PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY

Beethoven’s Influence on the Romantic Period and

its Composers Departmental Academic Honors Project

Wyatt Smith

5/8/2015

This honors project is for Music 322*01, History of Music 18th century and on, and fulfills a requirement for the Departmental Academic Honors Program at Pittsburg State University. This project aims to expand the student’s knowledge of the content matter of the class and challenge their understanding of the influence of a historical figure in music history.

History is full of interesting and important figures which continue to influence today’s

culture and music. This paper will seek to delve into the life, compositions, techniques, and

lasting effect of one particular figure in music history, Ludwig Van Beethoven. Beethoven is a

well-known name in our world today. Even if you aren’t classically trained on the piano, or

haven’t played in a string quartet or orchestra, you have probably heard the name Beethoven.

Why is this; what is it that makes Beethoven’s name familiar to the musically uneducated

person? That is what I hope to answer on a much deeper level than simply being known for his

“music”. I want to know why he has had such a lasting effect and who he has influenced

musically. This paper will look specifically to the Romantic Era to discover not only how

Beethoven influenced it, but also who he influenced. This paper will explore the Romantic

periods: musical styles, elements, and characteristics and compare them back to Beethoven’s

works, techniques, and tools for composing and their effect on the Romantic period. This will be

further expounded by discussing five composers who were influenced by Beethoven.

Beethoven was interesting in that he came into a style of writing and composing unlike

those of his contemporaries, according to Hanning he was quoted saying to a critic “Oh, I have

not written them for you, but for a later age” (Hanning 370). One of Beethoven’s friends quoted

him saying “You will ask me whence I take my ideas? That I cannot say with any degree of

certainty: they come to me uninvited, directly or indirectly. I could almost grasp them in my

hands, out in Nature’s open, in the woods, during my promenades, in the silence of the night, at

the earliest dawn. They are roused by moods which in the poet’s case are transmuted into words,

and in mine into tones that sound, roar and storm until at last they take shape for me as notes”

(Hanning 371). Beethoven was clearly a man who did not have a normal working habit of sitting

down and writing a symphony overnight. His composing was erratic and emotional, not based

off of a need or self-discipline to write but rather emotions too intense to contain inside of his

mind. This sporadic man and his compositions have touched countless lives of musicians and

non-musicians alike. Beethoven was not a man of one taste or habit of composing; historians

have divided Beethoven’s musical works into three periods. Each period contains important

works and different styles that are each meaningful in their own way. Beethoven’s periods reflect

his life, without Beethoven’s experiences and life tumult there might not have been the

incredible writing that he achieved. Beethoven’s life contributed to his art and that is what the

three periods represent.

Period one begins from Beethoven’s first compositions and continues until around 1802.

As a young child Beethoven’s father, Johann, was merciless. Johann would force Ludwig to not

only practice at all hours of the day but also halted any early tendencies to compose or improvise

and would often punish his son for doing so (Siepmann 5). Johann was a terrible teacher and did

not bring out the musician or instrumentalist in Beethoven that we know today (Siepmann 5).

This is all very important in understanding how Beethoven developed as a musician and person

and how that affected his music and life. Beethoven did not truly start developing as a musician

until his father handed him over to Christian Gottlob Neefe for keyboard instruction (Siepmann

6). As Beethoven continued to develop as a musician he ran into his first life changing event at

the age of sixteen when his mother, Maria Magdalena, died of tuberculosis (Siepmann 8). This

caused the young adult Ludwig to take over the role of caretaker, as his father was a useless

drunk and he was the eldest child (Siepmann 8). Even from a young age Beethoven was not

considered easy to get along with nor quiet about his opinions, he thought himself one of the

greatest and set out to prove it. “When Beethoven arrived there (Vienna) in the second week of

November 1792, the city housed more than 300 professional pianist and upwards of 6,000 piano

students. Beethoven was determined to vanquish them all, and did nothing to conceal the fact. He

had a powerful competitive streak, and he entered, or in some cases actually engineered, a series

of pianistic duels in which he toppled Vienna’s pianists from their perches, one after another”

(Siepmann 11). What a fascinating and pernicious personality Beethoven had, to come to a new

place and successfully strike down those who are accomplished in their craft at the age of 21 is

simply incredible.

