Beethoven inherited the tradition of classical music and inspired the style and spirit of romantic music.

Beethoven inherited the tradition of classical music school and inspired the style and spirit of romantic music school, so he occupies a very important position in the history of music. He is one of the most influential and popular piano composers in history. From 18 14, his hearing declined sharply, so he gave up piano playing and conducting and insisted on writing.

Beethoven composed 9 numbered symphonies, 36 piano sonatas (including 32 numbered, 65,438+0 unfinished), 65,438+00 violin sonatas, 65,438+06 string quartets, 65,438+0 operas and 2 mass. These works have had a far-reaching impact on the development of music, so Beethoven is known as the "saint of music" in the Chinese-speaking world.

Musical achievements and characteristics

Beethoven's works include 32 piano sonatas, 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, violin concertos, trio concertos and string quartets. The works with Op number are 138.

As for the works marked WoO. There are 205 works, indicating that the works are "Werke ohne Opus-Nummer" (works without Op number). Although many of these works were published before his death, he did not think that these works deserved an Op number.

Less common is the work numbered "Hess", with a volume of *** 14, supplemented by the Swiss composer Willy Hess for the Complete Works of Beethoven.

Beethoven's most famous works include Heroes of the Third Symphony, Fate of the Fifth Symphony, Pastoral of the Sixth Symphony, Chorus of the Ninth Symphony, Sonata of Sorrow, Sonata of Moonlight and so on. His 32 numbered piano sonatas, such as Pathetique and Moonlight, are regarded by Hans von Poirot as the "New Testament" of piano (the "Old Testament" is Bach's "collection of piano music with equal rhythm").

His early music was greatly influenced by the classical styles of Haydn and Mozart, such as the first symphony. In early piano sonatas, such as Pathetique, its harmonic features, frequent octaves and rich textures reflect the influence of muzio clementi and Yang Dussek on Beethoven. His works in the middle and late period showed a strong personal style, and Beethoven even expressed his ideals and demands through music.

Beethoven can be said to have inherited the musical essence of German and Austrian composers Bach, Haydn and Mozart, and reached the limit of classical music in form. Bach's music has not yet been discovered. However, Beethoven's teacher Neve did not let Beethoven feel the greatness of this "father of European music" in his teaching. Beethoven once said: "He is not a stream (German homonym for Bach), but the sea."

1855, W. Delanz put forward the famous dichotomy of Beethoven's creative period. Although this division is constantly criticized as too absolute and inaccurate, it is still very helpful for people to understand the development of Beethoven's creative style:

1, early: about 1802-04 years ago. During this period, Beethoven obviously showed his dependence on the classical tradition.

2. Flowering period: about 1802-04 to 18 12- 14. Most of Beethoven's famous works were born in this period. According to the temperament of the works, this period is sometimes called "heroism" period. It is generally believed that it originated from the creation of Hero or the earlier recuperation of Heiligen.

3. Transition period: With the last performance of 18 14/ 15, Beethoven fell into a low-yield period for several years, and his musical thoughts began to change. The important works here are almost only piano sonatas No.28 and No.29 (the latter is the famous "mallet").

4. Later period: After the trough, since Beethoven began to write "Solemn Mass" in 18 19, his works showed the characteristics of later creation, with introspection and philosophy, and the scale was further expanded. However, because the creation of the former took a long time, Beethoven didn't have more works of other genres until 1822.

Extended data:

Creative characteristics

Beethoven's life has experienced drastic changes in European society before and after the French Revolution, and his works are the product of the combination of times and personality. He greatly expanded the ideological content of symphonic music, making it a genre that directly reflects social changes, and the scope of piano performance has also been greatly enhanced.

The expansion of content leads to the innovation of expression techniques: he breaks through the traditional formal structure, inspirational theme application and dynamic music development, which makes music have extraordinary momentum and strength; The sound change system based on functional system becomes the characteristic of his harmony style;

Flexible dissonance and large-scale rhythm contrast and strength contrast play an important role in depicting contradictions and conflicts and dramatic development. In addition, the use of counterpoint, the combination of band acoustics and the writing of piano music have distinct characteristics.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Ludwig van Beethoven