LudwigvanBeethoven
1770-1827
Introduction
Ludwig? Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), one of the greatest German musicians. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), one of Germany's greatest musicians, was born in Bonn, Germany, of Dutch ancestry (also known as Poland), and was born into a common family, and showed musical talent at an early age, beginning to perform on stage at the age of eight. 1792, he went to Vienna for further study, and made rapid progress in his art. Beethoven faith **** and, venerate the hero, created a large number of excellent works full of the atmosphere of the times, such as: symphony "hero", "fate"; overture "mourning Grammont"; Piano Sonata "Pathos", "Moonlight", "Tempest", "Passion" and so on. He had a difficult life and did not establish a family. At the age of twenty-six, he became deaf, and in his later years, he was completely deaf, and could only talk to people through talking books. But the lonely life did not make him silent and retired, in all progressive ideas are banned in the feudal restoration era, still adhere to the "freedom, equality" political beliefs, through the speech and works, for the **** and ideals of the arm shouting, wrote the immortal masterpiece "Ninth Symphony". His works were influenced by the 18th century Enlightenment and the German Rhapsody, with a distinctive personality and a great development compared with his predecessors. In terms of musical expression, he touched on almost all the musical genres at that time; greatly improved the expressive power of the piano to obtain symphonic dramatic effects; and made the symphony an important form of music that directly reflected social change. Beethoven, who was the master of classical music and opened the way to the music of the romantic period, played a pivotal role in the development of world music and was honored as the "Sage of Music".
Biography
Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany. His father was a temperamental, alcoholic tenor singer in the court choir there, and his mother was a cook with a kind heart and a gentle temperament. A hard life deprived Beethoven of the right to go to school, and the musical talent he showed from an early age made his father's desire for him to become a musical prodigy his cash cow. He was not afraid to scold Beethoven, forcing him to practice the harpsichord and violin endlessly from the age of 4. At the age of 7, Beethoven made his debut on the stage with great success, and was known as the second Mozart. After studying composition with the organist Nieffer, Beethoven published his first work, Variations for Piano, at the age of 11. At the age of 13, he joined the court orchestra as organist and ancient pianist, and in 1787 he went to Vienna to study composition with Mozart, Haydn, and others, and in 1800, after his first triumphs, a bright future unfolded in front of Beethoven. But for three or four years, a terrible thing kept tormenting him; Beethoven realized that he had become deaf. For a musician, there is nothing more terrible than deafness. One can thus understand this heartbreaking agony in the slow movement of his early piano sonatas.
Beethoven was at all times filled with a fiery heart, but his passion was very unfortunate, and he was always alternately experiencing the hopes and enthusiasms, the disappointments and the revolts, which undoubtedly became his source of inspiration. 1801, Beethoven fell in love with Giulietta? Guicciardia, to whom he dedicated his Moonlight Sonata. But the flirtatious, childish and selfish Cheri Ai was too incompetent to understand his noble soul, and his marriage to the Count of Galenberg in 1803 was a moment of despair for which he wrote a suicide note.
In 1803 he emerged from the grayness to write the bright and optimistic Second Symphony. More and better music flowed from his pen after that. Symphonies No. 3 (Heroes), No. 5 (Destiny), and No. 6 (Fields), as well as the beautiful, joyous Violin Concerto, and the colorful Piano Concerto and Sonata.
In 1823, Beethoven completed his final masterpiece, the Ninth Symphony (Choral). This work created his ideal world. in December 1826, Beethoven suffered from a severe cold that led to pulmonary edema. on March 26, 1827, Beethoven finally took his last breath due to liver disease. On his deathbed, there was a sudden storm of snow and thunder, and it seemed that even the heavens mourned the death of this great musician! Beethoven's funeral was so grand that more than 20,000 people automatically followed the casket to the funeral, while his grave was next to that of Schubert. Lifelong unmarried. funeral on the 29th, with 20,000 mourners, and the body was buried in St. Max Cemetery.
The composer stayed on earth for only 57 years, and completed more than a hundred works in his life. The main works are 9 symphonies; dozens of orchestral music ("Egmont Overture" is the most famous); 5 piano concertos, a violin concerto; other concertos 5; piano sonatas 32 (passion, moonlight, pathos, dawn, storm, etc. is the most famous); 80 pieces of chamber music; an opera, "Fidelio"; and a Divine Opera; Masses 2, and so on.
