial.
Above all, his works distinguish themselves from those of any prior composer through his creation of large, extended architectonic structures characterized by the extensive development of musical material, themes, and motifs, usually by means of "modulation", that is, a change in the feeling of the home key, through a variety of keys or harmonic regions. Although Haydn's later works often showed a greater fluidity between distant keys, Beethoven's innovation was the ability to rapidly establish a solidity in juxtaposing different keys and unexpected notes to join them. This expanded harmonic realm creates a sense of a vast musical and experiential space through which the music moves, and the development of musical material creates a sense of unfolding drama in this space.
Beethoven helped to further unify the different movements in multi-movement works with the invention of the 'germ motive'. The germ motive, or 'germinal motif,' as it is sometimes called, is a motive that is used to create motives and themes throughout a whole work, without making it obvious that such a thing is being done. Thus, all the themes in a piece can be tied back to a single motive in the work. An early and famous example of this is his sonata 'Pathetique', where all of the subjects used in the first movement originate from a germinal idea derived from its opening bar. Similarly, the opening bars of his Eighth Symphony are used to derive motives to be used throughout the whole symphony. This device lends unity to a work or even a group of works (as some motives Beethoven used not only in one work, but in many works) without repeating material exactly or turning to canonic devices.
In his Fifth Symphony Beethoven used the four-note motif (drawn from a late Haydn symphony) throughout the whole movement in different juxtapositions, marking the first important occurrence of cyclic form and giving a sense of a totally internal conflict to the piece.
In his book The Joy of Music
, Leonard Bernstein
, who, in his television documentary Bernstein on Beethoven admitted that he considered Beethoven the greatest composer who ever lived, nevertheless criticized his orchestration as sometimes being "downright bad", with "unimportant" orchestral parts being given too much prominence. Bernstein attributed this to Beethoven's ever-increasing deafness, which presumably rendered him incapable of judging how much louder than another a given instrument might be playing at certain moments. He repeated some of this criticism in the 1982 miniseries Bernstein/ Beethoven
, a PBS
miniseries containing performances of all nine symphonies, several overtures, one of the string quartets, and the Missa Solemnis
. But at the same time Bernstein added that what makes Beethoven great is his perfect sense of form - his ability to realize what the next note always had to be. However, the online video series Orchestration Online refutes Bernstein's assertion that Beethoven was deficient in melodic ability (i.e. the famous and almost one-note melody of the second movement of the Seventh Symphony), harmonic ability, orchestration ability, and counterpoint ability, as well as Bernstein's assertion that the only thing that made Beethoven great was his almost superhuman sense of form. The series asserts that Beethoven was great in every one of the elements that Bernstein finds fault with.
, Richard Wagner
and Gustav Mahler
, placed his work at the pinnacle of what they were trying to achieve in music.
Because of his central importance, methods of conducting and playing, as well as music theory, were centered around his most important works, particularly his symphonies, concerti, string quartets, piano trios and sonatas for piano or piano and other instrument. Beginning from his pupil Carl Czerny
and moving forward, basic terms such as tonality
, sonata form
and Allegro
were defined or redefined in reference to his musical practice.
As importantly Beethoven's life was seen as the model for the "heroic artist", who cast his personal experiences, perceptions and biography into works, which would then be experienced by the audience members who would be transported to the emotional state of the artist, and thus participate in a "sublime" experience. That Beethoven had great difficulties in his life was joined to the sense of struggle and difficulty in his music, and used as the basis for an entire mythology of the role of the artist in society, and the difficulties of artistic creation. A biography by Anton Schindler was in accordance with this sense of Beethoven as Romantic, constantly putting direct emotional symbols into his work, such as saying "Thus Fate Knocks at the Door!" for the opening of the C Minor Symphony, number 5. Beethoven as icon can be seen in the efforts to erect a monument
to him, led by Franz Liszt
, and in the arguments over whether Johannes Brahms
or Richard Wagner
better represented the tradition of music that Beethoven was thought to have created.
With the 20th century a reaction against this "cult of the Romantic artist" began to be seen. In a sense it was a continuation of the Romantic cult in a different form: a new generation of artists wanted to claim Beethoven as their own, and place him in the context as the pinnacle figure of musical enlightenment and rationality. The emphasis on harmonic practice led to arguments that Beethoven was not "really" a romantic because of his general rejection of chromaticism in melodies, and his structural practices in preparing modulations. By the 1950s it was common to deny that Beethoven was a Romantic at all.
