The Classical And Romantic Eras Of Classical Music

The Classical period of music has also been called the “Rococo” period. The Classical time period was between the 18th and 19th centuries. Spanning the years of 1750-1820. The transition from the Baroque period to the Classical took the music from polyphonic to homophonic where even though it seems like that would make the music less complex we look at a whole different type of complexity. The music typically contained two different melodies and a contrast in sections. This made the chords in the music much more defined and the tonal part of the music became more defined. The Classical period had a significant influence on several aspects of music. Chamber music had a sonata form. This means it had an exposition, a transition, and a recapitulation. Composition in the Classical time was mainly dominated by eclecticism which made the music more diverse. Concerto was driven at first by the Italians. They started the idea of the solo concerto. Orchestration was mainly developed during this musical time period. This is partly due to some of the most talented musicians that lived during this time. They did a lot of work in making the orchestra mainly string instruments. Some of these being the violin, viola, cello, and the contrabass, just to name a few. All of these things had a great influence in the way the music made the transition from the Baroque period to the Classical period.

Beethoven is perhaps the most famous musician of all time. His influence on later composers was extremely huge, to the extent where many composers were intimidated by his music. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 into a family of musicians. His father and grandfather were both musicians at the court of Elector in the German town of Bonn. His grandfather was very respected, but his dad not so much given that he was an alcoholic. At a young age, Beethoven was put in charge of his family’s finances and started a job at the court. He composed music and helped look after the instrumentation. Around the same time, he began to write music. In 1790, an important visitor passed through Bonn: this was Franz Joseph Haydn. He was on his way to London for a visit when he stopped to meet Beethoven and agreed to take him on as a student when he came back from London to Vienna. In 1792, Beethoven moved to Vienna to study with Hayden. Apparently, it did not go as planned. Hayden was old fashion and a little overbearing, while Beethoven was rebellious and headstrong. Beethoven found support among the rich arts who lived in Vienna. Prince Lichnowsky gave him board and lodging at his place for in return, Beethoven would compose music and preform at evening parties.

Ever since his father began teaching him as a child to play the violin and clavier, any keyboard instrument such as the harpsichord, Ludwig van Beethoven has been amongst the most renowned and influential composers of music. Despite the harsh punishments and mistreatment Beethoven suffered through while practicing with his father, he still managed to become a “prodigy” at a rather young age, having his first public recital at around seven years old. After his first recital role music played in his continued to grow, and soon after dropping out of school to pursue music “full time” he published his first composition.

Only a few composers in the history of time have ever successfully left their mark throughout our musical world we live in today. It’s been over two hundred years since the birth of Beethoven and his music still speaks to us today as he originally expressed and composed it. Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in the city of Bonn Germany on December 16th 1770 and has since been one of the most influential composers known to man. A common theme of early age learning and mastering seems to emerge in Beethoven’s life because while living in a musical family as a child, his father taught him how to play the piano, violin and in addition how to compose musical pieces since he was four years of age. A few short years later, he gave his first public piano performance at the age of seven. While Beethoven certainly gained a lot of knowledge from his peers, he also supported his family by giving music lessons and also by playing in the court orchestra. In the year 1792, Beethoven worked under an Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn and by the year 1800, his compositions established him as a strong Mozart successor.

As a child, Beethoven’s father pushed him past his limits to be a musician. The young boy’s neighbors accounted for hearing “weeping while he played the clavier, standing atop a footstool to reach the keys, his father beating him for each hesitation or mistake” (“Ludwig”). He was “flogged” on a near daily basis and “locked in the cellar and deprived of sleep for extra hours of practice” (“Ludwig”). Due to the inhuman amount of hours he spent playing music, Beethoven began showing “flashes of the creative imagination that would eventually reach farther than any composer's before or since” (“Ludwig”). He composed a piece entitled Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II, which is now considered his earliest masterpiece.

Ludwig van Beethoven is a world notorious and famous music composer and pianist. He composed some of the most powerful pieces of music. Beethoven created a connection between the 18th century Classical Period and the Romantic eras. His best innovations in composition came in his instrumental work, including his symphonies. He succeeded in several areas of music (music forms), which were passed down to him from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Hadyn including the sonata, concerto, and symphony (Isaac, n.d.).

