Beethoven
Baptized Dec 17, 1770
[Bonn] - Died March 26, 1827 [Vienna]
A
Brief Biographical Note Complete List of Works
The German composer of Flemish ancestry.
He is the first composer who never had an official position during his adult
life. For him, music was not merely a means for self-expression but it was also
a moral and ethical power. His first published work was a set of nine
Variations on a March by Dresser for piano (WoO63, 1782/3, Mannheim). The
Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II (WoO87, 1790) is the beginning of a
new and highly productive phase in Beethoven's life as a composer. It is one of
the extraordinary leaps in Beethoven's creative powers similar to those like
the Eroica (1803) and the Hammerklavier sonata (1817/8). His Opus 1 was
published in 1795. His lifetime covers the transition from the Classical to
Romantic period. The balance between form and emotion he achieved in his music
makes him a more Classical period composer. The song cycle An die ferne
Geliebte (1816) and the Sonatas Op.102 (cello) and Op.101 (piano) (1815)
opened the door for Romanticism for Beethoven. With the last quartets of
Beethoven, music enters into the Romantic period. Throughout his career, he
repeatedly bid farewell to the Classical tradition but never said a firm
goodbye. His last complete composition, the String Quartet in F, Op.135 is the
most Haydnesque of the last quartets. Beethoven links the classic feeling of
Mozart and Haydn to the romantic freedom of imagination. His music is
often described as larger than life. Sometimes, as Stravinsky pointed out, the
message in his music is greater than the music itself. After he died, his most
profound influence on the following generation was in changing the role of
composer in the society. He was the first successful freelance composer in
Vienna. The old style composer working for Church or aristocracy was replaced
by a freelance artist producing work for his own artistic needs and earning a
living through publication and performance of his own works. His another
achievement was to raise the instrumental music to the highest plane.
Especially the symphony and quartet reached their peak. This situation caused
extreme difficulty for the younger composer to write in these mediums. The most
obvious example is the age Brahms 'eventually' published his first symphony and
string quartet.
His creative life is usually divided into three
periods
1. First period - establishment as a
major composer (till 1802): His early (Bonn) works show the signs of Mannheim
preoccupation with extremes of piano and forte. This remained a
fundamental element in Beethoven's music. The sudden pianos, the unexpected
outbursts, the wide leaping arpeggio figures known as 'Mannheim rockets'
are central to his musical vocabulary and helped him to liberate instrumental
music from its dependence on vocal style. The sharp conflicts of mood that
characterize the sonatas of CPE Bach appear much more powerfully in Beethoven.
The Piano Sonata Op.31/3 has a non-tonic opening, rich harmonies, and
scherzo-like slow movement with sforzandi in unexpected places. His
piano writing was more dynamic than melodic. His first period compositions are mainly
for the piano, alone or with other instruments (important exceptions are:
String Trios Opp.3 & 9, String Quartets Op.18, and the First Symphony).
During the first period, his art kept closely within the bounds of eighteenth
century technique and ideas. He was more a performer -a pianist- than a
composer in the first period. The major terminal works are: the Spring
Sonata for Piano and Violin, Op.24, the Kreutzer Sonata, Op.47, Symphony
No.1, and Piano Sonata in D, Op.28. The typical features of this period's works
are expansion in form (long and polythematic expositions), long and
lyrical slow movements, contrasted dynamics and improvisatory
writing for the piano. C minor is a favorite key in this period (the Pathetique,
Piano Concerto No.3).
2. Middle -heroic- period (1803-12):
This period starts with the Eroica which is a landmark in Beethoven's
musical development, and ends with the Emperor Concerto and the Egmont
Overture. Most of the works were his masterworks, including Piano Sonata Op.57
(Appassionato), Piano Concerto in G No.4 (Op.58), String Quartets
Op.59 (Razumovsky), Symphony No.4 (Op.60), Violin Concerto in D (Op.61).
The most heroic of his works, Fidelio, also belongs to this
period. In the Piano Concerto No.4, the improvisatory writing was more
marked than the first period. He started to depart from the norm in this
period. Structural innovations included the Eroica, the Moonlight
sonata (Op.27/2), the Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos. In sonata form
movements, the exposition is now shorter and the development and coda are
longer. The third movements are now always a scherzo with unexpected
accents and syncopations. Slow movements became shorter and finales gained more
weight. His most accessible works are from this period.