In the late 20th century, the pendulum began to swing back in the other direction, in some measure because of a revival of interest in Romanticism, and in part because of a change in the status of musical technique. With the falling out of favor of the idea that music was about "progress", the need to see Beethoven in technical terms diminished. The differences between his work and Mozart's became accentuated, in part because of the rise of neo-classical styles of playing or historically informed performance. Beethoven came to many to be seen in relation to contemporaries such as Goethe and Jacques-Louis David
- having both neo-classical and Romantic elements to their work.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
is generally viewed as one of the most influential figures in the history of European classical music. Since his lifetime, when he was "universally accepted as the greatest living composer," Beethoven's music has remained among the most performed, discussed and reviewed. Scholarly journals are devoted to analysis of his life and work, he has been the subject of numerous biographies and monographs and his music was the driving force behind the development of Schenkerian analysis
Schenkerian analysis
Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker. The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to interpret the underlying structure of a tonal work. The theory's basic tenets can be viewed as a way of defining tonality in music...
. He is widely considered as among the most important Western composers, and along with Bach and Mozart, his music is the most frequently recorded.
Beethoven's stylistic innovations encompass two achievements. First, they brought the Classical form to its highest expressive level, expanding in formal, structural and harmonic terms the musical idiom developed by predecessors such as Mozart and Haydn. Additionally, they proved immensely influential over the musical language and thinking of the Romantic
Romantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
era, whether as a source of direct inspiration, as with the music of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
and Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, or in terms of defining a musical reaction against his stylistic language, as with music of Mendelssohn
Mendelssohn
Mendelson is a Polish/German Jewish family name, meaning "son of Mendel", Mendel being a Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew given name Menahem, meaning "consoling" or "one who consoles".Mendelssohn is the surname of a number of people:...
.
Overview
Beethoven's musical output has traditionally been divided into three periods, a classification that dates to the first years after the composer's death in 1827 and was formalised with the publication of Wilhelm von LenzWilhelm von Lenz
Wilhelm von Lenz was a Baltic German Russian official and writer. Wilhelm von Lenz was a friend of many mid-century Romantic composers, including Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin and Hector Berlioz, Lenz's most important and influential work was an early biography of the German composer Ludwig van...
's influential work Beethoven et ses trois styles (Beethoven and his Three Styles). Lenz proposed that Beethoven's creative output be marked by three periods of distinct stylistic personality and he identified specific compositions as milestones for each period. In Lenz's work, the first period opens with Beethoven's Trio set, Opus 1 and culminates with the performances in 1800 of his first symphony
Symphony No. 1 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21, was dedicated to Baron Gottfried van Swieten, an early patron of the composer. The piece was published in 1801 by Hoffmeister & Kühnel of Leipzig...
and Septet
Septet (Beethoven)
The Septet in E-flat major, Opus 20, by Ludwig van Beethoven, was sketched out in 1799, completed and first performed in 1800 and published in 1802. The score contains the notation: "Der Kaiserin Maria Theresia gewidmet", or translated, "Dedicated to the Empress Maria Theresa." It is scored for...
. The second period spans the period from the publication of his Moonlight Sonata
Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)
The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata , was completed in 1801...
to the Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 90
Piano Sonata No. 27 (Beethoven)
The Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor is Ludwig van Beethoven's Op. 90. The work, written in the summer of 1814 in Beethoven's late Middle period, was dedicated to Count Moritz von Lichnowsky.- Form :...
in 1814. The last period covers Beethoven's mature works to his death in 1827.
Although later scholars have called into question such a simplistic categorisation, the periodisation is still widely used. Extensive subsequent analytical consideration of Lenz's thesis has resulted in a slight revision of his original dates and broad consensus regarding Beethoven's three periods is as follows:
- a formative period that extends to 1802
- a middle period from 1803 to 1812
- a mature period from 1813 to 1827
Generally, each period demonstrates characteristic stylistic evolutions in Beethoven's musical language and preoccupations as well as important developments in the composer's personal life.
Early period
The compositions that Beethoven wrote in his formative period can be generally characterised by the composer's efforts to master the predominant classical language of the period. His works from this period can be subdivided into two, based on the composer's residence. First, various juvenalia, written when the adolescent Beethoven was in residence in BonnBonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
and heavily indebted to the works of contemporaries, especially Mozart and his teacher, Christian Gottlob Neefe
Christian Gottlob Neefe
Christian Gottlob Neefe was a German opera composer and conductor.Neefe was born in Chemnitz, Saxony. He received a musical education and started to compose at the age of 12...
