Hwm- Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827)- 15

Front 1

Background

Back 1

Pivotal Figure
a) Although he built on the musical conventions, genres, and styles of the Classic
period, Beethoven transformed this heritage and created a body of work that
became models for composers of the Romantic period
1: wrote music with great deliberation keeping sketchbooks for his compositions
which planned his musical ideas throughout the composing process
2: his hearing loss started around 1796 and by 1820 could hardly hear at all
b) An age greatly influenced by the French Revolution in Europe

Front 2

Teachers and influences

Back 2

a) Earliest lessons was with his father who pushed the young Beethoven in hopes of
making him a second Mozart - actually played for Mozart (who prophesied a bright
future for him)
b) Lessons with Haydn (1732-1809) from late 1792 until Haydn left for his second
London visit - also receiving help from Johann Schenk (1753-1836) during this
same period
c) Studied counterpoint for a year with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809)
d) Vocal composition from Antonio Salieri (1750-1825)
e) Singspiele and songs from Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748-1798)

Front 3

end of old-style patronage

Back 3

a) annuity provided by patrons to have him remain in Austria
b) played concerts (piano) organized by himself or others and taught piano to make a
living

Front 4

Three periods

Back 4

1. The divisions occur at different chronological points in different genres with no hard
and fast boundaries between periods
2. First period to about 1802: Imitation
a) assimilating the musical language of his time and finding his personal voice
b) six String Quartets, Op. 18; piano sonatas thru Op. 28; first three piano concertos;
first two symphonies
3. Second period to about 1815: Externalization
a) his rugged independence took hold - battle with current fashion; expands the
traditional forms
b) Symphonies 3 thru 8; incidental music to Goethe's drama Egmont; the Coriolan
Overture; opera Fidelio; Piano Concertos in G & Eb; the Violin Concerto; Quartets
of Opp. 59,74,95; Piano Sonatas thru Op. 90
4. Third period post 1815: Reflection
a) music is remote from external conflict, involves a series of unprecedented
inventions in the domain of musical structure; creating entirely new forms
b) last 5 piano sonatas; the Diabelli Variations; the Missa Solemnis; Symphony 9, the
Quartets Opp. 127,130,131,132,135; the Grosse Fugue for string quartet

Front 5

First Period- piano sonatas and chamber music

Back 5

1. Piano Sonatas
a) themes and their treatment in the first 3 piano sonatas are reminiscent of works by
Haydn (to whom they are dedicated)
a) themes and their treatment in the first 3 piano sonatas are reminiscent of works by
Haydn (to whom they are dedicated)
b) Characteristics
1: have 4 movements instead of the usual 3
2: in second & third sonata he replaced the minuet with the more dynamic
Scherzo (done almost consistently from this point on
3: extensive use of minor mode and bold modulations in the first 3 sonatas are
highly individual traits
4: possible influences are Muzio Clamenti (1752-1832) and Jan Ladislav Dussek
(1760-1812)
2. Chamber Music
a) his art of developing motives and animating the texture of contrapuntally follows
Haydn's example
b) his individuality shows through
1: in the character of his themes
2: the frequent unexpected turns of pharse
3: unconventional modulations
4: some subtleties of formal structure

Front 6

symphonies

Back 6

3. Symphonies (1 & 2)
a) No. 1 performed first on April 2, 1800
1: the four movements a regular in form
2: his originality is evident in the details
i- unusual prominence given to the woodwinds
ii- 3rd movement is a scherzo (though labeled a minuet)
iii- long and important codas of the other movements
iv- careful dynamic shadings
b) No. 2 composed in 1802
1: 1st movement announces a work conceived on a scale hitherto unkown in
symphonic music
2: a long coda that includes extensive new development of the principal material
3: rest of the symphony has correspondingly large dimensions with a profusion of
thematic material held together in perfect formal balance