Talk
Childhood
Beethoven's grandfather and father were both court singers. For most of their lives, his father drank heavily, was never kind to his family, and never even asked if they had enough to eat or wear. At first the kindly grandfather managed to save the family from too much suffering; and, in turn, the musical talents of his oldest grandson were a great comfort to the old man. But when young Beethoven was only four years old, the grandfather died. Beethoven's father used to drag the boy to the keyboard and make him practice there for many grueling hours, slapping him whenever he made a mistake. The neighbors often heard the little child sobbing himself to sleep from exhaustion and pain. Soon a traveling musician of little level, Faivre, came to the town and was brought to Beethoven's house. He and old Beethoven used to drink outside in a tavern until midnight, and then go home and drag young Ludwig out of bed to begin a lesson that sometimes lasted until dawn. To make him look like a child prodigy, his father lied about his age and took him out to concerts as a six-year-old when he was eight. But there is no such thing as a child prodigy, and in spite of all the trouble he went through, Beethoven the Elder was never able to make his son into another young Mozart. Beethoven's childhood was unfortunate compared to Mozart's. Mozart was well educated in his childhood. Mozart was well educated in his childhood, his practice time was pleasant and quiet, with a loving father and a beloved sister; Beethoven is not, although his playing won the respect of the people in his hometown, but the world travel performance is far from the same as Mozart caused the world to marvel.
Good Teachers
The father took the boy to teacher after teacher, where he was taught different instruments and the art of composition. None of these teachers could be called good until he fell into the hands of Neefe, the court organist and manager of the Bonn theater. This was a respectable music teacher, friendly, well-educated young man. This was a real blessing for Beethoven. For although there were the best schools in the city of Bonn - schools to which even good old Bach would gladly have sent many of his children - Beethoven's father never thought it worthwhile to send Beethoven there for even two or three months. But Beethoven's father never thought it worthwhile to send Beethoven there for even two or three months; in his eyes, studying was far less profitable than learning music. For the first time in his life, young Beethoven found lessons enjoyable. Mr. Neffer was very kind to him and taught him not only about music, but also about many other things in the world. To pay for his lessons, Beethoven worked as an organist in place of his teacher when Mr. Neffer was busy or away from town. Thus when he had just reached the age of fourteen he was appointed assistant court organist and ancient pianist at the theater. How pleased that hateful and unfortunate father was when he saw that his son was finally earning some money for his music!
Visits
Beethoven was around this time when he visited Vienna for the first time in his life to play for his most admired idol, Mozart. Mozart thought the boy was just playing an exhibit of showmanship that had been practiced long enough for such an occasion, and out of politeness had to give him a polite but cold compliment. Young Beethoven became angry and demanded that Mozart give him a theme, on which he then improvised variations with so much feeling and genius. Mozart was so astonished that he immediately ran to the door of the next room, "Pay attention to this young man," he shouted to a group of his friends inside who were partying, "one day the whole world will hear him!"
Beethoven finally realized that he was unlikely to make any more progress back home, and decided to seek his fortune again in Vienna. By this time Mozart had died, but Haydn, fresh from his first London triumph, was at the height of his fame. While passing through Bonn, Haydn had already heard and greatly admired one of Beethoven's grand choruses, so Beethoven decided to turn first to Haydn for lessons. Haydn was by this time long past his youth, and more diligent than ever in composing and conducting his greatest works. No wonder he had little time or energy to correct papers. And since he asked his students to pay only twenty cents per lesson, he probably didn't feel the need to spend much time on practicing script paper himself. So Beethoven often found some uncorrected mistakes in his exercises, and he was angry. When the aged teacher set out for a second visit to London, Beethoven turned to a less gifted but very strict teacher for his studies. Later he often declared aloud that he had learned nothing from Haydn. Before long, however, he must have grown to feel that if he had gained nothing from corrective exercises, he had gained inspiration from Haydn, to whom he dedicated his first few piano sonatas. And when Haydn made his last appearance on stage for his performance of Genesis and was helped out by some of his servants, Beethoven bent down and kissed the decrepit old man affectionately.
My own way
Beethoven did not want to be a parlor favorite; he preferred to be in his own dwelling, able to go in and out, get up, dress and eat as he pleased. He liked to fool around with the minutiae of the room according to his own interests. On one occasion he went so far as to cut out a piece of a window for the sake of air circulation and to see out of it. He was always in trouble with his landlords, always moving. Whenever he was at the height of his creativity, he cooled it down by pouring pot after pot of water over his head until it soaked into the room downstairs - we can only imagine the emotions of the landlord and the other tenants! Sometimes he moved so often that he wouldn't even worry about putting the legs of the piano up and simply sat down on the floor to play it. Since he had to sign a lease each time he rented a new apartment, specifying the term of the lease, he tended to pay rent for four apartments at the same time. That was probably why, despite the money he made, he never had much in the way of savings!
