Ludwig van Beethoven: Revolutionary Titan by Parker Konkle If I were to ask you to hum a tune from any piece of classical music, the first thing that would probably come to your mind was the main theme from Beethoven's 5th symphony in D minor. Was I correct? How is it that this humble person from Bonn, Germany, created something that the whole world would remember and admire forever? Beethoven was ahead of his time, and so was his piano playing. Never before had anyone played with such power, character, and fiery emotion. He was the transitory gap between the Classical peroid and Romanticism. But why was such a revolutionary pianist's original piano music so comparatively conservative for his time? It may have been because Beethoven was more concerned about the idea of the piece itself and less about how …show more content…
Beethoven had distinct opinions about society and music.''What is in my heart must come out and so I write it down,'' he told one of his premier students, Carl Czerny. Why is it that the word 'artist' never occurs in any of Mozart's letters? Because Mozart would have never said it like this. Beethoven's letters are full of words like 'art,' 'artist,' and 'artistry.' Ludwig and his predecessors were very skilled composers and the idea of writing music for there own benefit never crossed their minds. His genius was recognized virtually from the very beginning. A country boy from Bonn, Germany, he was born on December 16, 1770. His father, Ludwig's first teacher, was a musician in the court of the Elector of Cologne. As a child prodigy, he was subject to rigorous regimen and practice. Beethoven's father began teaching him music with an extraordinary rigor and brutality that affected him for the rest
“Beethoven said that it’s better to hit the wrong note confidentially than hit the right note unconfidently. Never be afraid to be wrong or to embarrass yourself; we are all students in this life, and there is always something more to learn.” – Mike Norton. This quote by Mike Norton hits spot on Beethoven’s character and his person in general. Unlike other musicians of his time, Beethoven had several unique characteristics about his compositions. In his time, he was called a revolutionary. In his later years, Beethoven became deaf and could not always verbally show his emotion, he portrayed his feelings in his music. Although considering the matters of religion and thoroughbass cut and dry, his study of aesthetics was something that he could create something of his own. Throughout several of his Sonata’s and compositions, he holds a darker style of music that shocked and disturbed rather than calmed like the traditional music in the 18th century. Much like his appearance, his contemporaries perceived his compositions as wild, bizarre and crazy. The pieces were more complicated than pieces that were being written in that time period, and Beethoven claimed he was writing them for the future. In one of his final pieces, Piano Sonata, Op. 111, he “shows his radical approach to form and his revolutionary brilliance stands out in every movement of his five Late Quartets, simply the greatest body of music ever composed” (Woods). He went against the grain of the musical society in
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.
Beethoven contributed one of the most significant musical developments through his fifth and ninth symphonies. He used a musical motive as the basic of his entire piece. (Beethoven described the motive as “Fate knocks at the door”.) It was the first time in history that anyone had done such a thing for a multi-movement piece. Beethoven’s contribution has become a norm in the music world, even to this day.
Also among Beethoven’s teachers, though later in his life, were Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, an organist at the imperial court in Vienna whom he studied under until 1795, and Antonio Salieri; Mozart’s old rival whom Beethoven learned vocal composition in the same period he was studying under Albrechtsberger. Before Albrechtsberger and Salieri was a man named Haydn, whom he studied under for a period of about three years starting in 1792 until 1794 when Haydn moved to London. It is said that Beethoven admired Haydn so much that he was the only man he had ever bent his knee to kiss the hand of. Finally, Beethoven studied under Aloys Forster, a specialist in writing scores for quartets. It is plane to see that throughout his life, his talent was not only constructed through his love of music, but forged by his exposure to multiple mediums and teachings throughout his life.
One myth about Beethoven involves the rumors around his deafness. It is true that by the time he finished his last symphony he was deaf, but he had a lifetime of writing music to develop the skills necessary to write, even when he could no longer hear. Beethoven began losing his hearing in 1801. Musical Style Beethoven was one of the greatest composers of the Classical period. His music overlaps two time periods, as he helped to define and expand the Classical period into the Romantic period.
Although Beethoven wrote only nine symphonies, his symphonies were highly abstract and much heavier symphonies than any of Mozart’s and Hayden’s. Beethoven was far from lazy he was great, and he was a perfectionist, his process of creation was just like chiseling the work from a stone into a beautiful piece of art, while Mozart and Hayden could make a symphony quick and be satisfied easily with their work, Beethoven would work constantly to perfect his work. If you look at Beethoven’s fifth symphonies sketches from the earliest beginning point, and compare them to the final product he came up with, you can see how much work he must have put in to the fifth symphony to get it to be the groundbreaking powerful piece of musical art we know today.
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.).
Still considered “one of the greatest composers of the West European music traditions” (Columbia), Beethoven has influenced the classical world in great manners. The life of Beethoven was a sorrowful one with him becoming “deaf at age 32” (Eckley), being depressed, ill, and constantly falling in love despite never marrying. Bowden adds Beethoven writing a letter to the ’Immortal Beloved’, “a woman whose identity Beethoven careful to conceal” (Bowden). Such problems never stopped his passion for composing. Beethoven broke the classical music traditions of Haydn and Mozart. For example, he composed the wonderful piece “Third Symphony, the Eorcia.” Columbia believes Erocia showed freedom and nobility through its harmonies and orchestration. Other famous pieces include Moonlight Sonata, Kreutzer Sonata for Violin, and 5th Symphony. The pieces showed pain, sorrow, or pure angst which influenced romantic composers and many afterward.
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.
Ludwig Van Beethoven was a classical and romantic era composer and pianist. Ludwig van Beethoven was the transition from the classical to western music. Beethoven was much taken by the ideals of the Enlightenment and by the growing Romanticism in Europe.His early work resemble Haydn and Mozart in great amount. However, his later works set stage for the choral symphonies of Romantic period. He is famous for composing 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, Mass the Miss solemnis, and opera Fidelio. His works are remembered for their heroic expression and intellectual depth. He had a very successful career in the beginning but different tragedies and illness caused the downfall
When we talk about Beethoven people often recall him as one that was great. When you think of Beethoven you can consider him a transitional composer and that is mainly because he is the crucial transitional figure linking the Classical and Romantic eras of musical history. Beethoven's innovation was the ability to briskly establish imperishability in bringing together different keys and unexpected notes to join them. Beethoven's music was correspondent to the agreement of the music in literature. Most of his music focused on life drama of one or more individuals through hard life circumstances. Beethoven’s role as a transitional composer between the classical and romantic periods took
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn Germany on December 16, 1770 and he died on March 26, 1827 at the young age of 56 from pneumonia complicated by cirrhosis of the liver and dropsy. In the book The Gift of Music Great Composers and Their Influence by Jane Smith and Betty Carlson, Beethoven was described as a “short, stout man with a very red-faced, small piercing eyes, and bushy eyebrows” (56). On the contrary, Rachmaninoff was described as a tall man who didn 't fit quite fit in. He measured at 6 '6" and his giant hands could strike 13 on the keyboard.
Beethoven was one of Europe’s greatest composers. He had a magnificent influence on the classical and romantic eras of music. He composed pieces that passed standard lengths. His ninth symphony, No.9 ‘Choral’, was over an hour long, this giving a new meaning to the word symphony. Beethoven introduced new instruments in his works, such as the piccolo and the bassoon. His actions inspired other composers, and their pieces as well. He was and still is the face of Classical and Romantic music.
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).
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.