Front 7

Second period

Back 7

1. Within a dozen years after coming to Vienna Beethoven was acknowledged
throughout Europe as the foremost pianist & composer of his time and as a
symphonist on par with Haydn & Mozart
2. The Eroica Symphony (3rd)
a) recognized as an important work - but unprecedented length and complexity made
it difficult for audiences to grasp at first
b) the entire symphony has the character of a drama
c) intended to dedicate the work to Napoleon - coupled with story of renaming after
Bonaparte declared himself emperor
3. Fidelio
a) began opera almost immediately after finishing the 3rd Symphony
b) two works share the Revolutionary atmosphere of the French Revolution
b) two works share the Revolutionary atmosphere of the French Revolution

Front 8

Rasumovsky Quartets

Back 8

a) dedicated to the musical amateur Count Ramsumovsky - the russian ambassador
to Vienna who played second violin in a quartet said to be the finest in Europe
b) style was so new that musicians were slow to accept them
1: single, double, and triple pedal points
2: frequent changes in texture
3: horn imitations
4: pointillistic exploitation of the instruments extreme ranges
5: fugal work and unisons

Front 9

Other works

Back 9

5. 4th to 8th Symphonies
a) 4th, 5th, & 6th were all composed between 1806 & 1808
b) 7th & 8th were both completed in 1812
6. Orchestral Overtures - are related in style to the symphonies usually taking the form of
a symphonic first movement
7. Piano Sonatas & Concertos
a) Moonlight Sonata, Waldstein Sonata, Appassionata
b) as a pianist, he composed concertos to play at his own concerts
1: retained Mozarts's division of the concerto into three movements and the
general outline of the Classic form
2: greatly expanded the music's expressive range and dimensions

Front 10

Third Period

Back 10

1. Financially stable and secure, but his deafness increasingly became a serious trial
a) last 5 piano sonatas, the Missa solemnis, Diabelli Variations, the 9th Symphony,
the final quartets
b) by 1816, his deafness was complete - sparked a change in musical character
1: compositions came to have a meditative character
2: urgent sense of communication replaced by a feeling of assured tranquillity &
calm affirmation
3: musical language became more concentrated & more abstract
4: classic forms remained but greatly evolved & expanded

Front 11

Characteristics of Beethoven's late style

Back 11

a) Variation Technique - worked out themes and motives to their utmost potential
1: variation differs from development because it treats an entire musical period not
just fragments or motives
2: in works of Haydn, Mozart, & Beethoven, variation occurs in three situations
i- as an independent theme-and-variations composition
ii- as a theme-and-variations movement of a symphony or sonata
iii- as a technique within a larger formal plan (as in sonata form when the first
theme is varied in the recapitulation)
3: each variation is built on motives derived from some part of the theme, but
altered in rhythm, tempo, dynamics, or context so as to produce a new design
b) intentional blurring the divisions between phrases
c) improvisatory character of some passages give some idea of his actual
improvisations at the piano
c) improvisatory character of some passages give some idea of his actual
improvisations at the piano
d) importance placed on Fugal textures gives his late style a universal quality
1: from his reverence for J.S. Bach
2: contemplative habits during his last 10 yrs
e) utilized new sonorities and form in his last works - 2 of last sonatas & quartets
retain the external scheme of 4 movements but the rest dispense with even this
bow to tradition

Front 12

Missa Solemnis

Back 12

a) like Bach's B-minor Mass it is too long and elaborate for ordinary liturgical use
b) choral treatment owes something to Handel (whose music Beethoven revered)
c) it is a planned musical unit - a symphony in five movements, one on each of the
five principal divisions of the Ordinary of the Mass
4. 9th Symphony
a) firs performed on May 7, 1824
b) most striking innovation is its use of chorus and solo voices in the finale

Front 13

Summary

Back 13

1. A pivotal figure - the last Classical // the first Romantic - his earlier works look back to
the Classical period while his later works look forward to the Romantic period (1830
-1900)
2. his late works were so personal, that they could hardly be imitated - his influence on
later composers resulted mostly from works of his middle period - especially the
Rasumovsky Quartets & the 5th, 6th, & 7th symphonies & the piano sonatas
3. the revolutionary element, the free, impulsive, mysterious, demonic spirit, the
underlying conception of music as a mode of self expression is what fascinated the
Romantic generation
4. Beethoven was one of the great disruptive forces in the history of music - after him,
nothing could ever be the same - he opened the gateway to a new world