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Ludwig Van Beethoven:
Life and Impact on Musical Style Progression
Jonathan Hankenhof
M04890995
Beethoven is thought to be one of the most influential composers from the
classical era. He was instrumental in the transition from classical music to the
romantic era. Battling deafness, depression, and a rough childhood, he became one
of the most famous composer to this day.
Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770. He was born into a musical
profession based on his family’s line of work. His father and grandfather were both
singer and Beethoven showed great promise on piano at a young age. His father,
however, was an alcoholic and tended to be abusive toward Beethoven and his
siblings. Despite his father’s attempts to form him into a child prodigy, Beethoven
did not attract much attention from the music world until later in his youth. When
he was only 12 years old, Christian Gottlob Neefe hired Beethoven as his court
organist. He worked for Neefe for several years and even became the continuo of the
Bonn Opera. Then in 1787 he was given the opportunity to move to Vienna to study
with the famous Mozart. His time with Mozart was not longwinded due to his
mother becoming gravely ill. He returned to Bonn to tend to her until her death
about 5 years later. He would have continued his studies with Mozart at this time,
but Mozart too had died by this time. Once his mother had passed, he fought to be
granted custody over the other children so they were not left with their abusive
father. By the age of 18, Beethoven was the sole provider for the family. Shortly
after, Graf von Waldstein visited Bonn and happened to hear Beethoven perform.
From that point forward, Waldstein was a great admire of Beethoven. Over the next
few years Waldstein commissioned Beethoven to compose several different pieces
for him since he was so pleased with his talents. In 1790 Beethoven had another
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opportunity to learn from one of the greats. Hayden discovered some of Beethoven’s
pieces and was very impressed with what he saw. He invited Beethoven to come
study from him in Vienna. This was the opportunity that Beethoven needed to
become a great and well-known composer. However, Haydn’s schedule was so busy
with his own composing career that it made learning from him almost impossible. In
fact, Haydn was away in London for about a year and a half composing a set of
commissioned symphonies that are known today as the London Symphonies. In
order to make use of the time he had, Beethoven would take lessons from other
notable composers in order to continue to learn despite Haydn’s absence. Although
he studied with Haydn, his style and music was rather different at times. He used
forms learned through Haydn and transformed them into something more,
something expressive of himself. It was a variation of sonata form a lot of times. He
had a lot of variation in his created sonata forms. Beethoven only became a known
composer and musician after he performed a set of concerts for the public. He
performed on a large scale in hopes of reaching as many people as he could. As time
went on, he became famous, both in Europe and abroad and his career really began
to take off. His fame was building and he was performing and composing
continuously. His career was going well, but his impending deafness became more
prevalent. He scarcely went out and he dedicated most of his time and energy to
composing. He spent half the year in the quiet solitude of the country and kept to
himself. He would send hours working in his sketchbook to create improvised and
intricate melodies. In Beethoven’s thirties, he was commissioned to compose his one
and only opera, Fidelio. This opera took him many years to complete due to
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disagreements and different viewpoints from the directors. It was finally completed
years later after Beethoven revised it and finally published it. His opera then became
a very well known, classic German theater piece. His depression and deafness
continued to worsen. He became a recluse of sorts. During the last period of his life,
he composed a very small number of pieces. Although his compositions were lacking
in quantity, they were far from lacking in quality. Essentially completely deaf,
Beethoven put together a few pieces that were very intricate and very “dense with
musical thought”. It is said that these pieces in his late years were some of the
highest density works he has ever done. Aside from these few dense and detailed
pieces, he was also commissioned to write a set of string quartets for Prince Nikolas
Golitsyn.
The Philharmonic Society learned of Beethoven around 1815. They heard
some of his work and saw his compositions and were interested from the start. After
a couple years of admiring his work, they commissioned Beethoven to compose a
symphony, the Ninth Symphony. This was the only symphony he wrote in is later
years but it is thought to be one of the most important works he has produced. This
piece was instrumental in the progression of music eras. This piece was so
influential because it pushed music to limits it has never been to. It was the first
time a symphony utilized both an orchestra and a choir. Voices were never mixed
with orchestral pieces. It was one of the longest pieces composed at the time and it
included a level of complexity that was rather unheard of. This complexity came
partially from the structure applied to the piece. Several movements in this piece
are seemingly unstructured which allows for countless dynamic and rhythmic
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changes. Since this was written in the late period of Beethoven’s composition life, it
possessed a large coda, which was favored by him at this point. These aspects of this
symphony gave people the notion that music was to be written for the sake of music
and the audiences, not just as a trade but also as an art. His break from tradition,
almost complete break for this piece, gave composers after him the courage and
motivation to compose more expressively and introspectively. It was a major
component that sparked the era of romantic music.