Deafness
When he really felt his ears getting deaf, he almost despaired. Life didn't seem worth living: could there be anything more unfortunate for a musician than not being able to hear the sweet sounds he loved to hear and lived by! At first, only Dr. Wiegler and Stefan. Dr. Wiegler and Stefan von Browning were the only ones at first. At first only Dr. Wiegler and Stefan von Breuning and a few other old friends knew of his misfortune. He gave up going to the various royal palaces to hear the merry concerts which he so loved, fearing that people would notice his deafness, and think that a musician who could not hear could not write a good work. NOT! He thought of all the music he wanted to write, "I will take fate by the throat!" Maybe it wasn't as hard for him as it was for other musicians to write music while deaf. To him, music was not only about arranging various themes or sound patterns in a captivating voice; it was also a language for expressing the deepest thoughts.
Beethoven and his friends
No musician has had so many successes and so few happy days in his life as he. His friends were kind and loyal, but his cursed deafness separated him from them. Even his hearing aid often failed him, so the only way he kept in touch with them was the "talking book" and pencil he always carried with him. He saw them talking to each other and thought they were always talking about him, saying bad things about him, plotting against him. One day he wrote: "Don't ever show your face to me again! You are a vile dog, a dishonest fellow!" The next day, when he realized that his suspicions were wrong and his friend was sincere, he wrote another note: "Dear friend, you are an honest man and you are right. I understand that now. So come to me this afternoon and receive your Beethoven love." And his friends--what good people they were--always forgave him his rough quarrels and were with him to the end. His family life was miserable from the beginning: he never married. On his first visit to Vienna, he asked for the hand of Magdalene Wildman, a singer from his own hometown. Magdalene Willman, a singer from his home town, but she refused because Beethoven was "too ugly". Since then, he had fallen in love with several noblewomen - lovely women with lovely names - to whom he confided in his music, but they accepted his music and rejected his love!
Mastery
Heroic Symphonies
Beethoven's heart was filled with the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and he was an ardent champion of the French bourgeois revolution of 1789.In 1798, when General Bernadotte (1763-1844) became France's ambassador to Vienna, Beethoven was often at his home and In 1802, at the suggestion of General Bernadotte, Beethoven began to write his Third Symphony, dedicated to Napoleon. In his mind, Napoleon was the hero who destroyed the dictatorship and realized his ideals. 1804, Beethoven finished the Third Symphony. Just as he was about to dedicate it to Napoleon, the news of Napoleon's claim to the throne reached Vienna. When Beethoven learned of the news from his student Lis (1784 -1838), he roared with rage: "He is no more than a mere mortal. Now he too will trample on human rights in order to fulfill his personal ambitions. He will ride on the heads of all and become a tyrant!" With that, he went to the table, tore the dedication to Napoleon to pieces, and threw it on the floor, forbidding anyone to pick it up. It took many days for Beethoven's anger to subside and he allowed the work to be released to the public, and in December 1804 the symphony was first performed in Vienna at the court of Prince Lobkowitz, and in April 1805 at the Vienna Theater, where Beethoven conducted the first public performance, with a program that reads: "A new grand symphony in ascending D major, conducted by Ludwig. D major, Ludwig? Ludwig van Beethoven. by Herr Beethoven, dedicated to His Royal Highness Prince Lobkowitz." Curiously, Beethoven does not say E flat major, but D flat major. When the general score was published in October 1806, the title page read: Heroic Symphony in Honor of a Great Man From then on, Symphony No. 3 was known as the "Heroic Symphony."
