Masterpieces of Classical Music
Orchestra Research Paper
Ludwig Van Beethoven is perhaps one of the best known composures in all of history. His legacy on the art of music is profound. He had a difficult, strict life, which morphed into tragedy as his hearing and health faded. Despite this complicated life, Beethoven’s works remain incredibly popular today.
Beethoven was born in December of 1770 in Bonn, in present day Germany (Budden, 2014). Beethoven’s father, Johann, drilled Beethoven continuously and harshly in musical studies. His father had hoped that Beethoven would match the prodigy status of Mozart as a child. However, it was not until slightly later in life that he studied with Mozart and began making a name for himself. Beethoven went on to study with Hayden, Brahms, and other great composers of the time.
At the age of 27, Beethoven was in the middle of a growing, and prolific career. However his hearing began to fade. He utilized every aide possible to continue to hear, but he was soon unable to hear the applause of the audience. Beethoven battled thoughts of suicide as his still unknown disease progressed. Eventually he died of liver failure in March of 1827 (Huxtable, 2000).
Despite his mental and physical challenges, Beethoven was extremely prolific. He composed nine numbered symphonies, 32 sonatas, an opera, and multiple concertos and chamber pieces (British Library, 2009). One of his most well-known works is his ninth symphony. This was the piece which, at the conclusion of a performance, Beethoven was brought to tears when he couldn’t hear the audience applaud (Huxtable, 2000).
The idea for the ninth symphony arose in Beethoven in his twenties when he wanted to write a music piece to accompany An die Freu...
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Gibbs, C. (2006). Notes on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony . Retrieved from National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5487727
Horsely, P. (2010). Symphony No. 9. Retrieved from The Kennedy Center: http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2761
Huxtable, R. (2000). The deafness of Beethoven: A paradigm of hearing problems. Proceedings of the Western Pharmacological Society, 1-8.
Kelly, T. (1999). Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Retrieved from National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/milestones/990203.motm.beethoven.html
Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. (2014). Symphony No. 9, "Choral". Retrieved from Los Angeles Philharmonic Association: http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/symphony-no-9-choral-ludwig-van-beethoven
Beethoven’s early life was one out of a sad story book. For being one of the most well-known musicians one would think that sometime during Beethovens childhood he was influenced and inspired to play music; This was not the case. His father was indeed a musician but he was more interested in drinking than he was playing music. When his father saw the smallest sliver of music interest in Beethoven he immediately put him into vigorous musical training in hopes he would be the next Mozart; his training included organ, viola, and piano. This tainted how young Beethoven saw music and the memories that music brought. Nevertheless Beethoven continued to do what he knew and by thirteen he was composing his own music and assisting his teacher, Christian Neefe. Connections began to form during this time with different aristocrats and families who stuck with him and became lifelong friends. At 17 Beethoven, with the help of his friends, traveled to Vienna, the music capitol of the world, to further his knowledge and connection...
Beethoven is viewed as a transitional figure between the classical and romantic eras and from 1800 to 1809 he write some of the most revolutionary compositions in the history of western music. This essay therefore will aim to discuss the numerous ways in which Ludwig Van Beethoven expanded the formal and expressive content of the high classical style he inherited.
Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven. Two composers who marked the beginning and the end of the Classical Period respectively. By analysing the last piano sonata of Haydn (Piano Sonata No. 62 in E-flat major (Hob. XVI:52)) and the first and last piano sonatas of Beethoven (Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor Op. 2, No.1, Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor Op. 111), this essay will study the development of Beethoven’s composition style and how this conformed or didn’t conform to the Classical style. The concepts of pitch and expressive techniques will be focused on, with a broader breakdown on how these two concepts affect many of the other concepts of music. To make things simpler, this essay will analyse only the first movements of each of the sonatas mentioned.
with what would be his greatest downfall; deafness. This occurred in 1802 when doctors learned that he was in fact becoming deaf and there was nothing that could be done to help. This impairment reshaped his music. This led the way to a very tense and exciting side of his pieces. Beethoven's music differs with Mozart's in that is more intense and has a greater range of pitch and dynamics. Beethoven's greatest pieces are his symphonies, which can be heard today as often as in his days. Beethoven was a very good innovator
Willoughby, David. "Chapter 11." The World of Music. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 249-53. Print.
