Beethoven Pp t

7/17/2019 Beethoven Pp t

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BeethovenMUSC 3229

! Beethoven is central to the musical culture we have inherited, and that is now ours to

modify as we see fit.

Friday, January 17, 14



! Romanticism is a concept that can be expressedmost effectively through the arts. It is human

emotion personified through the purest form ofcreation.___________ Avonne Waddell

! Romanticism is a period of individuality andself-expression. In this period music was moreheart-felt._____________Aleshia Samuel

! Romanticism is an era of music focused onemotional expression through music.________________Lisa Oppenheim

!

Romanticism an easy thing to spot in a writeror an artist, but notoriously difficult to define.And that is because romanticism was (and is)no single idea but a whole heap of ideas, someof them quite irreconcilable.___________RT

What is Romanticism?




Beethoven’s Work (quick overview)

! Beethoven’s Favorite Genres:

! 32 piano sonatas--15 with manuscripts extant ...29 sets of piano variations

!

17 string quartets, 16 piano trios, 10 violin sonatas,! 9 symphonies, 6 overtures

! 5 piano concerti (+ 1 violin concerto)

! in contrast: 1 opera, 1 song cycle, 2 masses (incl. Missa Solemnis)

! Carl Czerny--studied w/Beethoven (witness)

! Karl van Beethoven--nephew; metronome controversy

! For further information: http://www.lvbeethoven.com/ (+ links)


http://www.lvbeethoven.com/





Ludwig van Beethoven

! born Dec. 16, 1770--Bonn

! musical family, Flemish descent; keyboardvirtuoso

! moved to Vienna in late 1792 to studywith Haydn. (Mozart died 1790--Beethoven was sent by Count Waldstein toabsorb the spirit of Mozart from Haydn’shands.) Haydn and Beethoven did not getalong.

! first concert tour of Europe, 1796

! first compositions: Op. 1 (3 piano trios),1795; Op. 2 (3 piano sonatas), 1796; Op. 5(2 cello sonatas), 1796; Op. 9 (3 stringtrios), 1798; Op. 10 (3 piano sonatas), 1798;Op. 12 (3 violin sonatas), 1798; Op. 13

(Piano Sonata No. 8, “Pathetique”), 1799;

Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 2 No. 1

Malcolm Bilson

Anton Walter pianoforte




Ludwig van Beethoven

! born Dec. 16, 1770--Bonn

! musical family, Flemish descent; keyboardvirtuoso

! moved to Vienna in late 1792 to studywith Haydn. (Mozart died 1790--Beethoven was sent by Count Waldstein toabsorb the spirit of Mozart from Haydn’shands.) Haydn and Beethoven did not getalong.

! first concert tour of Europe, 1796

! first compositions: Op. 1 (3 piano trios),1795; Op. 2 (3 piano sonatas), 1796; Op. 5(2 cello sonatas), 1796; Op. 9 (3 stringtrios), 1798; Op. 10 (3 piano sonatas), 1798;Op. 12 (3 violin sonatas), 1798; Op. 13

(Piano Sonata No. 8, “Pathetique”), 1799;

Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 2 No. 1

Malcolm Bilson

Anton Walter pianoforte




Beethoven and Deafness! Letter, 1801: Beethoven confesses that he is losing his

hearing

! Kampf und Sieg (struggle and victory)

! Heiligenstadt (outside Vienna—1802)

! The Heiligenstadt Testament has done more thanother single document to make Beethoven anobject of inexhaustible human interest.

! Superhuman idea of a successful deaf composer.

! Disappearance of Beethoven from “real time”music-making to a transcendent space, knownonly to him.

! The composer--the creator--becomes a trulyOlympian being, far removed from the ephemeraltransactions of everyday musical life.

!

Beethoven’s last appearance as concerto soloist:December, 1808...

! Art (province of creators) vs. entertainment (province ofcomposers)

! Mozart would not have understood; the demise ofthe patronage system enabled it; Hoffmann and hisfellow critics invented it.