The Symphony of Fate
The four notes at the beginning of Beethoven's Symphony in C minor (Op. 67) are strong and heavy, as if fate were knocking at the door. This work is therefore called the Symphony of Fate. The Symphony of Fate was composed between 1805 and 1808. Beethoven, in a letter to his friend Wegler (1765-1848) in November 1808, had already said, "I will jam the throat of fate, and it must not overwhelm me completely!" The "voice of fate knocking at the door" had already appeared in the third movement of the Piano Sonata in C minor (Op. 10, No. 1), written in 1798, and later in the third movement of the String Quartet in D major (Op. 18, No. 3), the first movement of the Passionata (Op. 57), the Overture to Leonora No. 3 (Op. 72), and the Overture to E flat (Op. 72), as well as in the first movement of the Sonata in E flat (Op. 58), and in the Overture to the Piano Sonata (Op. 59). Op. 72), the String Quartet in E flat major (Op. 74) and a series of other works. It can be seen that victory over fate through struggle is Beethoven's consistent creative thinking. Symphony of Fate" shows the passion of struggle in full swing, with a strong infectious force. Spanish female bass singer Mari Bran first listened to the "Symphony of Fate", scared to death, had to leave the table and go. Napoleon an old guard, listening to the opening theme of the fourth movement, could not help jumping up and shouting, "This is the Emperor!" Berlioz saw the thrilling scenes of struggle in the Symphony of Fate as "Othello's terrible fury when he listened to Egou's slander and mistook Desdemona for an illicit affair." According to Schumann, "Though you hear this symphony from time to time, it always has a constant power over you - just as the phenomena of nature, though they occur from time to time, always teach one to be frightened." In May and June of 1830, Mendelssohn stayed in Weimar for two weeks for a final meeting with Goethe, playing for him at the piano famous works of the past and present. Goethe was thrilled to hear the first movement of the Symphony of Fate, and said, "It is magnificently grand and thrilling, it would shake the house down. One wonders what would have happened if many people had played it together." In March 1841, Engels heard a performance of the Symphony of Fate. He praised the work in a letter to his sister, saying, "If you do not know this marvelous thing, then you have heard nothing in your life, if anything." In the first movement, he said, he heard "that utter despair of grief, that anguish of sorrow"; in the second, "that tender melancholy of love"; and in the third and fourth, "the powerful, youthful expression of the trumpet, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young, the young. In the third and fourth movements, "the powerful, youthful, free joy expressed by the trumpet" is so inspiring. In just a few words, Engels reveals the essence of the Symphony of Fate.
The Legend of "Moonlight Song"
"More than a hundred years ago, there was a German musician named Beethoven who composed many famous pieces. One of them was a famous piano piece called 'Moonlight Piece', which legend has it that it was composed like this: one fall, Beethoven traveled around the world for performances and came to a small town on the Rhine. One night, he was walking along a quiet path, and heard the intermittent sound of a piano coming out of a hut, playing his piece. Beethoven approached the cottage, the piano suddenly stopped, and there was a conversation in the house. A girl said, 'How difficult this piece is to play! I have only heard others play it a few times, but I can never remember how to play it; how wonderful it would be to hear how Beethoven himself played it! A man said, 'Yes, but concert tickets are too expensive, and we are too poor.' The girl said, 'Don't be sad, brother, I'm just talking.' Hearing this, Beethoven pushed open the door and gently went in. There was a candle lit in the hut, and in the faint candlelight the man was making leather shoes. There was an old piano in front of the window, and in front of it sat a girl of sixteen or seventeen years of age, with a very clear face, but blind. The cobbler saw a stranger come in, stood up and asked, 'Who are you looking for, sir? You've come to the wrong door, haven't you?' Beethoven said, 'No, I have come to play a piece for the girl.' The girl quickly stood up and gave up her seat. Beethoven sat down at the piano and played the piece the blind girl had just played. The blind girl was mesmerized, and when the piece was finished, she said excitedly, 'How purely well played it is! How deep is the feeling! You, you are Mr. Beethoven, aren't you?' Beethoven did not answer, he asked the blind girl: 'Do you like it? I'll play you another one.' A gust of wind blew out the candle. The moonlight shone through the window, and everything in the cottage seemed to be covered with a silver veil. Beethoven looked at the poor brother and sister standing beside him, and by the light of the moon, pressed the keys of the piano. The cobbler listened quietly. It seemed to him that he was facing the sea, and the moon was rising from where the water and the sky met, and the shimmering sea was for a moment sprinkled with silver light. The moon rose higher and higher, passing through wisps and wisps of light, gauzy clouds. Suddenly, a wind blew on the sea and huge waves rolled up. The waves, illuminated by the moonlight, came one after another towards the shore ...... The cobbler looked at his sister, and the moonlight was shining on her serene face and on her wide-open eyes. It was as if she, too, saw, saw a sight she had never seen before, the rough sea in the moonlight. The siblings were mesmerized by the wonderful sound of the piano. By the time they awoke, Beethoven had long since left the cottage. He flew back to the inn and spent the night recording the 'Moonlight Song' he had just improvised." This is an article in the seventh book of our elementary school language textbook, which tells the story of Beethoven's playing of "Moonlight Piece" for a blind girl.
