Beethoven - Living in the two different music periods

Essay by cheeky74High School, 11th gradeB, July 2008

download word file, 5 pages 5.0

Ludwig van Beethoven, was one of the world's greatest artists lived almost exactly 30 years on each side of the year 1800, straddling the two centuries and periods of music. This is important because he belongs not only to the classical era but also the romantic. Many say Beethoven was the one who changed music from the Classical period to the Romanic, but it is for sure that even before the romantic era began Beethoven was composing music using different musical elements for instruments and an era that didn't even exist. So was Beethoven the reason for the change from Classical period to the romantic period?Beethoven was born in the classical period in 1770 and died during the early years of the romantic period. Therefore had a range of musical influences from classical composers, but no romantic influence. Two of the Classical composers that influenced him were Mozart and Haydn, who were the epitomy of the classical era of music - refined, elegant and formal.

Beethoven's works are broken into three periods, but the periods still have to be defined. The three periods were Early, middle and late. The early period ended around 1802, the middle period went from 1803 - 1812 and the late period went from 1813 - 1827.

Beethoven earlier works were similar to the other classical composer's music. It showed many classical characteristics as it was light and elegant, but some of his earlier works also showed very romantic characteristics, furious chords, with dramatic silences between each phrase. Even during his early period when he was composing music similar to Mozart and Haydn, he was always coming up with new things. During this period he composed the first six string quartets. So it seems that even though he was emulating his great predecessors he was also...