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Beethoven (1770-1827)
• One of the greatest and most radical
composers of all time. A tormented genius,
who went deaf in later life and never hear his
final works. His nine symphonies are probably
his greatest achievement, each one an
unrivaled masterpiece, but he also wrote 5
piano concertos, piano sonatas, string
quartets and one opera, Fidelio
Beethoven
• was a German composer of Classical music,
the predominant musical figure in the
transitional period between the Classical and
Romantic eras. He is widely regarded as one
of the greatest of composers, and his
reputation inspired – and in some cases
intimidated – composers, musicians, and
audiences who were to come after him.
Beethoven
• Bonn, Germany, to Johann van Beethoven
(1740-1792), of Flemish origins, and
Magdalena Keverich van Beethoven (1744-
1787).
• Beethoven's first music teacher was his father,
who worked as a musician in the Electoral
court at Bonn, but was also an alcoholic who
beat him and unsuccessfully attempted to
exhibit him as a child prodigy
Beethoven
• He was given instruction and employment by Christian
Gottlob Neefe, as well as financial sponsorship by the
Prince-Elector
• Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792, where he studied
with Joseph Haydn and other teachers. He quickly
established a reputation as a piano virtuoso, and more
slowly as a composer. He settled into the career
pattern he would follow for the remainder of his life:
rather than working for the church or a noble court (as
most composers before him had done), he was a
freelancer, supporting himself with public
performances, sales of his works, and stipends from
noblemen who recognized his ability.
Beethoven
• career as a composer is usually divided into Early,
Middle, and Late periods
• the Early period, he is seen as emulating his great
predecessors Haydn and Mozart, at the same
time exploring new directions and gradually
expanding the scope and ambition of his work.
Some important pieces from the Early period are
the first and second symphonies, the first six
string quartets, the first two piano concertos, and
about a dozen piano sonatas, including the
famous 'Pathétique'.
Beethoven
• The Middle period began shortly after
Beethoven's personal crisis centering around
deafness, and is noted for large-scale works
expressing heroism and struggle; these include
many of the most famous works of classical
music. The Middle period works include six
symphonies (Nos. 3 – 8), the last three piano
concertos and his only violin concerto, six string
quartets (Nos. 7 – 11), many piano sonatas
(including the 'Moonlight', 'Waldstein', and
'Appassionata'), and Beethoven's only opera,
Fidelio.
Beethoven
• Beethoven's Late period began around 1816
and lasted until Beethoven ceased to compose
in 1826. The late works are greatly admired
for their intellectual depth and their intense,
highly personal expression. They include the
Ninth Symphony (the 'Choral'), the Missa
Solemnis, the last six string quartets and the
last five piano sonatas.
Beethoven
• Beethoven's personal life was troubled. Around age 28 he
started to become deaf, a calamity which led him for some
time to contemplate suicide. He was attracted to
unattainable (married or aristocratic) women, whom he
idealized; he never married. A period of low productivity
from about 1812 to 1816 is thought by some scholars to
have been the result of depression, resulting from
Beethoven's realization that he would never marry.
Beethoven quarreled, often bitterly, with his relatives and
others, and frequently behaved badly to other people. He
moved often from dwelling to dwelling, and had strange
personal habits such as wearing filthy clothing while
washing compulsively. He often had financial troubles.
Beethoven
• Beethoven was often in poor health, and in
1826 his health took a drastic turn for the
worse. His death in the following year is
usually attributed to liver disease.
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
• was a leading composer of the Classical period, called
the 'Father of the Symphony' and 'Father of the String
Quartet'.
• Haydn's parents were perceptive enough to notice that
their little son had musical talent, and they also knew
that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain any
serious musical training. It was for this reason that
they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann
Matthias Franck, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in
Hainburg, that Haydn be apprenticed to Franck in his
home to train as a musician. Haydn thus went off with
Franck to Hainburg (ten miles away) and never again
lived with his parents. At the time he was not quite six.
