184 1 March, Engels listened to the performance of Symphony of Destiny. In a letter to his sister, he praised the work and said, "If you don't know this wonderful thing, you have never heard anything in your life." In the first movement, he heard "the sadness of complete despair, the pain of sadness"; In the second movement, I heard "tender sorrow of love"; The third and fourth movements, "the joy of strength, youth and freedom expressed by the trumpet" are so inspiring.
In the notes of 18, I mainly described some obvious personal impressions of Beethoven recently. In fact, to tell the truth, this is unfair to Beethoven and violates the three principles I wrote this note. Although personal likes and dislikes are inevitable, we should at least adhere to objectivity. Therefore, in this note, I will try to describe Beethoven objectively.
When we compare Beethoven and Mozart together, we have actually recognized Beethoven's position and importance. Great or not (this has actually been decided, which is beyond our control and change), at least, he and Mozart are on the same level.
If Bach is the perfector of the existing things and order, and Mozart is the only shining moment in the history of music, then Beethoven is the "embodiment of strength", who has grasped the fate of never bowing to anyone or God. He used his works to announce his life and creative principles to the world, leaving behind the most impressive music that no composer has ever created. Beethoven once described himself like this: "I don't want to get involved in your ethical system." Strength is the character of an excellent person, and that is me. "
If we want to summarize the characteristics of Beethoven's works, I think there are five points that must be mentioned, that is, passion, strength, personal pride, independence and freedom that exist in everything.
Essentially, Beethoven was an individualist. The "individualism" mentioned here is not a slightly derogatory "individualism" in the usual sense, but refers to Beethoven's constant commitment to individual freedom, dignity and equality. I really can't think of a more accurate word to describe it, so I have to stick to the word "individualism" or "personality liberator". Or, "respect for individual humanists." All right, stop. This will be a word game. No composer is more devoted to the struggle of mankind than Beethoven. Bach wrote for the glory of God, Mozart was a genius among geniuses (of course, he also needed to survive), and Beethoven wanted to impose his will on the world. "I want to seize the fate of the throat; It will never let me yield ",this sentence is precisely the embodiment of his will.
In fact, Beethoven, as an individualist, sometimes exaggerates his personality to the point of being annoying. From the examples that have been or have not been confirmed, we can see an extremely arrogant Beethoven (think about the two stories I told). Once upon a time, the hypocritical tradition of "respecting people's taboos" and the obscene ideas of some people for some purpose made us ignore the disgraceful things hidden behind some of Beethoven's words and deeds. Romain rolland's Biography of Beethoven and Feng Zikai's evaluation of Beethoven were maliciously (at least unilaterally) used by some people, which objectively contributed to this situation and made us ignore the comprehensive understanding of Beethoven. In a recent biography of Beethoven and some fragments, I was surprised to find that Beethoven was not a perfect man, and his temperament was extremely bad. A biographer wrote: "excessive desire is regarded by him as a good behavior that conforms to the norms." He hardly trusts anyone, whether professionally or personally. As a pianist and composer, he deliberately added vibrato to the end of his piano works because he "likes to embarrass those Viennese pianists, some of whom are my sworn enemies". He even predicted that pianists would "make a fool of themselves" when they met his variations. This is simply a plot against him, an out-and-out villain. When we pay homage to Beethoven, these facts were completely ignored. Beethoven was crowned with a halo and was completely an out-of-touch saint. That halo is like a circle drawn on the ground by the Monkey King with a golden hoop, which keeps us from getting close to the real Beethoven. Debussy once compared Mozart and Beethoven like this. He said, "naturally, genius can have no taste, Beethoven is an example." On the other hand, the genius Mozart has the most elegant taste. " Of course, as the embodiment of strength, Beethoven's works are inevitably sloppy, thus lacking Mozart's meticulousness and elegance, but his lack of taste also makes him live under Mozart.