Beethoven, unlike Haydn and Mozart, had the opportunity during the early part of his life

to compose more freely and without bondage to a court or church due to patrons that supported

him (Hanning 371). Beethoven’s first period consisted of many piano sonatas that showcased the

styles of Haydn and Mozart, but were still his own. He would have four movement piano sonatas

just like a symphony “and in the last two he replaced the minuet with a more dynamic scherzo”

(Hanning 372). This was just the beginning of Beethoven writing with his own flare and making

the music unique and new. Composing works such as his piano sonatas Beethoven reveals an

interesting compulsion to treat the piano as an orchestra, writing in such a way that reflects

orchestral works (Siepmann 24). Beethoven began writing with a flare yet unseen in piano

sonatas in his Sonate pathétique which evokes emotion and calls forward a response from the

listener that still inspires today (Hanning 373). Beethoven dared not venture to compose for

string quartets and symphonies until he had a stable foothold in Vienna as Haydn, who was one

of his teachers, was highly regarded for these genres (Hanning 373). Beethoven writes his first

six string quartets in a style similar to Haydn and Mozart yet completely unique (Hanning 374).

He brings out “frequent unexpected turns of phrase, unconventional modulations, and subtleties

of form” (Hanning 374). These six works began a path that Beethoven would continue to follow,

by composing with techniques consisting of writing operatically, with erratic off beats, and

simply composing in such a way that reflects tradition yet defies it at the same time is the

quintessence of Beethoven’s career (Hanning 374). Beethoven’s first period ended with his

hearing loss and considering suicide; this caused a life change that would result in composing the

most influential music of his life (Hanning 372-3).

Period two of Beethoven’s composing begins in 1803 and continues to around 1816.

During this time period Beethoven had already earned the respect of being one of the greatest

composers of his time and matching up to Haydn and Mozart in many different ways (Hanning

375). Beethoven was known for using sketch books to copy down any ideas he had for his music,

by writing very deliberately and not letting any detail escape his attention Beethoven laid down

part of the foundation that nineteenth-century music would be built on, which was “relation of

each part to the whole (being) remarkably sophisticated” (Hanning 375). Beethoven’s personal

strife from becoming more deaf led him to write music that was inspired and that didn’t simply

portray normal emotions but rather his own personal emotions and stories of someone

overcoming great controversy and triumphing in the end (Hanning 375-6). Some examples of

works from this period can be seen in Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony which tells a story and uses

a theme that represents a subject “the celebration of a hero- and expresses in music the ideal of

heroic greatness” (Hanning 376). According to Siepmann Beethoven originally wrote the Eroica

Symphony under the name of Bonaparte which was changed after Napoleon Bonaparte declared

himself Emperor on May 20, 1804, to which news Beethoven “flew into a terrible rage” upon

hearing (Siepmann 54). Another instrumental work of this period and Beethoven’s only opera is

Fidelio. Fidelio was written immediately after his third symphony was finished; these two works

share very similar ideas about the French Revolution (Hanning 378). Fidelio is about a heroin,

Leonore, who rescues her husband from jail and Beethoven’s work transcends yet again the

traditional style of composing which “glorifies Leonore’s heroism and the great humanitarian

ideals of the Revolution” (Hanning 378). Beethoven’s chamber music of the second period

consisted of string quartets that were thought to be jokes due to their irregularity and spontaneity

employing a “peculiar… use of single, double, and triple pedal points, frequent changes of

texture, imitations of horns, unmelodious passages exploiting the extreme ranges of the

instruments, fugues cropping up out of nowhere, and startling unison passages” (Hanning 378).

Beethoven’s symphonies of the second period are just as different from each other as

anything can be; his fourth symphony portrayed “joviality and humor” while his fifth reflected

“Beethoven’s struggle with fate” (Hanning 379). His sixth symphony, the Pastoral Symphony, is

comprised of five movements that portray a “scene from life in the country”, Beethoven uses the

“flute, oboe, and clarinet” as they “join harmoniously imitating birdcalls- the nightingale, the

quail, and the cuckoo” (Hanning 379). The fascinating part about this is that according to

Hanning “All these programmatic effects- which the composer himself warned against taking

literally, calling the subtitles ‘expressions of feeling rather than depiction’- are subordinate to the

expansive, leisurely form of the symphony as a whole” (Hanning 379). Beethoven composed so

freely yet still wished to hold to the true nature of his pieces, he did not want to lose the integrity

of what the piece was trying to say. Beethoven finished this period’s symphonies with the

seventh and eighth, which also were contrasting in style. The seventh was written in a grandiose

style and the eighth was condensed (Hanning 380). Beethoven’s piano sonatas of the second

period elicit different moods and styles in pieces such as the Moonlight Sonata which is written

in a “quasi una fantasia” style to the Op. 31 No. 2 in D minor whose “whole opening section of

the first movement, with its rushing passages and abrupt punctuation, has the character of a

recitative, anticipating the opening of the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony. The

introductory largo arpeggio returns at the start of the development section and again at the

beginning of the recapitulation, each time in expanded form and with new links to the

surrounding music, its last appearance leading into an expressive recitative. The finale of this

sonata is an exciting moto perpetuo in rondo form” (Hanning 380). Beethoven writes music that

changes within itself so greatly as to represent several different genres of music all interweaving

and unfolding into a masterpiece of art. Beethoven’s piano concertos in the second period

evolved from his previous style; they expanded and became something new (Hanning 381).