3. Last period (1813-27): The last
period works are a mere fraction of his total output, but, they have a density
of musical thought surpassing anything that he had composed before. Growing
concentration of musical thought is combined with a wider range of harmony and
texture. The final period of Beethoven musical life starts with Op.102 Cello
Sonatas and Op.101 Piano Sonata (1815/6). His last five Piano Sonatas and
String Quartets, best Bagatelles, The Diabelli variations, the Missa
Solemnis and Symphony No.9 were written almost in the final decade of his
life. Lyricism is one feature of this period which became evident with
Piano Sonatas Opp.90 & 101, and Cello Sonata Op.102/1. Longyear calls this
period Beethoven's contrapuntal period. Several features characterize most of
his mature works: increased use of counterpoint (fugues in the finales
of Cello Sonata Op.102/2, Piano Sonatas Opp.101, 106 'Hammerklavier', 109, 110
and String Quartet Op.130 (Grosse Fuge); the first movements of String Quartet
Op.131, Piano Sonatas Op.106 and 111; the overture Die Weihe des Hauses,
Missa Solemnis, Diabelli Variations, first, second and last
movements of Symphony No.9); avoidance of obvious dominant effects;
preoccupation with (harmonically controlled) Variations (finale of Piano
Sonatas Op. 109 and 111, Diabelli Variations, third and last movements
of Symphony No.9, middle movements of String Quartets Op.127, 131, 132 and
135), inclusion of recitative in an instrumental work (finale of
Piano Sonata Op.110, Choral Fantasy Op. 80, finale of Symphony No.9, third
movement of String Quartet Op.131), use of modality (Lydian mode in the
third movement of String Quartet Op.132), programmatic elements
(Cavatina in String Quartet Op.130, Song of a Convalescent's Thanksgiving to God
in String Quartet Op.132), finale-oriented pieces (Symphony No.9, String
Quartet Op.131), unusual number of movements (two in Piano Sonata
Op.111, six in String Quartet Op.130, seven in String Quartet Op.131), together
with weakening of the sense of discrete and closed movements, tendency
to use simple melodies like folk tunes, nursery rhymes, increasing use
of flat submediant as relaxation in slow movements (the A major slow
movement of String Quartet in C# minor, Op.131; String Quartet, Op.135; the classic
example being the Ab major slow movement of Symphony No.5 in C minor).
It is not rare that in this period, Beethoven combines an extremely slow tempo
with a highly ornate texture and the simplest of harmonies (second movement of
Piano Sonata Op.111). It is in this period that Beethoven overwhelmed the
limits of Classical form in his sonata form movements -a process started with
the Eroica- by blurring the demarcations between sections and theme
groups and in creating huge structures (as in the Razumovsky Quartet
No.1, the Hammerklavier Sonata and Symphony No.9; interestingly No.8 is
just the opposite in this respect which also has a Minuet instead of Scherzo
which make it very Classical). It is also notable that there are frequent tempo
and key changes in such movements (the most typical example is the first
movement of String Quartet in Bb Op.130 in which there are sixteen tempo
and six key changes). Fusion of forms is another feature of the last
period. The first movement of the last Piano Sonata Op.111 is a profound fusion
of the contradictory principles of sonata and fugue. String quartet is the most
essential medium of Beethoven's last period, as the piano was of his first, and
the symphony orchestra of his middle period. Finally, his last period is when
he best achieved the integration of highly contrasting ideas in one piece.
There is no better example of this than the String Quartet in C# minor, Op.131
in his total output. He uses seven movements in six distinct keys, changes the
tempo 31 times and the result is still his most unified piece.
The last period of Beethoven's life should be considered in the
light of the following facts: his total deafness after 1819, his subsequent
isolation from outside world, thus increased importance of his inner world, his
permanently failed attempts in having a relationship with a woman, social and
political situation in Vienna after 1815 (Biedermeier's Vienna), his
difficulties about his nephew Karl, the disturbance of Austrian finances owing
to the wars, and the Rossini fever in Vienna which influenced Beethoven's
popularity. It was clear that he had to make necessary adjustments in his
musical language and expression. His formal innovations seem to be a result of
these factors. The freedom of form he was striving in the last Piano Sonatas
was fully attained in the last String Quartets.
Personal fingerprints
He usually sticks with diatonic, triadic simplicity. Most of
the themes have derived from the tonic triad. Thematic variety and lyricism of
some of his themes brings Beethoven closer to Mozart (than Haydn). This is most
obvious in the Septet, Eroica and the first Razumovsky
quartet. Emphatic tonal disjunction is an essential element of
Beethoven’s musical vocabulary. He juxtaposes unrelated tonal areas without
any preparation. Haydn used remote keys unprepared in the beginning of
development and so was Beethoven. Although his great contemporaries used
unrelated keys in successive movements (as in Haydn's last Piano Sonata in Eb
H.52 which has a second movement in E) or in trios or their minuets, neither
Mozart nor Haydn assigned a remote key an essential function within the unity
of a continuous and organized movement as Beethoven did (incidentally this is a
very Schubertian feature). Examples of this can be seen in the Egmont
overture when he suddenly switches to A major from Ab major in b.91/2.