Ludwig Van Beethoven 9th Symphony Symphony number nine in D minor, Op.125, the "Choral" is the outstanding piece accompanied with a vocal chorus. Beethoven began concentrated work on the piece in 1822. It occupied him throughout 1823, and he completed it in February 1824. The first performance took place at the Karntnertor Theater in Vienna on May 7, 1824. The deaf composer stood on stage beating time and turning the pages of his score, but the real conducting was done by Michael Umlauf.
Beethoven slowly began showing his emotions, and feelings, but very subtly. His work began to have a very sublime feeling to it, very deep and not knowing what to expect. It was after those first two that Beethoven had a big life crisis. (Sayre 407) He then began seeing life as a shorter journey than previously sought, and stopped caring about what consequences would arise from what he wanted to do. Which was to show strong emotion in his music. It was his escape from his impending doom, which was becoming deaf. He released music very quickly over the next decade. This shows how Beethoven’s own life experiences changed the direction of his
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony I attended Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on October 14, at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Southwestern Seminary Oratorio Chorus, directed by C. David Keith, performed. Ludwig Van Beethoven composed the work. He composed it between 1811-1824. Beethoven composed the work in D minor, Op.
On March 26, 1827, Beethoven passed away. His autopsy revealed that his cause of death was due to post-hepatitic cirrhosis of the liver. His deafness was believed to be caused by contracting typhus in the summer of 1796. In his will that he had wrote a couple days before he passed, he left his estate to his nephew Karl. Ludwig Van Beethoven is considered to be one of the greatest composers of all time. The fact that he was composing such beautiful music pieces while was deaf made him a genius.
Here, Beethoven takes melodic expression to a new level: The appoggiatura in bars, 14 and 16 create a harmonic tension over a diminished 7th chord that creates “the highly expressive progression used by nineteenth-...
Luke 6:45 states, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” This is very true of Ludwig van Beethoven because what he believed affected his music. Beethoven was an extremely famous composer who helped transition the Classical era into the Romantic era. Composing from age 12 until his death in 1827, his music reflected his character. Although he is often considered a musical genius, which he is, his lack of God, and his lack of a spiritual life centered in Christ, affected his music, his view of life, and how he was remembered.
...cal and romantic eras. He is one of the most well-known composers of all time. By the last decade of his life, Beethoven was almost completely deaf. He gave up conducing and peforming for audiences, and instead took to composing.
On Wednesday, June 14, 2017, I had the pleasure of watching the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus 125 by Ludwig Van Beethoven. The original performance was recorded and put on YouTube, May 7, 2015, in honor of its first premier 191 years before when Beethoven decided to share his 9th Symphony with the world even though he couldn’t hear it himself. The symphonic masterpiece was recorded at the beautiful Symphony Center Orchestra Hall in Chicago and conducted by Riccardo Muti. The performance was completely deserving of selling out every single seat for one hour and twenty-two minutes. In fact, the musicians did not disappoint, Stephen Williamson was in the first clarinet chair, alongside colleagues Mathieu
In the book Diagnosing the Life & Death of Beethoven Genius by Francois Martin Mai, he writes of Beethoven’s medical issues. This book interested me because I am studying to go into the medical field and I thought it would be especially exquisite to write and learn of Beethoven’s medical history and how he was able to still compose music. Mai writes that Beethoven suffered from becoming deaf, gastrointestinal and psychiatric symptoms, respiratory, rheumatologic, and ophthalmologic symptoms (103). Now let’s explain some of these bigger unknown words that Mai says he has. Gastrointestinal means that he had issues with his stomach and/or his intestines. Psychiatric symptoms means that he had some sort of mental illness. Respiratory means he had either trouble breathing or had something wrong with his lungs. Rheumatologic is usually an autoimmune, inflammatory disease. Finally ophthalmologic symptoms means he had something wrong with his eyes. Mai found all of these symptoms from, “his own letters, letters written by others, the Conversation Books, reports (including an autopsy report) written by his physicians, and a modern-day toxicological analysis of his hair” (103). Mai found in his letters that during the winter months he was sick a lot and had minimal chances of getting better but in the summer months he was more
Mozart became ill suffering from headaches and fever for several months. Mozart was under the illusion that he was to write music for his funeral.