Beethoven writes in such a way in several of these concertos that “at times, the soloist seems

pitted against the orchestra, as if playing the part of a lone hero contending with opposing

forces” (Hanning 381). Beethoven also wrote a cadenza for the soloist in the Emperor Concerto

that begins before the orchestra’s exposition has taken place; this foreshadows nineteenth-

century concertos (Hanning 381).

Beethoven’s third period of music was wrought with strife, self-doubt, and even a lack of

trust towards friends and family (Hanning 381). Beethoven was not able to compose such

politically strong music in his last years as the fall of Napoleon brought about a government that

didn’t appreciate Beethoven’s political sentiments (Hanning 382). Beethoven’s later years were

filled with a self-contained silence and music only heard in his head, because of this he began

writing pieces that required thought and studying, these were works that weren’t composed for

the average listener (Hanning 383). Beethoven began experimenting even more so by expanding

the conventions of classical music, he began writing variations that would take you through twist

and turns and would only occasionally reveal a structure (Hanning 384). This composition style

of Beethoven’s in “Diabelli’s commonplace little waltz expands surprisingly into a world of

variegated moods- solemn, brilliant, capricious, mysterious- ordered with due regard for contrast,

grouping, and climax. Each variation is built on motives derived from some part of the theme but

altered in rhythm, tempo, dynamics, or context so as to produce a new design” was displayed in

Beethoven’s Thirty-three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli and would influence later composers

such as Schumann in his Symphonic Etudes, and Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Handel

(Hanning 384). Beethoven focused on making the music over a large picture in this final period

of composition, working to connect movements sometimes without pause, and writing in such a

way that the music seems to “communicate a feeling of vastness” (Hanning 384). Beethoven

became more fastidious about writing in an improvisatory way as he began composing piano

sonatas that captured the heart of what his live improvisations might have been like (Hanning

384). Beethoven wrote music during this period that stretched musicians to the furthest reach of

technique and ability, he would set up the groundwork for future composers in stretching the

capabilities and requirements of musicians and audiences (Hanning 384). Counterpoint and the

music of Handel and Bach were great influences on Beethoven and he utilized their techniques in

his final stages while continuing to break norms, with works such as his String Quartet in C#

Minor that had seven movements and was played without pause (Hanning 386). Beethoven still

connects all of the movements of this string quartet using “subtle motivic and key relationships”

which point to later movements and work together to make a very organic product (Hanning

386). Beethoven wrote the mass Missa solemnis which would not be used in a liturgical setting

but rather would become a scholarly and appreciated work for the connoisseur of music

(Hanning 387). Beethoven connected all five parts of his mass in a symphonic like setting that

would again change the norm for how a mass was composed; he also used the text as a musical

tool “such as the rondo-like recurrences of the word “Credo”, with its musical motive in the third

movement” (Hanning 387). Beethoven’s final Ninth Symphony shows again his respect for the

past but innovation in composing music in an art work that defied anything yet written (Hanning

388).

Beethoven had set the groundwork for the Romantic era of music to continue.

Romanticism in music at its most basic form according to Hanning “is a state of mind that

enabled composers to seek individual paths for expressing intense feelings- for example,

melancholy, yearning, or joy. Composers respected the conventions of form and tonal relations

up to a point, but their imaginations drove them past limits that once seemed reasonable and to

explore new realms of sound such as instrumental color, harmony, and dynamics” (Hanning

400). In other words Romantic music opens the door to be human, to express yourself and what

it is that you are trying to convey without restraints or set rules. As Friedrich Blume puts it “the

work of art dissolves into pure subjectivity and follows every stirring of the heart, tender or wild,

to the point of the insipid, the tearful, and the morbid, to the reckless, the brutal, even to

madness” (Blume 108). Romantic era music brought about all new fields of exploration and

development. Music continued to grow into extremes and be pushed forward into new fields of

thought and performance. There was a growth towards new thoughts of music with program

music and absolute music, program music revealing a story or idea in instrumental music that

was supposed to transcend the notes on the page and represent something beyond itself, while

absolute music was supposed to be completely detached from any outside meaning (Hanning

402). While composers such as Beethoven had already began writing organic music it became a

goal and an understood principle to adhere to; as Goethe put it “that just as all parts of a plant are

adaptations of the same basic shape, so too artists should shape their works so that all the parts

are unified by being derived from a common source” (Hanning 402).