He does the same in the String Quartet Op.131 where he moves to D major (second
movement) from C# minor (first movement) without a break between the movements.
In the first movement of String Quartet Op.18, No.1, the exposition finishes in
C major and the development continues in A major. Four bars later another big
leap, this time to Bb, follows. In the opening ritornello of Piano
Concerto No.2 in Bb, he moves to Db without modulating.
Similarly, at the end of the fifth variation in the finale of Symphony No.9, he
moves from A major (dominant of the tonic) to F major (dominant of the new key,
Bb). The first three songs of the song cycle are in Eb, G and Ab;
between them there is hardly any preparation for the next key, especially
remarkable when moving from G to the Neapolitan key Ab.
Beethoven is one of the supreme masters of long-range handling
of harmony. Not keys but key-relationships are an important source of harmonic
color effects in his music. Moving from a dominant seventh to a chord on the flat
submediant is an established resource Beethoven uses for creating surprise
(In Fidelio, b.49-50 of Florestan's Aria; b.333 of the first movement of
the Piano Concerto No.2 in Bb; b.217-218 of the first movement of the
Piano Sonata Op.2/3). He frequently uses flat-submediant as the key of the slow
movement (Symphony No.5, String Quartets Opp.131 & 135). The whole Symphony
No.7 is obsessed with the contrast between tonic (A) and flat submediant (F) /
flat mediant (C). The tonality of the Piano Sonata in F minor, Op.57
(Appassionato) frequently veers to the flat submediant but even more
significantly to the flat supertonic (Neapolitan key). He even used
sharp-submediant as the key of a slow movement (in the String Quartet Op.95 in
F minor, the slow movement is in D major). Perhaps the most personal mark
of Beethoven in his music is the consistent use of third relationships.
The first movement of String Quartet in Bb Op.130 contains six key
changes ranging from six flats (Gb major) to two sharps (D major); these
two keys are the flat submediant and the major mediant of the in the Bb
major scale. He uses this intervallic relationship to create unity in An die
ferne Geliebte. Both in this song cycle and in the String Quartet in C#
minor, Op.131, the keys used follow a circle-of-thirds (Ab, C, Eb,
G in the song cycle; B, D, [F#], A, C#, E, G# in the Quartet). In the
development of the Scherzo of Symphony No.9, tonal motions are in thirds: D, B,
G, Eb, C, Ab, F, Db, Bb, Gb, Eb,Cb,
Ab [G#], E, C# and A. The Mass
in C has a tonal plan based on mediant (E) and submediant (A). Mass
in C is one of the works in C major that prominent use of the mediant E major
is made (like the Piano Sonatas Opp.2/3 and 53; Leonore Overtures No.2
and 3).
Rhythmic vitality in Beethoven's music is unmatched. He creates
this with his motifs, the use of harmonies, anacrusis, syncopations, offbeat
accents and the masterly use of dynamics. For example, the famous turn motif of
String Quartet No.18/1 appears in the development on different beats of the
bar. The best examples of the typical rhythmic drive in symphonies are the
first movement of the Eroica and the whole Symphony No.7. The relentless
rhythmic drive of Brahms's Symphony No.1 is believed to be a result of a
Beethovenian model he adopted for this symphony. Sudden changes in
dynamics are a typical feature in Beethoven's music. In particular, the return
of quiet main themes fortissimo at recapitulation is worth noting. He is also
very good in dramatic use of silence.
He likes to use inversions of chords frequently, especially
the dominant seventh; and contrary motion in thirds even at the risk of
dissonance. Sometimes, he presents more music in recapitulation than in
the exposition (as b.167-173 of the first movement of Waldstein Sonata;
Piano Sonata Op.111; the first movement of the String Quartets Opp.59/2 &
130; and the last movement of the String Quartet Op.131). Especially in his
middle-period, Beethoven presents a harmonic puzzle or instability at
the outset of a piece. From the very first published work (Dresser's March,
WoO63), C minor was a key Beethoven favored a lot (Piano Trios, Op.1/3;
String Trio, Op.9/3; Piano Sonata, Op.10/1; Pathetique Sonata, Op.13;
String Quartet, Op.18/4; Piano Concerto No.3, Op.37; Coriolanus Overture,
Op.62; Symphony No.5, Op.67; first movement of the final Piano Sonata, Op.111).
With Beethoven C minor is usually the key for drama and tension. He
chose this key for monumental tragic-heroic works (like the Funeral Cantata WoO
87 and the principal section of the Funeral March of the Eroica). He
attached supreme suffering to F minor (Fidelio, Egmont)
and heroic emotion to Eb major (the Eroica, Emperor).
Towards the end of his life the use of trills came to have a
significant importance. This started with the last movement of the Piano Sonata
in E minor, Op.90. The best example of expressive trills can be found in the
last variation of the last movement of the last Piano Sonata (Op.111). The slow
movement of the String Quartet in C# minor, Op.131 (the beginning of the coda)
is also very rich in trills.