Haydn
• he did begin his musical training there, and soon was
able to play both harpsichord and violin. The people of
Hainburg were soon hearing him sing soprano parts in
the church choir.
• two years later (1740), he was brought to the attention
of Georg von Reutter, the director of music in St.
Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, who was touring the
provinces looking for talented choirboys. Haydn
passed his audition with Reutter, and soon moved off
to Vienna, where he worked for the next nine years as
a chorister, the last four in the company of his younger
brother Michael.
Haydn
• Reutter also did little to further his choristers'
musical education. However, St. Stephen's
was at the time one of the leading musical
centers in Europe, where new music by
leading composers was constantly being
performed. Haydn was able to learn a great
deal by osmosis simply by serving as a
professional musician there.
Haydn
• In 1749, Haydn had matured physically to the point that he
was no longer able to sing high choral parts. On a weak
pretext, he was summarily dismissed from his job. He
evidently spent one night homeless on a park bench, but
was taken in by friends and began to pursue a career as a
freelance musician. During this arduous period, which
lasted ten years, Haydn worked many different jobs,
including valet–accompanist for the Italian composer
Nicola Porpora, from whom he later said he learned 'the
true fundamentals of composition'. He labored to fill the
gaps in his training, and eventually wrote his first string
quartets and his first opera. During this time Haydn's
professional reputation gradually increased.
Haydn
• In 1759, or 1757 according to the New Grove
Encyclopedia, Haydn received his first important
position, that of Kapellmeister (music director) for
Count Karl von Morzin. In this capacity, he directed the
count's small orchestra, and for this ensemble wrote
his first symphonies. Count Morzin soon suffered
financial reverses that forced him to dismiss his
musical establishment, but Haydn was quickly offered
a similar job (1761) as assistant Kapellmeister to the
Eszterházy family, one of the wealthiest and most
important in the Austrian Empire. When the old
Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, finally died in 1766,
Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister.
Haydn
• As a liveried servant of the Eszterházys, Haydn followed
them as they moved among their three main residences:
the family seat in Eisenstadt, their winter palace in Vienna,
and Eszterháza, a grand new palace built in rural Hungary in
the 1760s. Haydn had a huge range of responsibilities,
including composition, running the orchestra, playing
chamber music for and with his patrons, and eventually the
mounting of operatic productions. Despite the
backbreaking workload, Haydn considered himself
fortunate to have his job. The Eszterházy princes (first Paul
Anton, then most importantly Nikolaus I) were musical
connoisseurs who appreciated his work and gave him the
conditions needed for his artistic development, including
daily access to his own small orchestra.
Haydn
• In 1760, with the security of a Kapellmeister
position, Haydn married. He and his wife, the
former Maria Anna Keller, did not get along,
and they produced no children. Haydn may
have had one or more children with Luigia
Polzelli, a singer in the Eszterházy
establishment with whom he carried on a
long-term love affair, and often wrote to on
his travels.
Haydn
• During the nearly thirty years that Haydn worked
in the Eszterházy household, he produced a flood
of compositions, and his musical style became
ever more developed. His popularity in the
outside world also increased. Gradually, Haydn
came to write as much for publication as for his
employer, and several important works of this
period, such as the Paris symphonies (1785–6)
and the original orchestral version of
The Seven Last Words of Christ (1786), were
commissions from abroad.
Haydn
• Around 1781 Haydn established a close friendship with
Mozart, whose work he had already been influencing
by example for many years. The two composers
enjoyed playing in string quartets together. Haydn was
hugely impressed with Mozart's work; it has been
noted by Mozart scholars that after this time Haydn
largely ceased to compose operas and concertos
&ndash: two of the genres where Mozart was at his
strongest. Mozart spent the better part of three years
from 1782 to 1785 to produce a set of six string
quartets that he would dedicate to the older man.
Haydn