Romantic style music continued to play off of the previous era of classical compositions.

Blume discusses the uses of different compositional tools and goes into detail on how each was

approached by Romantic composers. Rhythm, meter and tempo are the first topics he covers; the

overwhelming impression is that Romantic composers adhere to the eight bar phrase but play

around with it and vary its use (Blume 132). In comparison to Beethoven later composers

stepped back from his eccentricities and brought their phrasal structures back to a more

simplistic approach (Blume 133). The Romantic period’s compositional style took a toll on the

liveliness of the music as it suffered from overplaying of the same rhythmic themes and saw very

little diversity in some of its structures (Blume 134). Beethoven’s last compositions the Ninth

Symphony and Missa Solemnis contain every rhythmic gesture that the 19th

century would use

(Blume 135). Beethoven’s influence on tempo was long lived as well, composers copied his style

of exaggerating tempos and making them different from what had been done before, in essence

nothing new was explored, even in specific style markings such as “Mit andacht” (Blume 135).

The second area Blume discusses is harmony and tonality. Major and minor keys are the

bedrock of the classical and romantic periods, they are both used as frequently as the other with

one small exception, during the romantic period less common minor keys became used more

frequently (Blume 137). This tendency to write in specified and discernable major and minor

tonalities remained the norm until composers such as Bartok, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky

changed the face of tonality (Blume 137). The use of progressions and modulations from

Beethoven in his early and middle periods continue on into the Romantic period and stick very

closely to the classical ideas of composition in writing within the key (Blume 138). The effect of

Beethoven on composers of the Romantic era stem to the understanding that keys a third apart

are closely related and can be easily used as “dominant, subdominant, and parallel relationships”;

it wasn’t until Debussy and Strauss that this conventional form of writing would not be followed

(Blume 139). By the end of the Romantic era the idea of “keys, chords, and modulations can no

longer be considered as such, or as constructive values, but only as color effects. The process of

blending tonal and coloristic values that had, like so many others, begun with Beethoven is at an

end, even though the possibilities latent in the Classic-Romantic system have not been altogether

exhausted” (Blume 140).With the new structure of polytonality the old system of writing in

recognizable tonal areas died out, for as much as Beethoven stretched the bounds of what was

accepted in his time he had not yet stepped outside of tonality completely (Blume 140).

The third set of musical characteristics that Blume talks about are motif, theme, and

thematic work. The first and foremost important character in music of the Classic period was

melody, which according to Blume remained that way until the very end of the Classic-Romantic

era (Blume 140). Harmony was not yet a huge concern but rather a by-product of the melody for

composers such as Beethoven and Strauss, who “took special trouble in the unfolding of melody,

whereas much less is said about harmony and tonality” (Blume 140). Strauss talks about melody

in this way “’I work a long time on melodies…it is the inspiration, and most people are satisfied

with inspiration, whereas it is its development that first reveals true art” (Blume 142). What a

beautiful description of how the composers of this era thought, they sought to inspire and then

would work to develop their ideas and bring about works that could be considered art. Melodies

in the Romantic era can be described in two ways “on the one hand, a preference for arching

melodic lines that begin hesitantly, unfolding slowly, over and over, and only in their further

course swinging wide and stretching into periods of many sections; and, on the other, the

markedly songlike character of these melodies” (Blume 142). For composers such as Schubert

“the difference between instrumental theme and song melody, which was still decisively

significant for Beethoven, is further and further wiped out” which opens the door to so many

new musical advances (Blume 142). Form begins to disappear with the composing of more song

like instrumental music, resulting in “Beethoven’s drama, stirring, passionate, turn(ing) into

Schubert’s elegiac, reflective idyll” (Blume 143). Romantic composers lost the effectiveness to

write truly thematic material as the concentration was on melody and its harmony, which takes

away from the ability of the artist to go very far from the main theme, it was not until the “new

German” movement that there was a change and development became possible again (Blume

146).

Genres and forms are the final frontier of discussion on the style of the Classic-Romantic

era. Blume expounds on how there was very little genre change from the Classic era to the

Romantic, with the exception of the serenade being utilized less and new dance styles being

integrated into instrumental music the status quo remained (Blume 146). Dance music became

increasingly more important in the Romantic era, no longer only being composed for dances but

now considered serious work that would continue to develop and grow into new pieces and art

forms from Beethoven on to the end of the Romantic period of music (Blume 146-7). One of the

truest genres to come out of Romantic music was the “’diminutive’ art” which spoke to the

hearts of the layman and played an important role in the culture of the times (Blume 148).