Ludwig van Beethoven is a name that is common to most people and is synonymies with great classical music. He is known, quite loosely, as the German composer who created beautiful pieces with an incredible disability. Despite an unhappy family setting and the deafness that struck soon after, the man appeared to rise from his misfortunes and follow his passion. Mr. Beethoven created some of the most wonderful music and is considered one of the greatest musicians of all time. Ludwig, at a very young age, began his career as a marvelous piano player and composer of piano music. Beethoven continued his work expanding to string quartets and other kinds of chamber music, songs, two masses, an opera, and nine symphonies. The

From the time Ludwig van Beethoven was a young child, everyone around him could see that he was extremely talented. His name is known all around the world and when people think classical music, Beethoven is one of the first names that pop up. Long after his death in 1827, his music is still listened to. Soon to be mothers are sometimes told to allow the baby to listen to classical music, especially by Beethoven, to help with brain development. College and high school students are told we can benefit by listening to Beethoven when studying. Even in some modern songs, you can hear Beethoven’s legacy living on. Beethoven was an excellent composer and wrote pieces that defied the norm of the Romantic Era. Many artists today may not realize that

Ludwig van Beethoven can still be considered a household name, even though Classical, or more accurately Romantic, music is no longer popular. According to Budden, Beethoven has been regarded as one of the greatest composers who ever lived, a statement that many others would agree with. A fountainhead of Romantic music and a man of great musical innovation, Beethoven was truly a talented composer. Beethoven’s music evolved into his own style over the course of his life leaving a great impact on history, despite the loss of his hearing.

1. Intro: Composer Ludwig van Beethoven was an innovator, widening the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto, and quartet, and combining vocals and instruments in a new way. His personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life, when he was quite unable to hear. He is an crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, a pianist, a composer who remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers.

The early piano sonatas of Beethoven deserve special mention. Although his first published examples of concertos and trios and the first two symphonies are beneath the masterpieces of Mozart and Haydn, the piano sonatas bear an unmistakably Beethovian stamp: grandiose in scope and length, and innovative in their range of expression. The sonatas were able to move expression from terrible rage to peals of laughter to deep depression so suddenly. Capturing this unpredictable style in his music, a new freedom of expression which broke the bounds of Classical ideals, was to position Beethoven as a disturbed man in the minds of some of his contemporaries. Furthermore, he was to be seen as the father of Romanticism and the single most important innovator of music in the minds of those after him. (Bookspan 27).

The romantic period of music began in the 1820s and with it came a change of stylistic features. Beethoven largely impacted the new way that the music of the Romantic era was viewed. He made people perceive music as a true form of art made to be taken seriously, rather than just a fun time passer. Another reason for the change of music during that time was due to nationalism and exoticism. Nationalism promoted music, such as folk songs and dances, which was created for the purpose of supporting the nation. Exoticism had the opposite effect as nationalism. It caused audiences to listen to folk music from other nations and it allowed people to have a better understanding of unique qualities and cultures of surrounding nations. These factors led to the music during the Romantic period becoming more personal and emotion than it was in the previous classical era, although it still contained a melody, harmony, tone color, and a form. Much of the music from the Romantic era can be recognized by its melody. The melodies became wider, more irregular, and dramatic during this time. The harmony of Romantic music was further advanced as well. The composers learned how to use harmony to build the melody and intensify its emotionality, while at the same time experimenting freely with new chords. The tone color of music during this time was expanded allowing the quality of the sound of the music to improve. One of the most important changes that were made to the features of music during

Beginning circa 1820, and ending around 1910 (Paterson, 2017), the Romantic period followed the Classical era, marking the introduction of many changes to the overall sound and composition of music. The increased use of large orchestras, combined with the use of chromaticism and modulations, expressional devices such as dynamics, and sweeping melodies, led to a large amount of emotion being conveyed in pieces of music. An example featuring many of these techniques and features is Chopin’s “Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9”, No. 2, which was published in 1832 (AllMusic, 2017). 20th Century music, commonly referred to as “contemporary” music, followed the end of the Romantic period. The rise of popular music forms such as jazz, blues, and rock led to a large change in approach for the neoclassical composers, leading many into an avant-garde approach, such as John Cage. The introduction of electric amplification changed the overall sound of music, with new instruments being invented, as well as possibilities for foreign objects to be amplified. “Classical Gas”, by Mason Williams (1968), was written for classical guitar, as Williams felt there was a limited classical guitar repertoire, particularly amongst the popular music of the 1960s. Thus, he wrote Classical Gas, a piece inspired by the Classical era, but involving more modern instrumentation and a contemporary flavour (Williams, 2013).

In order to explore the career of Ludwig van Beethoven, and his ‘bridging the gap’ between the classical and romantic eras of music, this essay will examine the style of music and its features, most commonly associated with the Classical era (1750-1820), and those of the Romantic era (1815-1820) . It will look at some musical examples from Beethoven’s work, how they fit into each of the eras, and also how they transition from one era to the next. Beethoven’s career spans both eras mentioned above, from his public debut in Vienna in 1795 to his death in 1827. This essay will strive to explore the reasons why Beethoven is called a transitional composer.

Ludwig Van Beethoven was one of the greatest musical composers of his time. Starting very young in his studies of music, he held many important positions they would develop him into the composer he became. Born in Bonn, Germany to a singer, he held his first position at the church. He later moved to Vienna where his composed several pieces, and even an opera. He created a new style of music, cyclic form.