Beethoven's fondness of countryside is well-known. His tendency to
write pastoral music culminated in the Pastoral Symphony in 1808. He
also wrote less known music with pastoral connotations. His most pastoral
composition written before the Symphony was a song published in 1804. Der Wachtelschlag
(WoO 129) in F major is about a quail (also featured in the Symphony). There is
also a Pastoral in the ballet music Prometheus (1800-1). This is in C
major with 6/8 meter and uses almost exclusively tonic and dominant harmony.
The Piano Sonata in D (Op.28) has been nicknamed Pastoral by an English
publisher. This is because of the extended tonic pedal in the opening theme and
in the (6/8) finale. It was not Beethoven's idea to call it Pastoral. Another
pastoral sounding piece by Beethoven is a Bagatelle in F major from the Op.33
set (1802). The musical features of the Symphony No.6 that give it a pastoral
character can be listed as follows: the key of F major and the extensive use of
woodwind, especially oboe which has originated from the shawm (a shepherd's
instrument); the use of fast triple (3/4), compound duple (6/8) and compound
quadruple (12/8) time in the third, last and second movements, respectively
(but not Siciliana rhythm); widespread use of pedal basses, simple diatonic
harmonies (mainly tonic-dominant) avoiding minor key modulations and chromatic
chords; upper parts moving in thirds; bird-song imitations; second movement in
subdominant; significant repetition; playing down the dramatic features of
sonata form in the first two movements (like the lack of dominant preparation
before recapitulation in the first movement) and lack of sudden dynamic
changes.
Beethoven's vocal works are often underestimated. More than 40% of
his Bonn works are for voice. This proportion is very similarly represented in
his total 600 works. His Lieder compare favorably with those of his
contemporaries, although, as with most pre-Romantic Lieder, few have entered
the modern repertory. Beethoven changed the minuet to scherzo in his
compositions. The scherzo is a less graceful and more violent minuet and in
much more rapid triple-meter. The rhythm of Beethoven's scherzos is usually
heard as a three-in-one beat. In slow movements, like Haydn, he uses double
variation form frequently. The most typical example is Symphony No.5: the slow
movement in variation form has two themes. The rhythm of the second corresponds
to the rhythm of the 'fate knocking on the door' theme. The slow movements of
Symphony No.4 & No.9 and String Quartet Op. 132 'Song of a Convalescent's
Thanksgiving to God' are also in double variation form. His interest in the
variation form is well-known. Towards the end of his life, this interest became
more than just elaborating a theme. As in the Diabelli Variations
(Op.120), he dissects the theme to discover new meanings in it. He wrote 32
variations on a theme by Diabelli (eight groups of four variations each one
following the theme's eight four-bar phrases). Sometimes the theme itself
becomes unrecognizable. From the middle period onwards, his large scale works
represent triumph over threat or adversity best seen in Symphony No.5 (also in Fidelio
and the Adagio of the first Razumovsky Quartet, Op.59). Even his darkest
music usually ends happily the rare exceptions being the Pathetique and the
String Quartet in C# minor, Op.131.
Structural innovations
From his Opus 1, Beethoven started to make his mark on classical
style. He is best remembered for changing the minuet to scherzo. He even placed
the scherzo as the second movement in Symphony No.9. From the beginning, he
increased the number of movements to four in classical sonata (his first Bonn
sonatas have four movements). Later on, however, he also brought flexibility to
the number of movements and indeed his last Piano Sonata (Op.111) has only two
movements (after him, Liszt brought it down to one in his Sonata in B minor).
The slow introduction to a symphony was already known from the examples of
Mozart and Haydn but he did the same in his Piano Sonatas (Piano Sonata in F
minor (1783), WoO 47; the Pathetique). He revolutionized the symphonic
concept. The turning point in the history of symphony is the Eroica.
It has an unprecedented length, which was heralded in Symphony No.2, and the
expansion of sonata form in the first movement must have been hard to believe
for his contemporaries. The richness in themes and tonality, extraordinary
development which starts from the beginning and extended coda as a second
development are the main features of the first movement of the Eroica.