Variations became another important form in the Romantic era beginning with Beethoven who

broke the mold “in his Righini Variations of 1794 (where) he burst through the hitherto

prevailing limits of figuration and with the help of virtuosic skill subjected the theme to formal

alteration and at the same time to fresh contextual interpretation” laying again the groundwork

for future generations of composers to work from (Blume 149). Instrumental concertos

reemerged in the Romantic era and with pieces such as Beethoven’s “Concertos in G, Op. 58 and

Eb, Op. 73 (which) indisputably mark the high point of the Romantic piano concerto, just as the

Concerto in D, Op. 61 became the definitive model for the Romantic violin concerto” these

pieces led the way to reinvigorating the instrumental concerto (Blume 151). The sonata began to

develop and diverge from the path that Beethoven had laid down with composers such as

Bruckner leading the way in which “the broad development of songlike themes seldom accords,

however, with an equivalent developmental elaboration. Here the path of most of the Romantics

leads away from Beethoven, whom Bruckner was the first to follow again to the full. Most

composers are content to replace thematic development… more or less abandoning genuine

thematic work” (Blume 152). Even the beginnings of the piano sonata began to change, rather

than using Beethoven’s style of beginning “with the theme strongly outlined; rather, it evolves

from some rhythmic or melodic introductory figuration, out of which the theme only slowly

emerges or becomes recognizable” completely changing the style of the piano sonata while

remaining in the same genre (Blume 154).

This final section will discuss five specific composers that Beethoven influenced and

specific examples of pieces to come out of that influence. One such composer is German born

Richard Wagner. Wagner was most well-known for his influence in the world of the music

drama. Beethoven’s influence over him can be best described by Wagner himself as a “unique

supernatural being, with whom none could compare” (Moran). Wagner compared himself to

Beethoven and even considered himself “Beethoven’s true successor” (Hanning 452). Wagner

sought to copy Beethoven’s style in several cases, here is one instance where he is quoted

describing a need to compose in the style of a specific Beethoven piece, “I now wanted to set

Leubald und Adelaide (sic) to music, similar to that which Beethoven wrote to Goethe's Egmont;

the various ghosts from the spirit world, who were each to display different characteristics, were

to borrow their own distinctive colouring from appropriate musical accompaniment” (Moran).

Wagner concentrated, like other German music drama composers, on the spiritual and the

supernatural. Of all of Beethoven’s works one holds a place of most importance to Wagner’s

composition style and art work, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; Wagner describes it as such,

“Beethoven's Ninth Symphony became the mystical goal of all my strange thoughts and desires

about music. I was first attracted to it by the opinion prevalent among musicians, not only in

Leipzig but elsewhere, that this work had been written by Beethoven when he was already half

mad. It was considered the 'non plus ultra' of all that was fantastic and incomprehensible, and

this was quite enough to rouse in me a passionate desire to study this mysterious work” (Moran).

Wagner’s clear fascination with Beethoven’s work led him to compose a piano solo of

the Ninth Symphony which was not published but was gladly received by the publisher to keep

in case of seeing a need for it (Moran). Wagner was enlightened by Beethoven’s composition

style in the Ninth Symphony and copied it down by hand in order to learn more from it, he is

quoted saying “At the very first glance at the score, of which I obtained possession with such

difficulty, I felt irresistibly attracted by the long-sustained pure fifths with which the first phrase

opens: these chords, which, as I related above, had played such a supernatural part in my childish

impressions of music, seemed in this case to form the spiritual keynote of my own life. This, I

thought, must surely contain the secret of all secrets, and accordingly the first thing to be done

was to make the score my own by a process of laborious copying” (Moran). Beethoven’s music

did more for Wagner than just inspire him musically it challenged him at the core of his being,

he was moved to such an extent that he claimed it was “to form the spiritual keynote of my own

life”, this holds much weight. Wagner is again quoted saying that he could try his hardest to

compose new music in the genre of the symphony but that there is no way to compare to

Beethoven’s mastery and to truly compose anything new by using Beethoven’s method; inspired

by Beethoven, Wagner composed opera that rivaled the composers of his time (Moran). Wagner

dominated music drama in contrast to Beethoven had no easy task writing operas as was

discussed earlier it took him three times to get “Fidelio” to a presentable stage.

Mendelssohn was another great composer who Beethoven’s work had influence over.

Mendelssohn composed Quartet no. 2 Op. 13 in a style very much indicative of Beethoven

(Golomb). This quartet has been critiqued by several individuals in differing opinion of

Mendelssohn’s effectiveness or lack thereof in copying Beethoven’s style (Golomb). One such

critique from Gregory Vitercik was quoted as saying “Mendelssohn seems to have mastered only

the surface gestures of his model while the deeper structural issues eluded him”, harsh words but

showing once again that in copying the great master Beethoven’s style there is an elusive and

nearly ungraspable depth (Golomb). Mendelssohn had written many works before this string

quartet in the style of Beethoven and earlier works have been described as “Mendelssohn’s ‘first

serious engagement with Beethoven’s music, in their off-beat accents and interruptions,

prominent diminished-seventh sonorities, and animated stretti’” this is in reference to

Mendelssohn’s Sifonias nos. 9-12 and the First Symphony, Op. 11 (Golomb).

