Objectives
- Explain how the Classical period (1750-1825) characteristics of order, objectivity, and harmonious proportion relate to the music characteristics of the period.
- Summarize how the American Revolution (1775-83) and the French Revolution (1789-99) profoundly changed political systems and social order.
- Classify the large-scale musical forms in which the Classical masters composed.
- Explain music making in the context of the royal court and the patronage system.
- Define form and absolute music, and relate these concepts to one another.
- Differentiate between the main musical forms of the Clasical-era by summarizing the development of the symphony, sonata, string quartet, and the concerto.
- Define and analyze the symphony, sonata, string quartet, and concerto forms in the context of the Classical period.
- Describe the impact of the major Classical composers Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
- Discuss the impact of Beethoven's thirty-two piano sonatas.
- Compare and contrast the two types of Italian opera: opera buffa and opera seria.
The Classical Period The Transition to Romanticism Ludwig van Beethoven: The Late Period (1816-1827)
Late Period (1816-1827)
In 1816, Beethoven's personal life began another trial-filled period. First came the death of his brother Karl, leading to Beethoven’s successful (albeit traumatic) adoption of Karl’s son. His deafness was now almost complete, and he suffered bouts of poor health. The burst of creative energy that had sustained him for the previous 15 years waned considerably.
When he returned to composing, he found a new voice that is often quiet, introspective, and more melodic. He became intrigued with the fugue and theme-and-variation forms and sought more spiritual depth. The music of the last period includes the Missa Solemnis, the Symphony No. 9, and the final piano sonatas and string quartets.
Beethoven had written only two major choral works prior to the late period: the oratorio The Mount of Olives and the Mass in C major. In those earlier works, one almost feels that Beethoven was trying to impose his heroic will on God, to take the heavens by storm. In the Missa Solemnis, begun in 1818 and completed in 1822, Beethoven’s approach is wholly different. It is an introspective work, full of moments of sublime serenity. It also is much more contrapuntal than those earlier works, a common characteristic of all his late period compositions.
Beethoven’s emphasis on counterpoint and theme-and-variations may be seen in the final piano works and string quartets. There may be no greater example of theme-and variations form, with the possible exception of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, than Beethoven’s Thirty-three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli. He is able to find ever-increasing levels of brilliance with each variation, like the layers of a pearl each giving way to another, more beautiful (and more compact) pearl. The last years of Beethoven’s life were devoted to the string quartet.
On the night of May 7, 1824, a Vienna audience gathered at the Kärntnertor Theater was treated to a concert that featured three movements from the Missa Solemnis and a new symphony, the Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125. The composer, too deaf to direct the performance, indicated the speed of each movement, while the real conductor, Umlauf, having instructed the singers and players not to pay any attention to Beethoven, was in charge of giving direction to the musicians. The symphony was commissioned and paid for by the Philharmonic Society of London, but was dedicated by Beethoven to the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm III.
Beethoven had longed for an opportunity to give voice to the symphony, and he found it in the ode to brotherhood by Friedrich Schiller called Ode to Joy. Beethoven decided to use the poem in the finale of the Symphony No. 9, incorporating soloists and chorus into the orchestra. In a nod to the ascendance of narrative over form, he reverses the order of the 2nd and 3rd movements so that the finale has more significance. The symphony is full of symbolic weight, from the opening notes of the first movement, to the beautiful lyricism of the third movement, to the relentless scherzo of the finale.
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
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"Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, Choral: IV. Finale: Presto - Allegro assai"
And for all of its dramatic impact, the choral finale is really a brilliant synthesis of sonata-allegro form, theme and variation, and fugue. Although this symphony summarizes much of Beethoven's achievement, it was not intended as his final symphonic statement. Plans for a tenth symphony had been sketched before his death in 1827. The first movement of this projected symphony was reconstructed in the late 1980s by the British musicologist Barry Cooper.
Perhaps Beethoven’s most important gift to music was to open it to the world of symbolism and metaphor. Before Beethoven, a musical theme was often treated as just a theme. Sonata-allegro form was just a formal convenience to give a composer two prominent musical themes to manipulate and juxtapose. If Mozart’s late symphonies opened the door to the idea that music could have a hint of something seething behind a placid front, then Beethoven kicked that door in. For Beethoven, the two musical ideas of a sonata-allegro form were not mere themes; they were archenemies that confronted each other on the battleground of the development. Music without words could unleash torrents of emotion and universal symbolism. Beethoven, the man, was a tortured soul whose life was filled with conflict and struggle.