Beethoven’s composition life has been broken up into three periods to best
describe his style. As he gets older and his life changes, so does his musical style. The
first period began around 1794 and lasted for a short 6 years, until the turn of the
century. It came to a conclusion with Beethoven’s completion of his first symphony
and the septet. This first Period was primarily chamber music featuring the piano.
These pieces had a familiarity to Haydn and Mozart’s styles yet they introduced a
new, contemporary feeling that was a little more “blunt”. He generally stuck with the
traditional structure for composing but would alter the way the content was
presented within these structures. His unique use of dynamics and improvisation
set his pieces apart from traditional works. This improvisation would intrigue
audiences and keep them interested and guessing. As a whole, this period could be
categorized by his use of 18th century classical techniques while expressing his
individualism in the slight modifications. He works consisted mostly of classical
content and chamber music. The second period can be said to have started at the
turn of the century until about 1814. During this period of his composition career,
his improvisation became more prevalent. He was concerned less with the natural,
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expected flow of the traditional concepts and began to explore how to stray from
normal convention any way he possibly could. Beethoven also began to regularly
introduce the use of codas. This further separated him from the traditional structure
and form of pieces by distorting the proportions of the pieces and rearranging the
structure. This middle period had a lot of Romantic characteristics while still
providing some classical undertones. He composed pieces that had “heroic” motives
and phrases that would be continually present for the duration of the piece. He also
wrote pieces with psychological progression which was most likely fueled by his
depression yet a hope for triumph and victory. The last period spanned from 1814
to 1827, the year of his death. He creates a lot more densely textured pieces and
broadens his harmony ranges. He was battling serious deafness at this point in his
life as well. This third period consisted of a lot of string quartets and piano pieces.
These works were very introspective and had a lot of reflection within them. A
recurring concept in these later works is the idea of overall growth. Third period
pieces tended to have Baroque characteristics and styles among the romantic ones.
At this point he was almost completely unbound by traditionalist composing and
wrote in freestyle.
What made Beethoven so influential and important was based in the fact that
he veered from tradition and gave other composers the courage to do the same. He
revolutionized composing and introduced a willingness and desire to experiment
with methods and styles as well as to break from tradition and write music as a form
of art. Beethoven was also the first composer to make a living off of his work. He did
not need to rely on churches or wealthy houses to commission him to write pieces,
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although he still de get commissioned on numerous occasions. Between his
publications, performances, and lessons he taught himself, he made a living just fine.
Beethoven’s success as a freelance composer allowed him to expand his
individualism and expressiveness rather than be a servant of music for whoever
may have employed him at the time. This is what restricted many great composers
before him.
Beethoven was not considered to be a romantic composer, although he was
an essential component to the transition from the classical era to the romantic era.
His music, especially the later pieces, encompassed a lot of the characteristics that
define pieces from the romantic era. Romantic music was used in order to express
emotions and truths about humanity as a whole. The structure of romantic pieces
was very unbound compared to traditional classic works. This is a major component
of Beethoven’s pieces as he strayed from tradition. He planted the seed of an idea
into people’s minds that rigidly structured music is not the only way to compose and
that music can be much more expressive when the structure is not limiting.
Beethoven’s later pieces were full of emotion and introspective aspects. He bridged
the gap between two eras. He was, however, rooted in classical styles that resemble
Hayden and Mozart. The difference is that what he wanted and how he wanted write
it. Since he did not concern himself with the limitations presented by classical form,
his pieces were a lot different from pieces the public would have been used too. He
composed his music and let the public decide if they liked it or not. The audiences
ultimately fueled his movement by accepting his methods and new style of music.
Beethoven was an integral part of changing the opinion of the public in regards to
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viewing music as art instead of a trade. He worked to make music seen as a highly
regarded piece of art just as literature, painting, and sculpting are. Beethoven’s
pieces changed the way music as regarded. Everything about his work, the sound,
the structure and design, and the emotion within the pieces, changed the notion of
music’s inferiority in the art field.
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Sources
Searle, Arthur. "Home / RPS Since 1813 / Composers / The Society and Beethoven."
RPS. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
<http://royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/index.php/rps_since_1813/composers/th
e_society_and_beethoven/>.
Suchet, John. "Beethoven's History: 1770 - 1802." Classic FM. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/beethovens-lifetimeline-part-1/>.
Suchet, John. "Beethoven and Haydn: Their Relationship." Classic FM. Web. 12 Dec.
2014. <http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/beethoven-andhaydn-their-relationship/>.
Budden, Julian. "Ludwig Van Beethoven (German Composer)." Encyclopedia
Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/58473/Ludwig-van-Beethoven>.
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