Three Creative Periods

First Period…to 1802

Imitative: “Portraits of Handel, Bach, Gluck, Mozart in

my room...they can promote my capacity for endurance” [M.Soloman, Beethoven Studies, 230]

Syncretic formal procedures: recombination into new wholesof elements (symphonic and chamber styles, or sonata andfugue)

Ex: Early piano sonatas; String Quartets, Op. 18; Pfte Con 1-3;Symphonies 1-2

Second Period…to 1816

Heroic “Romantic”

Ex: Symphonies 3-8; Fidelio; Piano Concertos Nos. 4-5;

Quartets Opp. 59, 74, 95;

Third Period…to 1827

Introspective ( Innigkeit )Last five piano sonatas; Ninth Symphony; Missa Solemnis;

last quartets




Three Creative Periods

First Period…to 1802

Imitative: “Portraits of Handel, Bach, Gluck, Mozart in

my room...they can promote my capacity for endurance” [M.Soloman, Beethoven Studies, 230]

Syncretic formal procedures: recombination into new wholesof elements (symphonic and chamber styles, or sonata andfugue)

Ex: Early piano sonatas; String Quartets, Op. 18; Pfte Con 1-3;Symphonies 1-2

Second Period…to 1816

Heroic “Romantic”

Ex: Symphonies 3-8; Fidelio; Piano Concertos Nos. 4-5;

Quartets Opp. 59, 74, 95;

Third Period…to 1827

Introspective ( Innigkeit )Last five piano sonatas; Ninth Symphony; Missa Solemnis;

last quartets




Composing

Process! Wakes at 5/6a.m. Works until 2/3p.m

(occasional walks). Main meal 3pm(Guests on Fridays), followed by long

walk.

! Late afternoon: tavern, coffee house forreading. Reads in evenings-—Homer,Schiller, Goethe, Shakespeare, others.Retires at 9/10p.m.

! Beethoven worked at top speed,putting down any cliché that wouldmark the place where an idea ought to be....

416 " 330 - fleurandemgerman.webs.com

Vienna


http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=1080&bih=655&tbm=isch&tbnid=HJvWPHKt8cRIzM:&imgrefurl=http://fleurandemgerman.webs.com/&docid=3J-gAa1NOPDoIM&imgurl=http://fleurandemgerman.webs.com/germany_map.jpg&w=416&h=330&ei=dNWoUry4I8vOkQe1oYDgDw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:1,s:0,i:82&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=181&tbnw=228&start=0&ndsp=13&tx=60&ty=81






What Beethoven Liked

To Eat

! BREAKFAST : Coffee (glass coffee maker) -

Exactly 60 beans per cup.

! LUNCH : (Main meal) Macaroni. Stracchinocheese. Verona salami. Fish (Schill) & potatoes.Bread soup (Thursdays).

! EVENING : Light snack / soup

! DRINKS : Spring water (esp.in summer). Wine(esp.from Budapest). Beer (in evening, reading papers & smoking pipe)




roica

! Beethoven’s “heroic” style...post-Heiligenstadt Testament composition...

! First performance: Theater an der Wien on April 7, 1805.

“This lengthy composition, extremely difficult to perform, is in effect a very elaborate,

audacious and wild fantasy. It is by no means lacking in striking and beautiful passages…very often, however, it seems to lose its way in complete

disorder….” (review, 1805)

! First movement (Allegro con brio): ca. 15 minutes (first mmt of Mozart 40, ca. 9’)

! Klang: the four-bar fanfare idea...followed by lack of phrase symmetry in 2nd and 3rd statementsof the theme, rather than balancing phrases (as would be expected in Mozart)

! Concept of Grundgestalt

! “basic shape”--concept coined by Arnold Schoenberg

!

Eroica’s Grundgestalt--the most famous C# in music

Szell, Cleveland




roica

! Beethoven’s “heroic” style...post-Heiligenstadt Testament composition...

! First performance: Theater an der Wien on April 7, 1805.

“This lengthy composition, extremely difficult to perform, is in effect a very elaborate,

audacious and wild fantasy. It is by no means lacking in striking and beautiful passages…very often, however, it seems to lose its way in complete

disorder….” (review, 1805)

! First movement (Allegro con brio): ca. 15 minutes (first mmt of Mozart 40, ca. 9’)

! Klang: the four-bar fanfare idea...followed by lack of phrase symmetry in 2nd and 3rd statementsof the theme, rather than balancing phrases (as would be expected in Mozart)

! Concept of Grundgestalt

! “basic shape”--concept coined by Arnold Schoenberg

!