In fact, I don't ignore Beethoven's musical achievements because of his personality problems. This is not an objective attitude. However, I must know a real Beethoven, because only in this way can I really understand Beethoven's music. Writing is like a person, so is music. Although Beethoven is an undisputed genius, he is definitely an unpleasant musician-although he is not Wagner's person with bad conduct, he is just a completely self-centered person, and this self-center often turns into arrogance and makes people feel unhappy; Even in his works, there is this tendency. However, this has never prevented people from greatly appreciating his spirit and works.
Besides individualism, another important feature of Beethoven is heroism. In fact, heroism should be regarded as a variant of individualism. In other words, heroism is an enlarged individualism. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Beethoven's heroism is reflected in his strength of character, his independence and free will, his deafness, his persistent pain and failure in pursuing a woman, and his clear ability to turn pain into a positive artistic picture alone. This kind of induction is more accurate.
A passage by Stravinsky reveals the essence of Beethoven's individualism and heroism. He said: "Beethoven was a friend and contemporary of the French Revolution, and he always kept his faith in the Revolution. Even during jacobins's dictatorship, those humanitarians with Xi Schleswig's fragile nerves deviated from the Revolution, hoping to destroy the tyrant with a paper sword on the stage of drama. Beethoven, a genius of the common people, proudly turned his back on those kings, princes and nobles-this is Beethoven we love, and we love his unshakable optimism, his majestic sadness, his thought-provoking and touching struggle, and his iron will to seize the throat of fate. " Note that Stravinsky put forward the concept of "civilian genius" in this passage. Because of this, Beethoven's individualism and heroism are natural because of his commonness.
When it comes to Beethoven's works, Tchaikovsky has two interesting words:
"I salute his great works-but I don't love Beethoven. My attitude towards him reminds me of my attitude towards God and Jehovah when I was a child ... If Beethoven is similar to God and Jehovah in my heart, then I love Mozart and regard him as the Christ of music ... "(This immediately reminds me of the description of Jehovah in the Bible. The Lord is basically a majestic, violent and cold-blooded god, abusing his authority, being inhuman and inhuman. )
"I won't give a speech on music or discuss the details. But I want to say, about Beethoven, I like his middle period and sometimes his early period, but I fundamentally hate the late period, especially the last quartet. There's some light here-nothing else. The rest is chaos, surrounded by an impenetrable fog, watching the soul of the music owner linger on it. "
It is generally believed that Beethoven's creation can be divided into three periods: early, middle and late; Others think it is imitation period, external period and thinking period. It doesn't matter how it is staged. Importantly, it is generally believed that Beethoven was at the peak in his later period, and his works "surpassed all previous music and soared to the highest field that human imagination can reach". During this period, he completed the ninth Chorus Symphony and Solemn Mass, as well as the final piano sonata and string quartet, which are almost regarded as the greatest works of all time. Critics believe that there is a remarkable musical development between early Beethoven and late Beethoven: apart from changes in form and style, there is also an unheard-of personal expression, that is, "the complete liberation of human emotions and thoughts." I also think Northern Nine, Solemn Mass and the final quartet are great. So, what is the reason why Lao Chai hates late Beethoven? I can't figure it out for a while. Let me simply explain it with personal likes and dislikes. I'm afraid I won't understand Lao Chai's original intention. Perhaps what Count Waldstein said to Beethoven can be used as the key to understand what Lao Chai said. The count was once a good friend of Mozart and Beethoven, and also a talented musician. Beethoven once dedicated one of his most famous piano sonatas, Piano Sonata No.21 in C Major, to the Earl.
In a letter to Beethoven, Count Waldstein said, "Work hard and take over Mozart's soul from Haydn."
Does Lao Chai think Beethoven betrayed Mozart's spirit? This is a problem that needs to be seriously reconsidered.
Attachment: Objection to Beethoven's Music
After the premiere of the "Northern Nine" concert, a critic at that time wrote: "My overall impression is that this concert consists of the shouts of Indians and the wild cats during the war."
Ruskin, a British critic, said: "Beethoven's music sounds to me like knocking over a bag of nails and falling hammers everywhere."
Mendelssohn's father Abraham said, "Your endless Beethoven is nothing but an angry guy and a charlatan. His work is simply noise. "
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