Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, on December 16, 1770. He
received his earliest musical training in his native city where he early
gave strong evidence of genius. He published his first works when he was
eleven, and soon thereafter was performing publicly on the organ,
cembalo, and the viola. He also disclosed a phenomenal gift at
improvisation. He established permanent residence in Vienna in 1792.
Three years later he made there his first public appearance, and from
then on began to occupy a high position in Viennese musical life as a
piano virtuoso. His fame as a composer soon superseded that of virtuoso
as he won the support of Vienna’s aristocracy. He entered upon a new
creative phase, as well as full maturity, beginning with 1800, when his
first symphony was introduced in Vienna. His creative powers continually
deepened and became enriched from that time on. As he restlessly sought
to give poetic and dramatic expression to his writing he broke down the
classical barriers so long confining music and opened up new horizons
for style and structure. Meanwhile, in or about 1801 or 1802, he
realized he was growing deaf, a discovery that swept him into
despondency and despair, both of which find expression in a unique and
remarkable document known as the Heiligenstadt Testament. Deafness led
to personal idiosyncrasies and volatile moods which often tried the
patience of even his closest friends, but it did not decrease the
quantity of his musical production nor prevent him from achieving
heights of creative expression achieved by few, if any. He died in
Vienna on March 26, 1827 after having ushered in a new age for music
with his symphonies, concertos, sonatas, string quartets, and
masterworks in other categories including opera and choral music.
The grandeur of expression, the profundity of thought, and the
independence of idiom we associate with Beethoven is not to be found in
his lighter music which, generally speaking, is in a traditional mold,
pleasing style, and in an inviting lyric vein. This is not the Beethoven
who was the proud democrat, whose life was a struggle with destiny, and
who sought to make music the expression of his profoundest concepts.
This is rather, another Beethoven: the one who liked to dance, though he
did it badly; who flirted with the girls; and who indulged in what he
himself described as “unbuttoned humor.”
Beethoven wrote twelve _Contredanses_ (_Contretaenze_) in 1801-1802.
These are not “country dances” as the term “_contretaenze_” is sometimes
erroneously translated. The Contredanse is the predecessor of the waltz.
Like the waltz it is in three-part form, the third part repeating the
first, while the middle section is usually a trio in contrasting mood.
In 1801-1802, when Beethoven wrote his _Contredanses_, he was already
beginning to probe deeply into poetic thought and emotion in his
symphonies, sonatas, and concertos. But in the _Contredanses_ the poet
becomes peasant. This is earthy music, overflowing with melodies of
folksong vigor, and vitalized by infectious peasant rhythms. The
_Contredanse_ No. 7 in E-flat major is particularly famous; this same
melody was used by the composer for his music to the ballet
_Prometheus_, for the finale of his _Eroica Symphony_, and for his Piano
Variations, op. 35. The key signatures of the twelve _Contredanses_ are:
C major, A major, D major, B-flat major, E-flat major, C major, E-flat
major, C major, A major, C major, G major and E-flat major.
A half dozen years before he wrote his _Contredanses_ Beethoven had
completed a set of twelve _German Dances_ (_Deutsche Taenze_). The form,
style, and spirit of the _German Dance_ is so similar to the
_Contredanse_ that many Austrian composers used the terms
interchangeably. Beethoven’s early _German Dances_, like the later
_Contredanses_, are a reservoir of lively and tuneful semi-classical
music with an engaging earthy quality to the melodies and a lusty
vitality to the rhythms.
Few Beethoven compositions have enjoyed such universal approval with
budding pianists, salon orchestras, and various popular ensembles as the
_Minuet in G_. It is not too far afield to maintain that this is one of
the most famous minuets in all musical literature. Beethoven wrote it
originally for the piano; it is the second of a set of six minuets,
written in 1795, but published as op. 167. It is even more celebrated in
its many different transcriptions than it is in the original. The
composition is in three-part form. The first and third parts consist of
a stately classical melody; midway comes a fast-moving trio of
contrasting spirit.
The first movement of the _Moonlight Sonata_ is also often heard in
varied transcriptions for salon or “pop” orchestras. The _Moonlight
Sonata_ is the popular name of the piano sonata in C-sharp minor, op.
27, no. 2 which Beethoven wrote in 1801 and which he designated as
_Sonata quasi una fantasia_ mainly because of the fantasia character of
this first movement. The poetic and sensitive mood maintained throughout
the first movement—with a romantic melody of ineffable sadness
accompanied by slow triplets—is the reason why the critic Rellstab (and
_not_ the composer) provided the entire sonata with the name of
“Moonlight.” To Rellstab this first movement evoked for him a picture of
Lake Lucerne in Switzerland at night time, gently touched by the
moonlight. The fact that Beethoven dedicated the sonata to Countess
Giulietta Guicciardi, with whom he was then in love, leads to a legend
that he wrote this music to express frustrated love, but this was not
the case. Another myth about this first movement is that Beethoven
improvised this music while playing for a blind boy, as moonlight
streamed into the window of his room; after he had finished playing he
identified himself to the awe-stricken youngster. It was the opinion of
the eminent critic, Henry E. Krehbiel, that the sonata was inspired by a
poem, _Die Beterin_ by Seume, describing a young girl kneeling at an
altar begging for her father’s recovery from a serious illness; angels
descend to comfort her and she becomes transfigured by a divine light.
Beethoven wrote two _Romances_ for violin and orchestra: in F major, op.
50 (1802) and G major, op. 40 (1803). Rarely do we encounter in
Beethoven’s works such a fresh, spontaneous and entirely unsophisticated
outpouring of song—a song that wears its beauty on the surface—as in
these two compositions. The two _Romances_ are companion pieces and
pursue a similar pattern. Each opens with the solo violin presenting the
main melody (in the F major accompanied by the orchestra, in the G
major, solo). Each then progresses to a pure outpouring of lyricism
followed by virtuoso passages for the solo instrument. In each, violin
and orchestra appear to be engaging in a gentle dialogue.
The _Turkish March_ (_Marcia alla turca_) is one of several numbers (the
fourth) comprising the incidental music to a play by Kotzebue, _The
Ruins of Athens_ (_Die Ruinen von Athen_), op. 113 (1811). The
production of this play with Beethoven’s music was intended for the
opening of a theater in Pesth on February 9, 1812. The _Turkish March_
is in the pseudo-Turkish melodic style popular in Vienna in the early
19th century, and it employs percussion instruments such as the triangle
which the Viennese then associated with Turkish music. The march, with
its quixotic little melody, begins softly, almost like march music heard
from a distance. It grows in sonority until a stirring climax is
achieved. Then it dies out gradually and ebbs away in the distance.
Leopold Auer made a famous transcription for violin and piano, while
Beethoven himself transcribed it for piano, with six variations, op. 76
(1809).