. These early efforts can be seen in a set of three Piano Sonatas
Piano sonata
A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement , two movements , five or even more movements...
and Piano quartet
Piano quartet
In European classical music, piano quartet denotes a chamber music composition for piano and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble comprising such instruments...
s (WoO 36) that Beethoven wrote before 1792. The Quartets, for instance, are each specifically modelled after three Violin sonata
Violin sonata
A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, which is nearly always accompanied by a piano or other keyboard instrument, or by figured bass in the Baroque period.-A:*Ella Adayevskaya**Sonata Greca for Violin or Clarinet and Piano...
s Mozart published in 1781 - K 296, 379 and 380 - and Beethoven would later draw upon this familiarity in the composition of several of his own Violin Sonatas.
Second, a number of more substantial and original works written after Beethoven moved to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and commenced studies with the famed Austrian composer and leading musical figure of the period, Joseph Haydn.
Bonn period
With the exception of an abortive attempt to move to Vienna in 1787, Beethoven lived in Bonn until 1792, where he worked in the court chapel of the Elector of Cologne. Some forty compositions from this period are extant, including ten early works written by the young adolescent Beethoven when he was being promoted as a child prodigy performer and published as a result of the efforts of his teacher. It has been suggested that Beethoven largely abandoned composition between 1785 and 1790, possibly as a result of negative critical reaction to Beethoven's first published works. A 1784 review in Johann Nikolaus ForkelJohann Nikolaus Forkel
Johann Nikolaus Forkel , was a German musician, musicologist and music theorist.-Biography:...
's influential Musikalischer Almanack compared Beethoven's efforts to those of rank beginners. Whatever the case, most of Beethoven's earliest works were written after he turned twenty, between 1790 and 1792. Some of this music was later published by Beethoven, or incorporated into later works. As such, they provide an important foundation for judging the later evolution of his style.
In general, Beethoven's earliest compositions show his struggles to master the prevailing classical style, both in structural and idiomatic terms. Several works, including two he later published, show the incipient signs of his later individual style: twelve Lieder, several of which he published in 1805 as Opus 52, his Wind Octet, later published as Opus 103, and several sets of Variations, including one (WoO 40) for violin and piano on Mozart’s aria Se vuol ballare
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
(later reworked in Vienna). Although these works largely conform to the formal conventions of the classical style, including a strict observance of form and, in the variations, the decorative filigree associated with the genre, they also show early signs of Beethoven's later tendency to more substantive treatment of thematic material.
In 1790, Beethoven was commissioned to write a funeral cantata (WoO 87) on the death of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Joseph II, the first of his extant compositions written in C minor. A number of concert arias also date to this period including "Prüfung des Küssens" (WoO 89) and "Mit Mädeln sich vertragen" (WoO 90).
Beethoven also produced numerous fragments of larger-scale works, including a symphonic movement (also written in C minor), a violin concerto, an oboe concerto, an early draft of his B-flat Piano concerto
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Beethoven)
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19, by Ludwig van Beethoven was composed primarily between 1787 and 1789, although it did not attain the form it was published as until 1795. Beethoven did write another finale for it in 1798 for performance in Prague, but that is not the finale...
(both now vanished), and a concertante for piano, flute and bassoon. Scholars generally regard these early efforts as bland and uninspired and have concluded that his first efforts at writing in the classical sonata style (with the exception of his Wind Octet) were poorly conceived. Gustav Nottebohm
Gustav Nottebohm
Martin Gustav Nottebohm was a pianist, teacher, musical editor and composer who spent most of his career in Vienna. He is particularly celebrated for his studies of Beethoven....
, for example, wrote of Beethoven's Dressler Variations (WoO 63), "they show not a trace of contrapuntal independent part-writing. They are figural variations of the simplest kind". Téodor de Wyzewa
Téodor de Wyzewa
Téodor de Wyzewa born as Teodor Wyżewski , of Polish origin, was a leading exponent of the Symbolist movement in France.With Édouard Dujardin he created La Revue wagnérienne in 1885...
considered his early "Kurfürsten Sonatas" written in 1783 (WoO 47) as merely "correct imitations of Haydn.". Considered as a whole, Beethoven's compositional efforts in Bonn demonstrate the importance of his move to Vienna in terms of the development of his musical style and the sophistication of his grasp of classical form and idiom.