It is indeed a beautiful legend. The idea that this Beethoven piece (Op. 27 No. 2 - Piano Sonata in #c minor) depicts moonlight at sea originated with the German music critic Rellstab (1799-1860). The Russian pianist Anton? The Russian pianist Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894) was very much against the interpretation of the piece in terms of "moonlight". He said: "Moonlight in a musical description should be all-night, contemplative, quiet, in a word, a soft and bright mood. The first movement of the Sonata in #c minor, from the first note to the last, is entirely tragic (implied by the minor key), a cloud-covered sky, a somber mood. The final movement is furious and passionate, expressing exactly the opposite of the gentle bright moon. Only the short second movement can be described as a moment of moonlight." In Germany, it is also called the "Pavilion" Sonata. A garden pavilion is a gazebo built in the shade of a tree, and it is clear that this title is equally inaccurate for this sonata. It seems that the piece is not a picture of a clear landscape, but rather of an inherently somber mood. The author of Beethoven's biography, Thiele (1817-1897), describes the first movement as a "maiden's prayer for her sick father", which is in any case more appropriate than the "Moonlight" and "Pavilion". "Moonlight" and "Garden Pavilion". Beethoven composed this piece in 1801, while he was working with Giulietta Guicciardi (1784-1874), who was also a member of the group. It was composed in 1801, when he was in love with Julifatta Guicciardi (1784-1856), to whom it was dedicated. Beethoven's letter to Wegler of November 16th of that year mentions her with the words, "She loves me and I love her." By the beginning of 1802, however, she had fallen in love with another woman, Count Robert Harrenhal. Count Harrenhal, whom she married in 1803. Roman? Roland linked the piece to Beethoven's loss of love, saying that "the illusion did not last long, and there is already more pain and anguish than love in the sonata." Roland interpreted the first movement as melancholy, lamentation and weeping. The Russian musicologist Olbyshev (1794-1858) considered the first movement to be the "bitter sorrow" of lost love, like a "dying fire." But in 1801, when Beethoven and Guicciardi were passionately in love, it may not be true to say that this work is about the pain of lost love. Perhaps the insights of the Russian art critic Stasov (1824-1906) are more plausible for the interpretation of this work. After recalling hearing Liszt play it in Petersburg, he considered the sonata to be a complete tragedy, with the first movement being all-night long a tender and sometimes darkly foreboding state of mind. He was listening to Anton? Rubinstein's performance had a similar impression: "...... From far, far away, as if from the depths of a soul that could not be seen, there suddenly rose quiet voices. Some of the voices are melancholy, full of infinite sadness; others are contemplative, a flood of memories, dark omens ......" The Sonata in #c minor is particularly famous for its title and legend "Moonlight". Beethoven once said, "People often talk about the Sonata in #c minor, but I have written better things than this, like the Sonata in #F major (Op. 78) is an example." It is clear that Beethoven himself was not very happy with the Moonlight Piece.
Passionate Sonatas
Hindler once asked Beethoven about the contents of the Sonata in D Minor (Op. 31 No. 2) and the Sonata in #F Minor (Op. 57), to which Beethoven replied, "Read Shakespeare's The Tempest." Thus the former became known as the Tempest Sonata, while the latter had the title of the Passion Sonata added to it by the Hamburg sheet music publisher Kranz (1789-1870). (The alternative claim that the title "Passion" was added by the German pianist, violinist, composer and conductor Reinecke (1824-1910) seems to be unfounded.) The title "Passion" was not approved by Beethoven, but it is quite appropriate for this heroic and majestic work. After hearing the Russian composer and conductor Dobrowen (1894-1953) play the sonata in Moscow, Lenin, the mentor of the proletarian revolution, said, "I know of nothing better than the Passion Sonata, and I would like to hear it every day. It is marvelous, unprecedented music. I always think with perhaps childish boastfulness: what wonders people are capable of!" On October 30, 1870, Paris had been surrounded by Prussian troops for more than three months during the Franco-Prussian War. In the base camp of King Wilhelm of Prussia at Versailles, the iron Chancellor Bismarck was negotiating the terms of an armistice with Thiers, the head of the French bourgeoisie. On this evening, Gerdel, who had been the German ambassador to Italy, played the "Passion Sonata" for Bismarck on a battered piano in Versailles. Bismarck heard the last movement and said, "This is the howl of a whole generation's struggle." He understood Beethoven's "passion" from the standpoint of a bloodthirsty ambitious man. He once said, "If I could only listen to this piece more often, my courage would not dry up," because "Beethoven suits my nerves best." Beethoven said on June 29, 1801, "My art improves the lot of poor people." If Beethoven had known that his music was being utilized by Bismarck, he would have died all night.