Beethoven Term Paper

[jam8086]

Hello,

I am writing a 7-10 page term paper on the progression of Beethoven's compositional style with regards to how he became the father of the Romantic period.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to look for information?

Thanks!

[pianistimo]

according to barry s. brook who wrote the article entitled "strurm und drang" (p 282)  - "when haydn underwent his sturm und drang crisis, beethoven was only just born.  two decades later, beethoven was to study with haydn and come into direct contact with his master's mature oeuvre.  yet, of all haydn's music, beethoven seems to have been especially attracted by the works written during his sturm und drang period.  beethoven created his personal language by intensifying and structually transforming those elements - pathetic, dynamic, dramatic - in the works of earlier composers that most closely matched his own aesthetic.  well-known beethovenian debts have been traced to the f minor piano sonata in CPE bach's kenner und liebhaber collections of 1744, the clementi sonatas of the 1780's, the cherubini operas of the 1790's, the (second) mozart g minor symphony and many haydn storm and stress pieces.  note-for-note melodic borrowings, by beethoven or any other composer, can be highy amusing to track down (when they are not mere coincidence).  however, taken out of context, these reminiscences often reveal less about the creative process and about the influence of one artist upon another that is claimed for them.  an appropriate analogy might be to a builder who steals a few bricks from the wall of a friend's cottage to use in the construction of his own chalet.

but, in order to demonstrate the strength and viability of the sturm und drang, i would like to report a beethovenian theft that could hardly have been accidental and that has not been previously cited by players of the game of musical pairs.  the examples are from one of beethoven's most popular sonatas, opus 27 no.2, the 'moonlight,' and from one of haydn's greatest sturm und drang symphonies, no. 44, posthumously named the 'trauer' or 'symphony of mourning.'  a comparison between them will show a striking identity of tempo, rhythm, melodic line, and harmony.  the measures cited even share the rather exotic key of F# minor.  (the note values in the haydn excerpt have been doubled to dramatize the relationship).

(pictures of measures 49-51 of III adagio from haydn's symphony #44 (trauer)
and beethoven's sonata op. 27 #2, moonlight I (adagio) measures 23-25).

[pianistimo]

as far as information, a combination of books and journals and perhaps some quotations from primary sources such as thayer and others.  contemporary musicologists such as solomon have some interesting things to say.  take a trip to barnes and noble and just sit and read for awhile.  saves you buying all the books!  and, then of course, your own library and the periodicals section.

here's more from another article by f.x. shea, sj.  entitled 'religion and the romantic movement'  (p 285)- "...it is important that the term romanticism be very broadly understood.  i hold that the change in consciousness and culture which occurred at the close of the 18th century in the western world constituted a radical discontinuity with almost everything that preceded.  before romanticism, men dealt with the world and their own consciousness very differently than we do now.  the last two centuries have witnessed a new departure for the human spirit and have provided a new continuity of their own.

romanticism, as i shall deal with it, is more properly called modernism.  we are the men the romantics made us; and this paper will take the license of dealing with romanticism on a scale that presumes it to be contemporaneous with our present.

to state it all in the most comprehensive way:  the romantic movement relocated reality.  before romanticism, men lived in a tradition of rationalism.  they believed that in the achievement of clarity, definition, and abstraction they attained the truth of things.  the chief articulator of this centuries-long tradition was, of course, plato; but the tradition itself precedes and continues after his seminal work.  probably its emergence is properly dated with the beginnings of writing and with complex urban civilizations.  in any case, as mc luhan and walter org, among others, are fond of pointing out, the rational tradition is fundamentally spatial and visual.  to identify reality with the contents of acts of understanding is to emphasize definitions.  behind definition lies a metaphor of visual diagram.  the modern evaluation of full reality and the significance of FEELING is a heritage from the romantic rejection of the rationalist's belief in the supremacy of sight.'

(i capitalized feeling - becuz i think it is the main dif between the classical idea of 'perfection' and balance and romantics 'sturm und drang' ideas of wildly fluctating emotions.  the latter seem to be 'incontainable' whereas with mozart you expect to be happy within certain boundaries (which at that time were set by the aristocracy - since the general lay people didn't have much say in what types of music were 'in').  you get the distinct feeling from beethoven that he didn't care a whit about the aristocracy after napoleon let him down.  he was an independent artist and became more and more able to 'break his own boundaries' of form and feeling - and become actually one of the first composers to be quite declarative of the authenticity of musicians in their own right (instead of learning from and subservient to whomever paid them).