Eroica’s Grundgestalt--the most famous C# in music

Szell, Cleveland




How we hear

the Eroica

!

“One listens to a movementlike this with a degree ofmental and emotionalengagement no previous musichad demanded, and one is left

after listening with a sense ofsatisfaction only strenuousexertions, successfullyconsummated, can vouchsafe.”RT




Exposition (155x2) Recapitulation (154)Main theme A (m. 3) [klang ] Main Theme A (m. 398)Second theme B (m. 45) Second Theme B (m. 448)Second group, main theme C (m. 83) Second group C (m. 486)Codetta D (m. 144) Codetta D (m. 547)

Development (245)C major (B) m. 166

C minor (A) m. 178;G minor (A) m. 198;Ab Major (B), m. 220;F minor fugato (B), m. 236, leads to syncopations;E minor, new theme (E), m. 284;C Major (A), m. 300;Eb minor (E), m. 322

Retransition (A), m. 338. [m. 396--cumulus (outburst)]

Coda (140)Main Theme (A) m. 551;F minor, new theme (E) m. 581Dominant pedal, m. 603Culmination on A, m. 631

Symphony No. 3, First movement: Allegro con brio

Fürtwangler




Exposition (155x2) Recapitulation (154)Main theme A (m. 3) [klang ] Main Theme A (m. 398)Second theme B (m. 45) Second Theme B (m. 448)Second group, main theme C (m. 83) Second group C (m. 486)Codetta D (m. 144) Codetta D (m. 547)

Development (245)C major (B) m. 166

C minor (A) m. 178;G minor (A) m. 198;Ab Major (B), m. 220;F minor fugato (B), m. 236, leads to syncopations;E minor, new theme (E), m. 284;C Major (A), m. 300;Eb minor (E), m. 322

Retransition (A), m. 338. [m. 396--cumulus (outburst)]

Coda (140)Main Theme (A) m. 551;F minor, new theme (E) m. 581Dominant pedal, m. 603Culmination on A, m. 631

Symphony No. 3, First movement: Allegro con brio

Fürtwangler




! Crisis and Reaction

! Most of Beethoven’s works until 1812 were marked by his new heroic style, including Fidelio , symphonies

nos. 4-8, Op. 59 string quartets, “Waldstein” and “Appassionata” piano sonatas.

! Contrary to myth, Beethoven was accepted both by his patrons in Viennese aristocracy and by the new mass

public. He was neither a world-renouncing hermit nor a musical revolutionist.

! Beethoven’s setbacks, 1810-12: unavailable prospective brides (“Immortal Beloved” letter--written in 1812--

found after his death); Karl van Beethoven (Ludwig’s brother, who died in 1815, had one son, and Ludwig

sought custody of Karl between 1815-19--Karl was 8 years old when his father died);

! Creative trough--1812-17: Wellington’s Victory (worked with Johann Maelzel, 1772-1838); 3 piano

sonatas, including the Hammerklavier (Op. 106); An die ferne Geliebte (“To the far-off beloved”)--group of

songs (not really a cycle).

! Resurgence, 1822-23: Diabelli Variations (op. 122, 20 variations, completed 1822); Missa solemnis (Solemn

Mass, op. 123 completed 1823).

! The long shadow of “The Ninth”

! Composed in 1824 (the 8th was written in 1814)

! Beethoven was completely deaf, but decided to come out of retirement for a final concert--his popularity in

Vienna had been eclipsed by Rossini, and he had planned the premiere to take place in Berlin, but a group of

of admirers wrote to him not to forsake his “second native city.”




! From 1824-27 Beethoven devoted himself to the writing of string quartets--Opp. 127, 130, 131, 132, 135,and the Grosse Fuge (originally the finale to Op. 130 but separated by the publisher owing to excessivelength).

! Why quartets? Friendship of Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the concert master of the Ninth...

! Quartet in Bb major, Op. 130--Cavatina

! example of a cavatina: “Porgi amor” from Marriage of Figaro

! Expression of Beethoven’s private grief--sempre pp; “Beklemmt” (“all choked up” or “stifled”) in the1st vn. passage in Gb-minor: flat-submediant = symbol of Innigkeit for Beethoven’s successors, esp.Schubert.