Vienna period
Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792, having in all likelihood arranged beforehand to study with Joseph Haydn, who had been freed from his Kapellmeister duties upon the death of his benefactor Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy. Beethoven's arrival coincided with Haydn's own return to the city after his first visit to London at the behest of the impresario Johann Peter SalomonJohann Peter Salomon
Johann Peter Salomon was a German violinist, composer, conductor and musical impresario.-Life:...
, a trip which secured Haydn's reputation, already considerable, as the foremost composer of his day. In addition to his association with Haydn, Beethoven also studied under Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
, who was among the most popular opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic composers then active, and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger was an Austrian musician who was born at Klosterneuburg, near Vienna.He originally studied music at Melk Abbey and philosophy at a Benedictine seminary in Vienna and became one of the most learned and skillful contrapuntists of his age...
, the leading expert on musical theory.
There is evidence that Beethoven composed very little for the first year or so after his arrival at Vienna, devoting his time instead to securing his position in the leading salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
s of the city as a performer and improviser. What little compositional activities did occupy Beethoven seem to have been put to revising earlier works (such as his Wind Octet, Op. 103) to conform to Viennese musical tastes. Between 1793 and 1795, Beethoven seems to have pursued his compositional studies diligently, working through ideas and texts such as Johann Joseph Fux's important treatise on counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
, Gradus ad Parnassum, and working on those compositions that he would later publish under his first opus numbers.
The first of these, the three piano trios grouped together under op. 1 (July 1795) and three piano sonatas under op. 2 (March 1796), demonstrate many of the characteristics of Beethoven's early Viennese period.
Middle period
This was one of Beethoven's most famous periods. Here he developed his own style and character.Style
He also continued another trend—towards larger orchestraOrchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
s—that went on until the first decade of the 20th century, and moved the center of the sound downwards in the orchestra, to the violas and the lower register of the violins and cellos, giving his music a heavier and darker feel than Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
or Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
. Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
modified the orchestration of some of Beethoven's music—most notably the 3rd and 9th symphonies—with the idea of more accurately expressing Beethoven's intent in an orchestra that had grown so much larger than the one Beethoven used: for example, doubling woodwind parts to compensate for the fact that a modern orchestra has so many more strings than Beethoven's orchestra did. Needless to say, these efforts remain controversial.
Above all, his works distinguish themselves from those of any prior composer through his creation of large, extended architectonic structures characterized by the extensive development of musical material, themes, and motifs, usually by means of "modulation", that is, a change in the feeling of the home key, through a variety of keys or harmonic regions. Although Haydn's later works often showed a greater fluidity between distant keys, Beethoven's innovation was the ability to rapidly establish a solidity in juxtaposing different keys and unexpected notes to join them. This expanded harmonic realm creates a sense of a vast musical and experiential space through which the music moves, and the development of musical material creates a sense of unfolding drama in this space.
Beethoven helped to further unify the different movements in multi-movement works with the invention of the 'germ motive'. The germ motive, or 'germinal motif,' as it is sometimes called, is a motive that is used to create motives and themes throughout a whole work, without making it obvious that such a thing is being done. Thus, all the themes in a piece can be tied back to a single motive in the work. An early and famous example of this is his sonata 'Pathetique', where all of the subjects used in the first movement originate from a germinal idea derived from its opening bar. Similarly, the opening bars of his Eighth Symphony are used to derive motives to be used throughout the whole symphony. This device lends unity to a work or even a group of works (as some motives Beethoven used not only in one work, but in many works) without repeating material exactly or turning to canonic devices.
In his Fifth Symphony Beethoven used the four-note motif (drawn from a late Haydn symphony) throughout the whole movement in different juxtapositions, marking the first important occurrence of cyclic form and giving a sense of a totally internal conflict to the piece.
In his book The Joy of Music
The Joy of Music
The Joy of Music is Leonard Bernstein's first book, originally published in 1959 by Simon and Schuster. A highly acclaimed, bestselling work, it is still in print today....