He also widened the scope of the piano sonata to symphonic proportions with the
Waldstein, Appassionato and Hammerklavier sonatas. With his Op.18
String Quartets (No.5-6) and Opp.26, 27/1-2 and 31/3 Piano Sonatas (all from
1800-1802), a tendency towards shifting the weight of a multi-movement piece to
the end emerged. He applied the same to the symphony from the Eroica
onwards. This trend culminated in the choral finale in No.9. In No.6, he used
five movements as opposed to the norm of four movements and as he had done in
No.5, he joined the last three movements together (in his penultimate String
Quartet in C# minor, all seven movements are played without a break). Having
exhausted the tools of the classical style, he started to combine them. This is
first seen in the fusion of forms in his music: in Op.18/4, he combined the
fugue and sonata form in the second movement; in the finale of the Eroica,
variation and fugue are combined; in the finale of the Pastoral
symphony, the rondo theme is varied at each return; in the last movement of
Piano Sonata, Op.111, the section after variation 4 may be seen either as an
extended coda or as two further variations surrounded by transitional material
and ending with a coda. His innovations in the use of sonata form are discussed
in the next section. See also Evolution of
Symphony and the Finale Problem after Beethoven.
Use of sonata form
As a Classical Period composer, he used sonata form in first
movements of most of his works. All four movements of the String Quartet in F
major Op.59/1 (Razumovsky) are cast in sonata form. He sometimes used
sonata form in last movements (Piano Sonatas Op.10/1 and Op.27/2; String
Quartets Op.18/5, and Op.131 -the only sonata form movement is the last
movement in this quartet). He expanded the sonata form movements to
massive dimensions as in the first movements of Symphonies No.3 & 9. He
generally observes the sonata principle. Sometimes his second subjects are in
unexpected keys or have more than one tonality but the whole group usually
establishes one single key and they are recapitulated in the tonic (or tonic
major). Not infrequently, he approaches the second subject through an
intermediary key (like from F to C through Ab in String Quartet
Op.18/1). Some exceptions violating the conventions of Classical sonata
principle are: the second subject of Symphony No.1 in C is recapitulated in the
subdominant (F); in the Piano Sonata, Op.10/1 (first movement), the
recapitulation of the second subject is also in the subdominant and
moves to the tonic minor (there are deviations from the sonata principle in all
three sonatas in this set); in the Pathetique Sonata (C minor), the
second subject is in Eb minor (mediant minor) and first recapitulated in
the subdominant before reaching the home key; the Egmont overture
(in F minor, Op.84) in which the second subject is in the relative major (Ab)
and recapitulated in the submediant key (Db); also in String Quartet in
F minor Op.95, the second subject is first recapitulated in Db and then
in F major; in the first movement of Symphony No.9 (in D minor), the second
subject is in the submediant (Bb) and is recapitulated in F# minor (a
third above the tonic); in the Piano Trio, Op.70/2 (finale), a double
recapitulation is the outcome of an unusual key structure which begins with the
exposition; in the finale of the String Quartet in C# minor, Op.131, the finale
is in sonata form and its second subject is recapitulated in the remote key, D
major (flat supertonic); in Piano Sonata in C Op.53 (Waldstein), the
second subject is in E and recapitulated first in A and then reaches the tonic,
later on in the coda it turns up again fully in tonic.
Other examples of the use of remote keys (usually a third
relationship to the tonic) for the second subjects in sonata form movements:
the flat submediant (Piano Sonata, Op.111; String Quartet in Bb,
Op.130); the mediant major (Waldstein); the submediant major (String
Quintet in C, Op.29; Archduke Trio in Bb, Op.97; Hammerklavier
Sonata in Bb, Op.106); the submediant (String Quartet in F minor,
Op.95); the mediant (Sonata in G, Op.31/1) in which the second subject begins
in the mediant (B) major but most of the rest of the second group is in B
minor. In the Scherzo of Symphony No.9 in D minor, the second subject is in C
major (flat-seventh). In the late period, it is rare to see the second subject
in dominant.
One of the hallmarks of Beethoven's way with sonata form is his
love of well-contrasted first and second subjects. This was not unusual in the
Classical period. The first and second subject groups of the first movement of
the Eroica and Egmont are good examples of contrasting subjects
in a sonata form movement (rhythmic/masculine vs lyrical/feminine). The D major
- B minor key relationship was one of his favorite ones (Pastoral sonata
Op.28, finale of Symphony No.2). He also used the specific juxtaposition of D
major and Bb major in his works (introduction of Symphony No.2, the
first orchestral tutti of the Violin Concerto, the first turn towards the
second thematic area in Archduke Trio Op.97, the first theme of the
third movement of Symphony No.9). He is very fond of motivic development and he
does it very concisely. He uses one or two small motives to construct a whole
movement. In the first and last movements of piano sonata Op.10/3, he builds
large structures from motifs of just a few notes. His dominant preparations are
sometimes massive (as in the Pathetique sonata) and the recapitulation
comes back after a long expectation and usually in fortissimo. On the
other hand, the development section of the Scherzo of Symphony No.9 merges into
the recapitulation without any dominant harmony and, the first movement of the Pastoral
Symphony does not have any dominant pedal at the end of the development. The
coda is generally a further development section (first movement of the Eroica).