! Quartet in A minor, Op. 132--Heilinger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart (“Sacred Hymn of Thanksgiving from a Convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode:).

! Motet with variations, “some infinitely remote liturgy, a ritual music of romance” (J. Kerman)

! III--Last variation, Mit innigster Empfinung (“With the most inward expression”)

! Beethoven died 3 years after the premiere of the Ninth--March 26, 1827. Ten thousand people turned upfor his funeral three days later.

Inwardness, Innigkeit ( Innerlichkeit )

Juilliard String Quartet




! From 1824-27 Beethoven devoted himself to the writing of string quartets--Opp. 127, 130, 131, 132, 135,and the Grosse Fuge (originally the finale to Op. 130 but separated by the publisher owing to excessivelength).

! Why quartets? Friendship of Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the concert master of the Ninth...

! Quartet in Bb major, Op. 130--Cavatina

! example of a cavatina: “Porgi amor” from Marriage of Figaro

! Expression of Beethoven’s private grief--sempre pp; “Beklemmt” (“all choked up” or “stifled”) in the1st vn. passage in Gb-minor: flat-submediant = symbol of Innigkeit for Beethoven’s successors, esp.Schubert.

! Quartet in A minor, Op. 132--Heilinger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart (“Sacred Hymn of Thanksgiving from a Convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode:).

! Motet with variations, “some infinitely remote liturgy, a ritual music of romance” (J. Kerman)

! III--Last variation, Mit innigster Empfinung (“With the most inward expression”)

! Beethoven died 3 years after the premiere of the Ninth--March 26, 1827. Ten thousand people turned upfor his funeral three days later.

Inwardness, Innigkeit ( Innerlichkeit )

Juilliard String Quartet




C-Minor Moods...Beethoven’s “Struggle and Victory” narrative, and the four C-minor works of Beethoven




Fifth Symphony, Op. 57

! See text, exx. 16-1a-d, pp. 493-96

! Germinal motive: Two or four notes?

! Critics at the time (Hoffmann) said 2; Schenker said 4. (Fürtwangler)

! For musicology: What’s important is that the meaning of music can bediscussed in terms of its structure: What is the value of absolute music?

! For music in the post-Beethoven tradition, “metaphorical descriptionis called for, and even necessary, but none will be satisfactory ordefinitive” (C. Rosen)

!




Fifth Symphony, Op. 57

! See text, exx. 16-1a-d, pp. 493-96

! Germinal motive: Two or four notes?

! Critics at the time (Hoffmann) said 2; Schenker said 4. (Fürtwangler)

! For musicology: What’s important is that the meaning of music can bediscussed in terms of its structure: What is the value of absolute music?

! For music in the post-Beethoven tradition, “metaphorical descriptionis called for, and even necessary, but none will be satisfactory ordefinitive” (C. Rosen)

!




Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 13 Pathétique

! Composed during 1798-1799

Beethoven supplied the title himselfOne of only two piano sonatas he titled

Title suggests passion and pathos

Requires more technical skill than any previous piano sonata

As had become Beethoven’s custom, he frequently performed this sonata in the homesand palaces of Viennese aristocracyThe slow introduction suggestive of Beethoven’s style of improvisation






















The Untold Story of MusicalClassicism and Musical Emancipation

! Beethoven’s deafness is read in retrospect as emancipation--contributing to his prestige(a consequence of canonization). [history/narrative/myth]

! The values of German art--hegemonic claims of romanticism, of aggressive heroism, of

philosophical grandiosity--came to represent “universal” and by definition timelesshuman values. This was the discourse of “classical music” taught in music appreciationclasses and told/sold to the concert-going public.

! Ethnocentrism: “There are universal values, and they happen to be mine” (StanleyHoffman)

! For those opposed to this narrative, Beethoven is “the one to beat.” We can sympathizewith those who have opposed his authority, and can do so without any loss of belief inhis greatness. [narrative/myth]

! Beethoven is central to the musical culture we have inherited, and that is now ours to

modify as we see fit.

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Beethoven Pp t