Download Week 12 Notes p.1 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770

Week 12 Notes
p.1
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Transitional figure whose music straddles the classical and romantic
eras.
Came from a musical but unhappy family. Had a chance as a teen
court organist to improvise on a theme for Mozart, who noted his
potential.
Not strictly a recipient of court patronage, he received support from
an emerging middle class via lessons and commissions, royalties
from music publishing and the growth of concert life.
Began to go deaf in his late twenties, which brought a sense of
isolation from the world. Through DNA testing of a preserved lock of
Beethoven’s hair, high lead levels have been noted, suggesting that
lead poisoning could have caused his deafness and other illnesses.
Beethoven was the supreme architect in music, finding his greatest
expression in large forms (symphonies and sonatas).
Compositional activity fell into three periods:
1. Early (Classical elements inherited from Mozart and Haydn).
2. Middle (beginnings of Romantic content – strong dynamic
contrasts, longer movements, explosive accents).
3. Late (final piano sonatas and string quartets, 9th symphony;
more chromatic harmonies and language that transcended his
time).
First two symphonies were salon-appropriate. The rest were for the
concert hall. 3rd was the first in his middle period, 5th most popular
rivaled by the 7th, and 9th included vocal soloists and chorus in a
setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy.
His Concertos for violin and piano allowed him to combine virtuosity
and symphonic structure. His 32 piano sonatas are considered the
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new testament alongside Bach’s old testament, the Well-Tempered
Clavier.
Wrote lots of chamber music too; his last five string quartets and
piano sonatas show a searching introspective style much different
from the exuberance of his early work. Also wrote masses and
fugues.
Beethoven’s 5th Symphony
“Three shorts and a long,” a motif used throughout all the
movements.
First movement: sonata-allegro form
Second movement: serene theme and variations
Third Movement: scherzo, opens with a rocket theme
Fourth Movement; sonata-allegro, brings back first movement
material, making the 5th an early example of cyclical form.
Beethoven’s (Moonlight) Piano Sonata in C# minor
Sonata is an instrumental work for one or two instruments, in this
case one: piano.
When Beethoven and Mozart wrote duo sonatas, they made piano
and violin or cello (usually) equal partners rather than string
accompanying piano.
Beethoven wrote Moonlight Sonata (titled posthumously) for his
young student Countess Giuletta Guicciardi. Sonata was in three
movements.
While First movement has elements of development and
recapitulation, it is not sonata-allegro form. Instead it looks ahead to
Romantic modified strophic song form.
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Second movement is a gentle scherzo and trio. This and the first
movement hint at the dramatic final movement but are quite reserved,
somewhat unusual for Beethoven.
Romanticism in Music
The industrial revolution spurred many technical advances in musical
instruments, making them more affordable.
Educational opportunities broadened as music conservatories were
established across Europe and the Americas.
The orchestra grew in size and sound when new and improved
instruments were introduced; in response, composers demanded new
levels of expression.
Romantic composers often used nationalistic folklore and exotic
subjects, memorable melodies, increasingly chromatic harmony (i.e.
Wagner), continued rise of virtuoso musicians, and more amateur
music-making.
Length of symphony went from 20 minutes (Haydn, Mozart) to 40
minutes commonly.
Women musicians achieved an elevated status as performers,
teachers, composers, and patrons, laying the groundwork for the 20th
century.
Rise of the conductor as it was no longer feasible to conduct from the
piano or first violin chair. Also saw an increasingly sophisticated
vocabulary of expressive terms i.e. dolce (sweetly), cantabile
(songful), dolente (weeping), esto (sad), maestoso (majestic), gioioso
(joyful), con amore (with love, tenderly).
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The Romantic Song - Types of Song Structure
Strophic Form – same melody repeated with every stanza.
Through Composed Form – music follows storyline, changing from
section to section.
Modified strophic form – combines the two.
The Lied (Lieder, pl.)
Is a Geman-texted solo vocal song with piano accompaniment;
Schubert, Schumann, Brahms the greatest exponents.
Songcyle: a group of lieder unified by a narrative thread or descriptive
theme.
Lieder were fueled by the outpouring of German Romantic poetry (i.e.
Goethe, Heine, like Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, Shelley in English).
Schubert and the Lied
Viennese composer created more than 600 lieder and song cycles.
Erlking – through composed lied based on a German legend set by
Goethe. Was a masterpiece of Schubert’s youth. The legend says
whoever is touched by the king of the elves must die.
All four characters are sung one voice, but differentiated by melody,
register, harmony, rhythm, and accompaniment. i.e. child’s terror;
dissonance and high vocal range, father’s soothes with more rounded
vocal line and lower register, Erlking tries to trick the child in a major
key.
He died young and impoverished in part because of his bohemian
lifestyle.
HUMN 403
Bernstein on Beethoven
Vienna is Beethoven’s adopted city. He died there as well.
Came from Bonn Germany, already a brilliant improviser.
Came to Vienna eager to study with Haydn.
Captivated Vienna society within 3 years.
Not handsome, but had tremendous charisma and immense talent.
Started losing his hearing at the height of his fame.
In 1802 he wrote the Heiligenstadt testament.
A composer unable to hear music.
The portraits show him aging rapidly, growing more gloomy, yet the
music grows more profound.
The deafness sadly reinforced an existing neurotic pattern.
Bernstein suspects he was a perfectionist. Countless pages of
crossed out manuscripts.
Wrote piano concerto no.1 in his 20s.
18 different starts to Floristan’s aria in Fidelio. Rewrote Fidelio twice.
4 different overtures. It’s enormous.
As inevitable as Michelangelo or Shakespeare sonnets.
Notes were an ordered world. Hopeless mess in everyday life.
Rooms always untidy, piled with manuscripts, food, chamber pot, etc
Noisy, disorderly, peculiar hours, suspicious of servants
Impossible for him to settle in one house… always unsatisfied,
wanting a larger work space. He lived in 71 apartments in 30 years.
Never married, never made a home.
Strange lack of information about consummating any relationship.
Was highly puritanical and moralistic.
Closest relation was to his nephew. Smothered young Carl with
fiercely possessive love. Carl eventually went insane, shot himself
(didn’t kill himself) on the outskirts of Vienna. Left Beethoven more
deeply wounded than his master. Beethoven died a year later.
Who was this paradoxical man? Great master, loved, sought after,
honored, other hand crotchety monster, no friends no admirers,
patrons hangers on, vital energetic, chronically afflicted with
bronchitis and liver complaints, adored but nearly destroyed him,
spirit travelled loft spheres yet drove dishonorable bargain with his
publishers. Somehow within the tortured frame the voice of an angel.