Innovative Nature Of Beethoven's Music example essay topic

When critically analyzed in respect to the earlier artists of the Classical music period, Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven's music and life are simultaneously shown to be an evolution as well as a break from his predecessors. No doubt due to the influence of Mozart, as well as his tutelage under Haydn, Beethoven inherited their Classical music legacy but did not keep it in stasis. His innovations within musical composition were built upon the artistic foundation of the previous masters. They showcase to further extent contrasts of moods, greater dynamics, increased power and intensity, as well as an overall ambition toward a grander scale than Haydn or Mozart aspired. At the same time, Beethoven's inspiration to create music and his struggle to elevate the societal position of the musician / composer composed a distinct break from the traditional European cultural function of a musician.

This is understood in light of a lifetime that took in the political turbulence of the French Revolution as well as Enlightenment ideals concerning the nature of man. As such, very sharp distinctions from Haydn and Mozart occur that coexist with their lingering legacies within Beethoven. Classical musical structures and forms can be discerned within Beethoven's compositions, and as such he operates in the same rough musical framework utilized by Mozart and Haydn. The basic musical structures (sonata form, themes and variations, and rondo) plus the classical conceptions of a symphony and concerto are seen, but altered to permit greater passion and emotive might.

One small, yet key, example is Beethoven's substitution of the scherzo for the minuet and trio as the 3rd movement of a symphony. Its rhythmic force and character flexibility opened new ways of displaying contrasting musical emotions in his music. Beethoven also tried to operate on a much grander scale, necessitated by his aspiration towards a denser musical tension than before. His symphonies grew to a much longer length as result. In the 3rd Symphony (Erotica), its epic length is built by a further and more complete integration of musical themes and motives then previously, allowing Beethoven an increased range of feelings to exploit in the creation of a heroic and triumphant work. Beethoven needed to, and innovated towards, a fostering of an enhanced musical continuity that would link the disparate parts of his large-scale compositions.

The features of the 5th Symphony are indicative of this. Its key characteristics, that develop this notion, is that first the motif of the opening section rhythmically recurs at the opening of every other movement and, second, there is a musical bridge that bonds the 3rd and 4th movements (which is can be seen as a furtherance of Haydn's handling of cyclic form in Symphonies No. 45 and No. 46), and both make apparent Beethoven's desire for singular musical imperative that transcended the pauses that beforehand arbitrarily divided the sections of a symphony and other classical forms. This drive for thematic unity within Beethoven's compositions illustrates the innovative nature of Beethoven's music, using original ideas fused with the tradition of Haydn and Mozart. In contrast to technical nature of the compositional works that built on the conventions of Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven's inspiration to creating such works and his attempts to elevate the social status of the musician / composer make up his splitting from his precursors.

Beethoven, firstly, did not see music as mere entertainment or ear candy. He saw music being capable of achieving the same moral force like a philosophical treatise could, as he reached towards a vision of higher ideals, which makes sense, as he was deeply concerned with the nurturing of spiritual values in man. He irrevocably broke from Mozart's musical ideal, as Mozart tellingly stated that music "must never offend the ear, but please the hearer, or in other words must never cease to be music" and therefore saw a deeper value to his work then just creating pleasurable distractions. Due to this enhanced vision of what music was capable of, Beethoven justly felt that a creator of music like him deserved and needed to be mandated the same respect as the nobility.

He rebelled by demanding esteem in no uncertain terms from his Viennese noble patrons, never once acquiescing his own individuality to further his career. Beethoven would not allow his career be ultimately determined, like Mozart, by the whims of the Viennese aristocracy or even worse, like Haydn and the Ester h " az ys family, in "servitude" for almost 30 years. The ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution made Beethoven dissatisfied with simply acquiescing to a stratified class culture, and he was proactive in making sure that he would never be limited by it (expressively shown in the 1809 arrangement that had three Austrian nobleman paying Beethoven to just stay in Vienna and compose). Beethoven's fight for a rise in a musicians social standing allowed him to break from his forerunners acquiescing to the nobility's tastes to gain their patronage. In summation, Ludwig van Beethoven embodied the basic Classical music tradition that Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Mozart established, yet as well broke from them in the uses of the tradition to gain a more powerful and intense style of music that embodied the passions and conflict he felt within himself.

This power and intensity, coming from his musical inspiration, allowed for Beethoven's distinctiveness that made him a bridge from the past into modern music.

Bibliography

Kami en, Roger. Music: An Appreciation, 7th ed. McGraw-Hill Higher Education: Boston, 2000.
Lockwood, Lewis. Beethoven: The Music and The Life. W.W. Norton Company: New York, 2003.
Schmidt-Go rg, Joseph and Schmidt, Hans, eds. Ludwig Van Beethoven. Praeger Publishers: New York, 1970.