Mendelssohn does break from Beethoven’s style in that he connects his quartet

movements in a more closely related way and composes in less of a disjunct fashion (Golomb).

Mendelssohn copies Beethoven’s use of counterpoint but at a much more basic level, keeping

stability in his work unlike Beethoven’s which is much less stable and more complicated,

Mendelssohn brings out the “thematic ideas” as they “emerge within the course of the

exposition” (Golomb). Mendelssohn’s copying of Beethoven’s late period style can be compared

to Beethoven’s copying of Mozart’s style, both of these were not as effective as their

predecessors’ and this just shows that with time styles change and might not be as true to the

original as might be desired (Golomb). It is clear that Mendelssohn relied heavily on

Beethoven’s influence in his compositions, to what degree he did this successfully is a debatable

and completely scholarly topic, Beethoven’s works moved Mendelssohn to interpret the style in

his own way and led to great works that simply haven’t quite stood up to the mastery of

Beethoven (Golomb).

Another great composer of the Romantic period was Hector Berlioz. Berlioz described

Beethoven as “a sun in the distance, but one obscured by thick clouds” after reading only two

symphonies and one andante of Beethoven’s (Tayeb, et al). Berlioz came into contact with

Beethoven’s works later on in his lifetime, this was mainly due to that fact that he was born and

studied in France where he heard mainly operas and did not play piano (Tayeb, et al). This led to

a late discovery of Beethoven in comparison to his contemporaries and yet Beethoven still

seemed to have had the greatest effect on Berlioz of all other composers (Tayeb, et al). Berlioz

captured the essence of Beethoven quickly and in his writings can be quoted as calling him

“’immense’, ‘colossal’, ‘sublime’, ‘a giant’, ‘a Titan’” also referring to his slow works as “an

eagle soaring aloft” and saying that Beethoven’s works are “’no longer music but a new art’”

(Tayeb, et al). Berlioz’s fascination with Beethoven can be seen in this quote, “As far as

symphonies are concerned, Mozart wrote 17 of which 3 are beautiful and even then… The good

Haydn produced a quantity of pretty things of that kind. Beethoven wrote seven masterpieces but

Beethoven is not human. And when you are only a human being you should not pass judgement

on the God” and while it is blasphemous to compare Beethoven to his creator the point stands

that he cannot be measured up to by many (Tayeb, et al).

Berlioz brought forth Beethoven as a master of composition and music not in his

performances but rather in his writings of Beethoven, ranging from a biography to critical

assessments of Beethoven’s music Berlioz championed Beethoven and supported him despite

opposition from his peers (Tayeb, et al). Berlioz is different in that he never copied Beethoven’s

style in the genres of chamber and instrumental music; he remained steadfast in writing for

orchestra and voices (Tayeb, et al). Berlioz finally began composing under the influence of

Beethoven with his first piece Symphonie Fantastique, and while Beethoven would never have

composed such a piece it was clearly under his influence that it was forged (Tayeb, et al). Berlioz

writes in a letter to his mother “My young and sublime orchestra, we will meet again!… We

have great things to do together. There is a musical America, Beethoven was its Columbus, I

shall be its Pizarro or Cortez”, if nothing else Berlioz’s prose about Beethoven is inspiration in

and of itself (Tayeb, et al). Berlioz had a Beethoven period in which he composed his four

symphonies in the 1830s and early 1840s, and thereafter ceased composing under as much of

Beethoven’s influence (Tayeb, et al). Berlioz was considered by many to be “in some sense heir

to the German master” and as praised by Paganini in a letter that stated “’Beethoven dead, only

Berlioz was able to bring him back to life’”, while Berlioz was a great musician and composer he

was not one to be redundant and according to Tayeb “throughout his career Berlioz always

sought to be distinctive and original, and would never repeat himself, let alone any predecessors.

Furthermore, whatever the influence of Beethoven on Berlioz’s orchestral music there were

always other influences at work” (Tayeb, et al). Berlioz is an incredible example of Beethoven’s

influence over the Romantic era composers and brings to light much about the emotional ability

of Beethoven’s work to reach others.

