Beethoven's Revolution

No other composer or musical artist has made as big of an impact on music as Ludwig Van Beethoven. He influenced many other composers, and made some of the most beautiful pieces that are still played today. It is truly amazing that he was able to master his craft and become questionably the greatest composer that has ever lived, despite having a condition that would seem to make composing music impossible.

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

Both Haydn and Beethoven are known as two of the greatest classical/romantic composers in the history of music. Haydn is identified as the father of modern symphony, as well as the father of the string quartet. He has played an essential role in developing the piano trio and the sonata form. Beethoven is also a widely recognized composer in Western music, his style joined the lull between the Classical and Romantic eras. Beethoven traveled to Vienna when he was young to study under Haydn. However, due to disputes and differences between the two composers, lessons only lasted for a little over a year. The teachings, if only for a short period, left a mark on Beethoven, and can be observed in his compositions.

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 Von Beethoven was a very important transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic eras. Beethoven’s early work was heavily influenced by Mozart and Haydn. He had a very great influence on the composers of the Romantic era. Beethoven emphasised the emotional expression in music, which is a key characteristic of Romanticism.

He took the old methods and twisted to match his style of thinking. As mentioned before, Ludwig used a D major melody and a B minor harmony all at once. (Discuss) He then called this juxtaposed chords, which were opposing the old idea where they generally did not mix minor and major chords. If he changed the way chords were played, then obviously he changed music. Ludwig also influenced Romantic composers by changing the ideas of programmatic writing. (Discuss) He changed the idea of writing music from composing just to compose into actually creating a picture in the listeners mind. Beethoven's Symphony Number Six was the first programmatic symphony where the music was meant to paint a picture, compared to simply being a series of sounds. (Guthrie) The earlier works of his period brought the Classical forms to the highest expressive point, expanded the formal, structural and harmonic terms of his teachers Mozart and Haydn. (Guthrie) While he was influenced by his teachers, he took their old ways and transformed them into a new version of thinking to help others actually express themselves through the power of music. He changed the old methods into a new and improved version. He held onto the old culture without wearing it

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.

Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.

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.

accentuated it in his music. One of the common details of Beethoven’s work was his

However, before the Romantic symphonists made further innovations to orchestration, which is the combination of instruments to produce various timbres and colors in any composition, Beethoven had completely revolutionized the ways in which future composers would come to think of how to construct a symphony. During the Classical period, prominent composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn came to define what the symphony was and how it should be orchestrated. In the eighteenth century, the orchestra was typically composed of strings (first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses), a limited woodwind section (two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets and two bassoons), a relatively small brass section (two to four horns and two trumpets), and a minor percussion section with only two timpani (Erb). The string section was considered to be the most important section, and the woodwinds would usually double with the strings to play the melody. This practice, in turn, made it so that there was great balance and clarity within pieces of the Classical era, though little diversity among the different instruments (“History of Classical Music”). As concert halls grew larger and classical music became more democratic, music began to change. These facts, coupled with the

Ludwig van Beethoven was, and remains today, an influential figure in the history of classical music. Perhaps no other composer in history wrote music of such inspiring power and expressiveness. His influence on the last 150 years of music is unequalled.

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 main concept which Romantic music rotates around is the idea that the instruments can be adapted and adjusted to create different sound; Beethoven, along with others, custom built and adapted pianofortes to fully create music. Further, their musical compositions are full of emotion, with its decrescendos and crescendos, key and tempo changes resulting in a rich and varied portrait. Combined, they create a full and complete composition in a similar manner to what the Romantic philosophers believed a well-rounded human being to be, with unique traits and characteristics formerly believed to be unnecessary by Enlightenment

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.