Another common procedure in Beethoven's sonata form movements is that a
cadential phrase from the first theme ends the exposition and opens the
development (String Quartet in G, Op.18/2).
The coda was no more than a summing up in most Classical works
before Beethoven. There were only a few grand codas (as in Haydn's Symphony
No.44, Mozart's large instrumental works in C major and C minor). Beethoven
raised the coda to the status of a second development section. His largest
codas are those in the finale of Trio Op.97 (157 of 410 bars), Symphonies No.3
(first movement), No.5 (finale), No.8 (finale; 236 of 502 bars), and in the
finale of String Quartet Op.131 (125 of 388 bars).
Thematic links in Beethoven's works
The main theme of the Eroica may have been inspired from the
Prometheus theme. The new theme that appears in b.284 of the first movement
seems to have been derived from the first and second subjects. The funeral
march theme in C minor is the retrograde derivative of the main theme of the
first movement. The horn theme in the Trio is an anagram of the main theme
(incl. the Db). In Symphony No.5, the theme of the Scherzo is related
rhythmically to the opening of the work. The Scherzo theme appears in the
finale. In No.9, the themes of the first three movements are quoted in the
beginning of the last movement. The Ode to Joy theme is foreshadowed all the
way through in the symphony. An example of the intervallic relationship as
a means of creating unity appears in the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte.
The interval sixth and its inversion the third are used consistently in
melodically important material throughout. Semitonic interval is used as a
unifying agent in Symphony No.2 and String Quartet in C# minor. In the Pathetique
sonata, the rondo theme is related to the second subject of the first movement.
He uses a rhythmic motive to unite all sections in the first movement of
Symphony No.4. All his last five string quartets are united by the same pitch
relationships in their themes (most use the top half of the minor scale) and
show some signs of key relationships as a whole. As in the Eroica and
Symphony No.5, the themes of different movements of the String Quartet in C#
minor (Op.131) are interrelated. As an example, the theme of the last movement
in sonata form is an interversion of the first movement's fugal subject.
Orchestration in Beethoven's work
Beethoven was not interested in introducing novelties for their own
sake. He follows the conventions of Classical period orchestration with slight
expansion. He shared his contemporaries' taste for generally expanding the use
of woodwind and brass. He used the Classical period orchestration in most of
his orchestral music: double woodwind (pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and
bassoons), pairs of horns, trumpets, timpani and the standard strings (first
violins, second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses). Typical
Beethovenian touches in his scores are the sudden and unexpected fortes and
pianos as well as sudden silences. Adam Carse comments on examples of bad
balances in orchestration in several of his symphonies as a result of strings,
or strings or brass, overpowering the essential matter played by the wood-wind
in loud passages. In his first symphony, clarinets are still only harmony or
tutti instruments but gradually gain importance and are given solo parts from
the Eroica onwards. His horn parts also show gradual change. The number
of stopped notes increased starting with the Eroica. He used three horns
in the Eroica and Fidelio (1805) and four in Symphony No.9. He
exploited the possibilities of the brass group very little. The timpani,
however, enjoyed prominence and even thematic importance (as in the Scherzo of
Symphony No.9) more than ever before in Beethoven's music. Another novel use of
the timpani was tuning them in the extended interval of octaves in the same
Scherzo (as well as in the finale of Symphony No.8), and in the interval of
diminished fifth in Florestan's F minor aria in Fidelio. From his middle
period onwards, he was getting impatient with the instrumental technique of his
time. His demands on the horn players in the Eroica, Fidelio,
Symphony No.9 (fourth horn), and on the string bass players in the third
movement of Symphony No.5 were probably a little too much at the time.
Romantic tendencies in Beethoven's music
Both Classical and Romantic tendencies co-exist in Beethoven's
music. In the case of Beethoven at least, it would be more appropriate to see
Classicism and Romanticism as concurrent tendencies rather than consecutive
periods. When exhausted the tools of the Classical style, Beethoven turned to
new ways of expression and new kinds of content. In contrast to Romantics,
Beethoven found these in his own imagination. The great interest taken by many
Romantic composers in their national heritage was a characteristic of Beethoven
too. His interest in folk songs is very well known not only because of the
arrangements he made for British and Irish folk songs, but also because he
wrote a lot of German Dances. As his expressive purposes changed, he sometimes
found it necessary to increase the length of single movements as in the Eroica,
Symphony No.9, and String Quartets Opp.130 & 131. He also used the cyclical
form (An die ferne Geliebte song cycle). Like his follower Romantic
composers would do, he turned to the past in search of new expressive means.