An interesting composer in terms of his relationship and influence from Beethoven is one

of Beethoven’s contemporaries Franz Schubert. Schubert was not as greatly hailed as Beethoven

during his time and is quoted as saying “Then he added in an undertone: Secretly I still really

hope to be able to make something of myself, but who can do anything now after Beethoven?”

what a profound statement that points to the prevalent mindset of many composers during the

transition period from classical to romantic during Beethoven’s time (Reid). Living up to a

legend was not easy for young composers such as Schubert, yet he made a great and lasting

impression on the musical world himself, composing over 600 Lieder and making “important

contributions to the piano, chamber, and symphonic repertoires” Schubert was not a miniscule

composer by any means (Hanning 408). Schubert was enamored by Beethoven and was said to

have “sold his books in order to buy a ticket for the first performance of the revised version of

Beethoven’s opera Fidelio”, if nothing else Schubert was willing to do whatever it took to

expose himself to the music of Beethoven and went to great lengths to do so (Reid). Schubert

wrote the Variations on a French Theme for Piano Duet, Op. 10 and dedicated it to Beethoven

saying that it was “from his ‘worshipper and admirer Franz Schubert’”, these are strong words

and according to Reid had no hope of financial return in comparison to dedicating the works to a

“noble dedicatee” (Reid).

Schubert considered himself as the “true successor to Beethoven” and was even buried

next to Beethoven upon request at his deathbed (Reid). Schubert was not regarded as a composer

of anything other than songs by his contemporaries due to the fact that none of his other

compositions were published until after his death (Reid). Musically speaking Schubert quotes

Beethoven’s Funeral March from the ‘Eroica’ Symphony in his song ‘Auf dem Strom’ and had

the piece first performed one year to the date after Beethoven’s death and was clearly an unstated

dedication to the former Beethoven (Reid). Schubert takes Beethoven’s melody and removes it

from the symphonic setting to a more intimate song setting that according to Reid doesn’t seek to

“compete on equal terms with his hero by some orchestral metamorphosis, but quietly weaving

the familiar melody in the weft of the musical genre he had made his own- song” (Reid). One of

Beethoven’s greatest impressions on Schubert’s music comes in the form of “’dactylic’ metre

(one long note, followed by two short ones) (which) resonates throughout Schubert’s mature

work” (Reid). In the field of song writing, Beethoven inspired Schubert, but Schubert was

superior in this genre, and while familiar with Beethoven’s song cycles clearly outshone the

master in this area of composition (Reid). Schubert is a great example of the best composer after

Beethoven in Vienna and strove to do his best to live up to the reputation that Beethoven had

made for himself after the master’s death (Reid).

Finally we discuss the true successor of Beethoven, Johannes Brahms. Brahms wrote

music that clung to the classical style but was new and refreshing; he sought to produce music

that the audience liked but that would take them someplace they had not yet been (Hanning 470-

1). Brahms was Beethoven’s successor in the genres of chamber and orchestral music (Hanning

471). These genres would produce masterpieces that would enthrall audiences for years to come.

Brahms as a young musician spent much time delving into the art work of poetry, novels, and the

music of Bach and Beethoven (Bozarth, et al). Brahms performed Beethoven and Bach in his

first solo piano concerts at a very high level (Bozarth, et al). Brahms is very much like

Beethoven in that his public performances of piano solos were captivating and he worked as a

conductor and composer (Hanning 470-1). Brahms’ first stage of maturing as a composer

brought about changes in his compositional techniques that mirrored those of Schubert, Liszt,

and Beethoven; his connection to Beethoven stemmed through “bold tonal shifts and large

climaxes” and this would lead to his compositional style for the “rest of his career” (Bozarth, et

al). Brahms began writing symphonies with careful consideration and close attention to detail as

he expected himself to match up to Beethoven in this genre (Hanning 471). Brahms’ first

symphony took him 20 years to complete and he veered off the course that Beethoven generally

took in his third movement which was a lyrical intermezzo rather than the traditional scherzo that

Beethoven was fond of writing (Hanning 471). Brahms’ First Symphony copies Beethoven’s

Fifth by ending in a major tonality in the last movement, also “the main theme of the finale is a

hymnlike melody that suggests a parallel to the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Yet

there are no voices, as if to say that for Brahms, Beethoven’s recourse to words is not necessary”

(Hanning 471). Brahms directly quotes Beethoven’s Eroica in the fourth movement of his Fourth

and final symphony and “like Beethoven, Brahms first presents his bass line as a melody in the

upper register and then works it into the bass only after several variations” (Hanning 473).

Brahms was the master of combining the style and pieces of great composers in his own works

such as in the D minor Piano Concerto where “the rondo-finale shows a very different spirit. Its

formal structure is modelled closely, even slavishly, on the finale of Beethoven’s Third Piano

Concerto in a way that might be called neo-classical” (Bozarth, et al). Brahms did not shy from

quoting and transforming the works of the great Beethoven in his own pieces, if there was a true

child of Beethoven it would have to be Brahms.