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, who, in his television documentary Bernstein on Beethoven admitted that he considered Beethoven the greatest composer who ever lived, nevertheless criticized his orchestration as sometimes being "downright bad", with "unimportant" orchestral parts being given too much prominence. Bernstein attributed this to Beethoven's ever-increasing deafness, which presumably rendered him incapable of judging how much louder than another a given instrument might be playing at certain moments. He repeated some of this criticism in the 1982 miniseries Bernstein/ Beethoven
Bernstein/ Beethoven
Bernstein/Beethoven is the name of a 1982 Leonard Bernstein miniseries telecast between 1982 and 1983 on both PBS and A&E. As with most post-1969 Bernstein programs, it was directed by Humphrey Burton, who was, according to Schuyler Chapin, Bernstein's director of choice. It is unique in having...
, a PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
miniseries containing performances of all nine symphonies, several overtures, one of the string quartets, and the Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)
The Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819-1823. It was first performed on April 7, 1824 in St. Petersburg, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie,...
. But at the same time Bernstein added that what makes Beethoven great is his perfect sense of form - his ability to realize what the next note always had to be. However, the online video series Orchestration Online refutes Bernstein's assertion that Beethoven was deficient in melodic ability (i.e. the famous and almost one-note melody of the second movement of the Seventh Symphony), harmonic ability, orchestration ability, and counterpoint ability, as well as Bernstein's assertion that the only thing that made Beethoven great was his almost superhuman sense of form. The series asserts that Beethoven was great in every one of the elements that Bernstein finds fault with.
Beethoven and Romanticism
Beethoven's place as a transitional figure between the neo-classical period in the arts, called the "classical" period in music, and the Romantic period was a conscious intention of the many 19th century writers and composers, who pointed to his work as the radical departure from the past. As a result, a great deal of literature, including writing by ETA Hoffman, Robert SchumannRobert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
and Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, placed his work at the pinnacle of what they were trying to achieve in music.
Because of his central importance, methods of conducting and playing, as well as music theory, were centered around his most important works, particularly his symphonies, concerti, string quartets, piano trios and sonatas for piano or piano and other instrument. Beginning from his pupil Carl Czerny
Carl Czerny
Carl Czerny was an Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. He is best remembered today for his books of études for the piano. Czerny's music was profoundly influenced by his teachers, Muzio Clementi, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri and Ludwig van Beethoven.-Early life:Carl Czerny was born...
and moving forward, basic terms such as tonality
Tonality
Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
, sonata form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
and Allegro
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
were defined or redefined in reference to his musical practice.
As importantly Beethoven's life was seen as the model for the "heroic artist", who cast his personal experiences, perceptions and biography into works, which would then be experienced by the audience members who would be transported to the emotional state of the artist, and thus participate in a "sublime" experience. That Beethoven had great difficulties in his life was joined to the sense of struggle and difficulty in his music, and used as the basis for an entire mythology of the role of the artist in society, and the difficulties of artistic creation. A biography by Anton Schindler was in accordance with this sense of Beethoven as Romantic, constantly putting direct emotional symbols into his work, such as saying "Thus Fate Knocks at the Door!" for the opening of the C Minor Symphony, number 5. Beethoven as icon can be seen in the efforts to erect a monument
Beethoven Monument, Bonn
The Beethoven Monument is a large bronze statue of Ludwig van Beethoven that stands on the Münsterplatz in Bonn, Beethoven's birthplace. It was unveiled on 12 August 1845, in honour of the 75th anniversary of the composer's birth.-Background:...
to him, led by Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, and in the arguments over whether Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
or Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
better represented the tradition of music that Beethoven was thought to have created.
With the 20th century a reaction against this "cult of the Romantic artist" began to be seen. In a sense it was a continuation of the Romantic cult in a different form: a new generation of artists wanted to claim Beethoven as their own, and place him in the context as the pinnacle figure of musical enlightenment and rationality. The emphasis on harmonic practice led to arguments that Beethoven was not "really" a romantic because of his general rejection of chromaticism in melodies, and his structural practices in preparing modulations. By the 1950s it was common to deny that Beethoven was a Romantic at all.
In the late 20th century, the pendulum began to swing back in the other direction, in some measure because of a revival of interest in Romanticism, and in part because of a change in the status of musical technique. With the falling out of favor of the idea that music was about "progress", the need to see Beethoven in technical terms diminished. The differences between his work and Mozart's became accentuated, in part because of the rise of neo-classical styles of playing or historically informed performance. Beethoven came to many to be seen in relation to contemporaries such as Goethe and Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
- having both neo-classical and Romantic elements to their work.