[pianistimo]

composers didn't have to write at break-neck speed, either, in the romantic movement.  haydn took a few years to complete 'the creation'  and the same for beethoven's 'eroica symphony.'

beethoven's new way (as declared in the heiligenstadt testament) was 'heroic.'  this is also an element of the romantics.  to allow the artist to become closer to the 'masses.'  to let them decide (as one does for political leadership in democracies) what they like. 

the eroica symphony is not designed by beethoven as a communication to an elite 'unless that elite is chose by virtue, and the particular means to virtue is the ability to listen reflectively.'  (beethven's new way and the 'eroica' by philip g. downs).

tension is everywhere in romantic music.  you have drama with more profound experiences, the length of movements can be large and very 'organic' (juxtaposing styles and forms together), tonality might not be defined; although aluded to, melody can be absent, rhythmic definition absent, tempos and dynamics suddenly change, starkness at times, emphasis on weak beats, metrical irregularity (not coinciding with the bar lines),

sometimes in the B sections of ABA form, beethoven is only ON the dominant and not IN it.   the addition of a CODA at the end of the symphony fulfills the sonata principle of recapitulation.  it is a forum for the re-exposure of all the material that first came to light in the development.

i think the heiligenstadt testament is here:  www.lucare.com/immortal/he_test.html

i have another article edited by paul henry lang entitled 'the creative world of beethoven' (p 97) "thus, beethoven's new way' integrates two essential elements of the temporal (dramatic, discursive, narriative) and the spatial (formal, recapitulatory)."

his symphonies show evidence of struggle, tension, and changes which it has brought about and seen from whatever point on. 

[pianistimo]

quoting from one of the brentano-goethe letters, beethoven says:

"when i open my eyes i must sigh, for what i see is contrary to my religon and i must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy, the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and i am the bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.  when they again become sober they have drawn from the sea all that they brought with them, all that they can bring with them to dry land.  i have not a single friend; i must live alone.  but well i know that God is nearer to me than to other artists; i associate with Him without fear; I have always recognized and understood Him and have no fear for my music - it can meet no evil fate.  those who understand it must be freed by it from all the miseries which the others drag about with themselves."

here - we have, imo - a funny combination of spiritual regard for God and the creation process that beethoven comprehends as directly relating to the musical composition process of artists.  he doesn't really think of himself as a 'god' bacchus - but it's an analogy, imo, that he knows he's been given a talent and he's sacrificed a lot for giving to humanity (one sacrifice was putting time into composition and not as many friendships).  the combination of spirituality with the romantic period is more uncommon as you go along down the road.  i would say that beethoven is more spiritually grounded than many of the other romantics which more fully believed in their own 'god-like' abilities and generally disregarded religion altogether.  this is not the case with beethoven (as his 9th symphony is not just an ode to brotherhood alone - but also a joy in understanding that there is something to meet us in that 'otherworld' that is more fully reflective of music, love, and joy).  it's as if he is consoling himself as he knows he is becoming deafer every day - that his days of sufferring will bring him closer to God and he doesn't fear. 

[pianistimo]

sorry to go on and on!  here's some hints from one of my teachers on writing style for essays and term papers:

*avoid using contractions (don't), abbreviations (etc.), titles (dr.), exclaimation points and underlining for intensification, or first person references (I, me, my mine, we, ours, or us).

*in indicating centuries, use a hyphen when employed as an adjective, but not as a noun (eg in the eighteenth cenutry, but 'eighteenth-century music')

*avoid intensifiers such as 'very,' or 'much.'

*do not overuse a single word in a single paragraph.

*a dash is usually made with two hyphens without spaces (eg 'it was the end of the year--the time limit was past').

*use the active rather than the passive voice when possible.

*avoid weak verbs (to be, to have), in favor of stronger and more precise verbs--even if this means rewording the sentence.

*guard against over dependence on the verb 'to use'; this can be a special problem in analytical writing about music.

*commas and periods go inside quotoation marks (eg 'the end.') and colons and semi-colons go outside ('the end'

*never adopt a tone that is chitty-chatty.

*be careful that you always are identifying to what or two whom you are referring (as with 'he' and 'she' or 'this' or 'that').

*keep adverbs close to your verbs, but do not split a verb form with an adverb.  thus, do not write 'he has frequently said' rather 'frequently he has said' or 'he has said frequently.'

*be especially careful when copying a passage in a foreign language that you include all diacritical markings (umlauts, accents).

*in german, all nouns are capitalized-- no matter where they occur in the sentence.

*upon first reference in the text include the full name of a person.  when referring to this person later in the narriative, only the last name is necessary.

*try not to pack too much information into a single sentence.

*try not to end a sentence with a preposition.

*use a comma before the word 'and' and 'but' when connecting two independent clauses.

*do not make a noun into a verb (eg 'crescendoing' or 'sequencing').

*unique means one of a kind; something cannot be almost or somewhat unique.

these are just a few tips that are really helpful if you don't write all the time.