Having discussed Beethoven’s background and musical development as well as the

Romantic era principles and style in music and comparing them to Beethoven’s there is a clear

connection. Beethoven is the clearest link between the classical and classical-romantic periods.

He clearly influenced composers and musicians in the Romantic era and the effects are still

lasting into the present time. Beethoven is arguably the greatest composer to have ever lived, if

nothing else his existence changed the face of music as we now know it. Who knows, without

Beethoven music might have developed into what it is today, but there is no way to determine

that as fact. The great master delivered a fortune of knowledge and music into our world and we

cannot take it or its impact for granted.

Bibliography

Blume, Friedrich. Classic and Romantic Music: A Comprehensive Survey. Trans. M.D. Herter

Norton. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1970. Print.

This book strives to close the boundaries and the understanding of how the Classic and

Romantic periods are not mutually exclusive but rather two sides of the same coin. Blume

explains in his preface that the books main goal is to ask those questions which are unanswerable

and to illuminate ideas behind each period and relate them back to each other.

Bozarth , George S. and Walter Frisch. "Brahms, Johannes." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music

Online. Oxford University Press, accessed May 8, 2015,

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/51879pg1.

This article is found on the Oxford Music Online. It is relevant and a very reliable

resource. It is written as a very thorough and complete biography of both Brahms' life and music.

Golomb, Uri. "Mendelssohn’s Creative Response to Late Beethoven: Polyphony and Thematic

Identity in Mendelssohn’s Quartet in A-major Op. 13." Academia.edu. Academia, n.d.

Web. 7 May 2015.

This is found on Academia.edu which is a research sharing website that seeks to increase

the availability of research. This specific article is a rough draft that was later published in Ad

Parnassum. This article focuses on Beethoven's influence in one composition.

Hanning, Barbara Russano. Concise History of Western Music. Fifth ed. New York: W.W.

Norton, 2014. Print.

Hanning’s book is based off of Burkholder et als. Textbook A History of Western Music

ninth edition. Her book covers music in the western culture beginning from the Ancient and

Medieval time period and progressing through each consecutive time period, Renaissance,

Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century: The Age of Romanticism, and

the Twentieth Century and Today. She writes in her preface that “I have striven to introduce

performers and liberal arts students to the forces that shaped the works discussed in the text. In

discovering how those forces played out in the works of successive generations of composers, I

hope that students will be excited- as I was- to see how new discoveries, new ways of thinking,

and conflicts and their resolutions influence human choices and values.

Moran, S. M. "Wagner on Beethoven." The Wagnerian. S. M. Moran, 12 May 2013. Web. 07

May 2015.

This website is a non-profit that has "A collection of news and articles about Richard

Wagner, his works, life, performances and influences." This website is maintained by S.M.

Moran's editorial team and sometimes uses other sources.

Reid, Paul. "BEETHOVEN AND SCHUBERT." The Unheard Beethoven. School Zone, 4 Oct.

2013. Web. 08 May 2015.

This website seeks to bring to light the unrecorded pieces of Beethoven by using midi

interface software. The founders made this website in order to fulfill their own desire to know

more about the music of Beethoven and then to educate others and provide a place learning and

enlightenment could happen. This website is a great resource provided by lovers of music and

Beethoven.

Siepmann, Jeremy. Beethoven His Life & Music. Naperville: Source, 2006. Print.

The preface of Siepmann's book talks about the need for musical biographies to be

heard. It is not enough to simply look at written notes, as most of us are not capable of complete

audiation. He writes this book to the layman in hopes that they might see how Beethoven's life

and music line up using "interludes" that give the reader the option to learn about his life in one

setting and then revisit the musical commentary later. Siepmann ends his preface with this, "This

book is conceived as no more than an introduction, but with any luck it will inspire a lifetime of

further journeys into the life and work of a man belied by many to be the greatest composer who

ever lived, and among the very greatest of men". This book divulges many interesting and

enlightening parts of Beethoven's life that lead to his musical achievements.

Tayeb, Monir, and Michel Austin. "The Hector Berlioz Website: Berlioz and Beethoven." The

Hector Berlioz Website. N.p., 12 Jan. 2003. Web. 08 May 2015.

Created by married scholars who are inspired by the works of Berlioz this website seeks

to enlighten readers on Berlioz's "music, his writings, his career in France and abroad, and his

contribution to musical history". This website has a wellspring of information covering all of

Berlioz's life. It began as a one page sight with simple references and information and has now

expanded into a database of knowledge.