The amount of fugal writing increased in his later works. The slow movement of
the A minor quartet (Op.132) bears the superscript 'Song of a Convalescent's
Thanksgiving ... in the Lydian mode'. The overture to the Consecration of
the House resembles the French overture type. He also created the short,
lyrical piano pieces called bagatelles. He provided examples for the traits
often described as Romantic: Program music (Pastoral Symphony),
Extra-musical suggestions (Eroica, Pastoral Symphony, Symphonies
No.5 and 9, Piano Sonata Op.81a Les Adieux), longing for the
unattainable (An die ferne Geliebte), finishing minor key works with
major mode movements (Symphonies No.5 and 9; Piano Sonatas Opp.90 & 111;
String Quartet Op.95) [incidentally, the opposite of this does not occur in
Beethoven's music but there are later examples: Mendelssohn's Italian
Symphony in A and Brahms's Trio in B, Op.8], merging of separate movements into
a single span (Symphonies No.5 and 6; Piano Concerto No.5 'Emperor';
Piano Sonata Op.111 'No.32'), tonal innovations in sonata form-movements (in Appassionato
in F minor, the second subject is both in Ab minor and Ab major;
in the Scherzo of the Eroica, the second subject is recapitulated in the
dominant first and then in the tonic; in the finale of String Quartet in C#
minor, Op.131, the second subject is in relative major (E) and recapitulated in
the Neapolitan key 'D major'). This Quartet (Op.131) is highly structured and
in this sense Classical. Whatever innovations, modifications and revolutions he
has brought into music, he never forgot to keep the balance and order. He
appears to have remained a Classical composer throughout his life, but the
instinctive imagination Beethoven shows for the form, texture and tonality is
more characteristic of Romantics. See also Romantic Music.
Beethoven's influence
During the nineteenth century, those composers not influenced by
Beethoven were the exception rather than the rule. The model of Beethoven was a
prototype for the Romantic artist as he was not conservative in creativity and,
tried new ways in expression and communication with no recognition of boundary.
His life style and humanistic opinions also provided new models for the
Romantics. Beethoven’s legacy was immensely rich and varied. Many of the
following composers could not avoid his influence. His influence made
especially symphonic writing a difficult task for his followers. From the Eroica
onwards, Beethoven redefined the concept of symphony. He created new concepts
in symphonic writing: the metaphysical, exemplified by the heroic-tragic
(funeral march from the Eroica, the first movements of Symphonies No.5
and 9) and the heroic-victorious (first movement of the Eroica, last
movement of No.5, the Emperor); the down-to-earth (the Pastoral);
concision and neatness (Symphonies No.4 and 8); expansiveness (the Eroica,
Symphony No.9); music with a message (the Eroica, Symphonies No.5 and
9); or still abstract music (Symphonies No.4 and 8) were the new and
wide-ranging elements in the new symphonic style as defined by Beethoven. In
the new style, the weight shifted to the end (to the finale) and, the
concentrated motivic development and long-range tonal planning became the norm.
His immediate German successors Schumann and Mendelssohn were undoubtedly
Romantic composers but in their symphonies it was Beethoven the Classic to whom
they owed most.
As a brief summary, his influence on other composers are as follows:
Schubert: the expansive dimension of his own No.9 (the Great),
similarity of the rhythm in the opening of the Wanderer to
Beethoven’s Hammerklavier; Schumann: the adoption of the
song cycle as a model, the quotation of the closing song of An die ferne
Geliebte in his Piano Fantasy Op.17, placing of the scherzo as the second
movement in his Second Symphony, thematic cross-references and the lack of
breaks between movements in the Fourth Symphony (as in Beethoven’s No.5
and 9, and No.5 and 6, respectively), thematic cross-links also in the first
movement of the Piano Concerto; Mendelssohn: the parallels between his
String Quartet Op.80 in F minor and Beethoven’s F minor Quartet Op.95,
his Piano Sonata Op.6 and Beethoven’s Sonatas Opp.90 & 101, choral
finale in Symphony No.2, the similarity of the Andante con moto in D
minor from the Italian Symphony to the Allegretto of Beethoven's
No.7, the Adagio of the Scottish Symphony has similarities to the
Harp Quartet Op.74, the connection of the first two movements of
the Violin Concerto by a single bassoon note modeled on the Emperor; Berlioz:
Programmatic content and thematic transformation in the symphonies Symphonie
fantastique and Romeo and Juliette, also chorus in the finale of Romeo
and Juliette; Liszt: inspiration from the Egmont and Leonora
Overtures No.2 and 3 to write his 13 Symphonic Poems, programmatic symphonies (Dante
and Faust) and use of chorus in the finale of them, thematic
transformation in Faust (similar to the transformation of the slow
introduction theme in the Pathetique), Piano Sonata in B runs without a
break; Brahms: the relentless rhythmic drive, beautiful breadth of
melodies, originality of modulations, dramatic treatment of the main structural
