Download Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven
Biography and Personality
• Born in Bonn, Germany
• Son of a court musician
• Praised by Mozart at an early age
• By 1796 realized that he was going deaf
Works
• 9 Symphonies
• 30 piano sonatas
• 16 string quartets
• 1 violin concerto
• 5 piano concertos,
• 10 violin sonatas,
• 5 cello sonatas,
• 11 overtures,
• Numerous sets of variations
• 9 piano trios,
• 1 opera (Fidelio), etc.
Important Innovations
• Took classical genres and transformed them
• First wholly independent composer
• Enlarged the orchestra
• Changed how composers approach musical structure
• Invested instrumental music with heightened degree of subjectivity
Periods of Beethoven’s Career
1785-1802: Formative imitative period
1803-1816: Heroic period or period of externalization
1816-1827: Meditative, transcendent or introspective period
I: Formative or Imitative Period
Example: Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21 (1800)
Example: Piano Sonata in C minor (“Pathetique”), Op. 13 (1799) [CD 3:1]
Example: Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor (“Moonlight”), Op. 27, No. 2 (1801)
II: Heroic Period or Period of Externalization (1803-16)
Includes Symphonies 1-3, Fidelio, the piano concertos, the violin concerto, piano sonatas
to Op. 90, and string quartets Opp. 59, 74 (Rasumovsky) and 95
Opus (Op.) is the Latin word for “Work”,
The plural of Opus is “Opera” (Opp.)
Heiligenstadt Testament, 1802
“But what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the
distance and I heard nothing, or someone standing next to me heard a shepherd singing
and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair; a little more of that
and I would have ended my life. It was only my art that held me back.”
Example: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 55 (1803)
 Unprecedented length and complexity

Beginning of a literary style

Themes chosen for melodic and harmonic potential

First movement has five themes with others added to the development section

Themes recur in different movements
Example: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1807-08) [CD 3:2-5]

Thematic unification of all movements through opening motive

No break between 3rd and 4th movements

Starts in C minor but ends in C major

First use of the trombone in a symphony
Example: Symphony No. 6 in D, Op. 68 (1808)
“Programme Symphony” in keeping with his literary approach, each movement with its
own heading:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Awakening of cheerful feelings on arriving in the country
Scene by the brook
Merry making of the peasants
Storm
Thankful feelings after the storm
III: Meditative, Transcendent or Introspective Period (1816-27)
Last 5 piano sonatas, Missa solemnis, the Diabelli Variations, Symphony Nr. 9 (Op. 125),
and the last string quartets from 1824-26
Example: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (1824)

Unprecedented length

First symphony to use chorus and vocal soloists

Use of bass drums, triangle and cymbals

Poem is Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”, a call for universal brotherhood

Beethoven’s final work of his public career
Example: String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (1826)
 Extremely contrapuntal and experimental

Various contrapuntal techniques of the Baroque, but in unusual ways

Harmonically extremely experimental

Varying lengths, varying numbers of movements (not just 4)

Extremes in dynamics, instrumental ranges, textures, rhythms, melodies and
harmonies