Ludwig Van Beethoven was a German composer and the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. He was born in Bonn, Germany on December, 1770. Although his exact date of birth is uncertain, Beethoven was baptized on December 17, 1770. With Beethoven’s father and grandfather being musically talented, Beethoven proudly followed in their footsteps, studying the violin and clavier with his father and anything else he could in his town. Beethoven became an amazing musician from his earliest days and displayed his creative imagination that would reach further then any composer before him. Beethoven’s own transformation from a Classical composer to a Romantic one, influenced the music of his time,
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His mastery of the classical style has given him the acknowledgment of culminating the classical era. Historians have struggled about where to place Beethoven in historical genre. Eric Hertzmann wrote, “If one recognizes that the classic and romantic movements are not diametrically opposed and that Beethoven belongs to both, the problem of his place in history resolves itself.” Hertzmann wrote of both styles, that Beethoven elevated each, “Beethoven, unlike many minor composers of his day, cast these various styles anew and gave them fresh meaning in his own musical language. His works bear the stamp of his original invention in every detail.” During the period of 1800-1802, Beethoven went through a great period of change both within his music and himself. This was the same period as the rise of the romantic era. Sonatas during this brief crossover era have many elements in common, including Beethoven’s own Moonlight Sonata Op. 27. Some of the similarities were the “rich textures, brilliant figuration, and broad structure,” and the greater demands that were made on the technique of the performer and the capabilities of the instrument. Timothy Jones found that, “there was a tendency for composers to establish a stylistic distance between their sonatas and classical models. This could take many forms, such as the deformation of normative sonata-form processes, the ironic treatment of classical clichés, the exploration of the mediant tonal relationships and of keys related chromatically to the tonic, the avoidance of regular periodic phrase structures, the inclusion of popular elements like song themes in slow movements and variation finales or an increased emphasis on virtuosity for its own sake.” Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata enjoys many of these elements. The 2nd movement of Op. 27, is so frivolous,
His mastery of the classical style has given him the acknowledgment of culminating the classical era. Historians have struggled about where to place Beethoven in historical genre. Eric Hertzmann wrote, “If one recognizes that the classic and romantic movements are not diametrically opposed and that Beethoven belongs to both, the problem of his place in history resolves itself.” Hertzmann wrote of both styles, that Beethoven elevated each, “Beethoven, unlike many minor composers of his day, cast these various styles anew and gave them fresh meaning in his own musical language. His works bear the stamp of his original invention in every detail.” During the period of 1800-1802, Beethoven went through a great period of change both within his music and himself. This was the same period as the rise of the romantic era. Sonatas during this brief crossover era have many elements in common, including Beethoven’s own Moonlight Sonata Op. 27. Some of the similarities were the “rich textures, brilliant figuration, and broad structure,” and the greater demands that were made on the technique of the performer and the capabilities of the instrument. Timothy Jones found that, “there was a tendency for composers to establish a stylistic distance between their sonatas and classical models. This could take many forms, such as the deformation of normative sonata-form processes, the ironic treatment of classical clichés, the exploration of the mediant tonal relationships and of keys related chromatically to the tonic, the avoidance of regular periodic phrase structures, the inclusion of popular elements like song themes in slow movements and variation finales or an increased emphasis on virtuosity for its own sake.” Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata enjoys many of these elements. The 2nd movement of Op. 27, is so frivolous,