landmarks and particular expressive content in Symphony No.1 (1876) which was
dubbed 'The Tenth', the tonal relationships between the movements of this
Symphony is another reminder of Beethoven (and Schubert): they are separated
from each other by a major third (C minor, E major, Ab major, C
minor), the symphonic nature of Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor (1859) and
the structure of its rondo (aspired from Beethoven’s Piano Concerto
No.3), his second Piano Concerto in Bb (1881) was even called 'a
symphony with obbligato piano', the rhythmic similarity of the opening theme of
his Piano Sonata No.1 (1853) to the Hammerklavier’s first theme and the reference to Bb
near the opening of a C major sonata movement (similar to Waldstein),
particular emphasis on this Bb as Beethoven did the same for G in the
first movement of String Quartet Op.59/1 and D and A in the whole of Op.131,
similarities of his Violin Concerto and Double Concerto to Beethoven’s
Violin Concerto (1878) and Triple Concerto (1887), the intervallic contour of
the first theme using descending thirds (cf. Hammerklavier) and dual
tonality of the second subject in B minor and major (cf. Appassionato
Op.57 and Sonata in G Op.31/1) in the Fourth symphony, the freedom he allowed
himself in variation writing can be traced back to Beethoven, his addition of a
fourth movement in his second Piano Concerto may have been inspired from
Beethoven's similar innovation in piano sonata; Bruckner: Hugely
expansive symphonies, simplicity of motifs and creating great structures from
these simple motifs (Urmotive), the use of the first movement of
Beethoven’s No.9 as a model in many symphonies (especially in his Third
Symphony, also the Eighth starts with a theme rhythmically identical to the
opening of Beethoven's No.9), use of the slow movement of No.9 as a model for
some his symphonic slow movements (especially the last three), in the finale of
his Symphony No.5, themes from the earlier movements re-appear and alternate
with new themes and they altogether become the first subject proper; Mahler:
The resemblance of the Resurrection March in his Second Symphony to the march
episode in the finale of Beethoven's No.9, extreme similarity of the opening of
the third movement of the Fourth Symphony to the quartet from Act 1 of Fidelio,
the opening of the Adagio finale of Mahler's Third Symphony resembles to the Lento
assai from the String Quartet Op.135 and the second part of the main theme
from Marcia funebre of the Eroica; Wagner: He
considered himself as the successor of Bach of Beethoven. His early instrumental
works are based on Beethovenian models. Wagner aspired to compose symphonic
opera. He at the end infused opera with Beethoven’s symphonism. He
combined literary drama and the Beethovenian symphony in musical drama. Thus,
he used large-scale tonal planning and thematic-motivic working (with more
emphasis on transformation) in his operas; Franck: Apart from
finishing his only Symphony in D minor in major mode, the first phrase of the Grande
Piece Symphonique is related to Muss es sein? (Beethoven's String Quartet
op.135); Martinu himself stated that the Eroica lay behind the musical
language of his Symphony No.3; Bartok: He was a great fan of
Beethoven’s last quartets. These quartets formed the inspiration for
Bartok’s six mature quartets. No.1 starts with a fugue like
Beethoven’s Op/131, intellectual concentration (similar to the finale of
the Hammerklavier and Grosse Fugue) can be seen in the opening of
his String Quartet No.4. A motif only uses semitonic intervals forms the
generative nucleus in this quartet; Tippett: He was impressed with the
vitality of the formal process and the creation of ebb and flow in
Beethoven’s music. He frequently started with a sonata-allegro movement and
finished with a sonata-rondo in his compositions. His Symphony No.2, for
example, consists of a dramatic sonata-allegro followed by an expressive slow
movement, a vigorous scherzo and a climaxing finale. So has his String Quartet
No.1 a similar structure. He used the model of Beethoven’s String Quartet
Op.95 to integrate widely differing material such as the lyrical opening
folk-like theme with a homophonic accompaniment, a fugue with a chromatic tail
into his Concerto for Double String Orchestra. Like the Hammerklavier and
Grosse Fugue, he concluded his String Quartet No.3 and Symphony No.1 with
fugues. Similarities extend to the use of expressive trills and increased speed
of figurations (as in the finale of Beethoven’s Op.111) in his Piano Sonata
No.3. He even quoted the alla marcia from the finale of the Ninth Symphony in
the third act of his opera The Midsummer Marriage. Also in the finale of
his Third Symphony, he quotes the opening bars of the finale of Symphony No.9.
If not his music, the humanism Beethoven pictured so positively in
masterpiece after masterpiece will continue to influence each generation.
See also Naxos
4-CD Set with Narration on Beethoven's Life and Works (Cat. No. 8.558024-27)
Beethoven: The Music and the Life by Lewis Lockwood
Link to the
Ludwig van Beethoven Website
M.Tevfik Dorak, B.A. (Hons)
Last
updated on May 4, 2003
Last
edited on May 8, 2009