The above four aspects constitute an important part of the history of western music. Among them, the history of western music theory originated from ancient Greece, developed in the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, made a qualitative leap in the classical and romantic periods, and developed greatly in the 2th century, becoming the most diversified era.
Musicians' development history: few musicians were recorded in ancient Greece and Rome. Since the Middle Ages, musicians such as bard and poets have emerged in large numbers. During the Renaissance, there were famous Joskan, Palester Lina, baroque Bach and Handel, classical Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, romantic Liszt Brahms, Stravinsky and Shostakovich in the 2th century.
the development history of music works: from ancient Greece to the 2th century, music works were from simple to complex, from single voice to multi-voice, from monosyllabic texture to polyphonic texture, to the generation of harmony, which verified the development of music from simple to complex.
The development of music aesthetics: Music aesthetics has been discussed as a music topic since ancient times, and it has been an important theoretical discipline in music from Plato and Aristotle until now. The heyday of the development of music aesthetics was in The Romantic Period.
That's the simplest content of music history. My favorite work
-Zhao Xinshan's Soul of Beethoven
It's been nearly 2 years since its premiere in 1824, but Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Ode to Joy have become timeless classics. In these two hundred years, almost all the musicians and composers of the younger generation were fascinated by this magnificent work; There are countless amateur listeners who are infected by the musical philosophy and musical tolerance brought by this work! Because of this work, Beethoven became a god-like figure, and Ode to Joy became an eternal beacon of freedom and peace in the long river of human history.
Let's approach this work together and enter Beethoven's ideal kingdom.
The Ninth Symphony consists of four movements.
The first movement is a solemn allegro in D minor, in 2/4 time and sonata form. The first theme is severe and powerful, showing the image of hard struggle, full of great shock and tragic colors. At first, this theme was played by the string part in a low and depressing atmosphere, and then gradually strengthened until the whole band played all the themes with majesty and power. As soon as the composer came up, he expressed the ideological source of the whole work with a serious and grand momentum. In fact, this is the theme that Beethoven has repeatedly expressed in many works-struggle, and it also reflects the inevitable process of struggle-hardship. Melody ups and downs, sometimes depressed, sometimes tragic, what we seem to see is the scene of warriors constantly hitting the barrier and going forward and looking forward to victory.
traditionally, the next second movement should be a slow version, but Beethoven broke this convention and used an extremely lively allegro in D minor in 3/4 beats, and it was a huge scherzo style. The theme of the whole second movement is clear and exciting, full of motivation, which seems to give positive encouragement to the warriors who are fighting, and seems to make people see the warm sunshine and blue sky on the cloudy battlefield at once. At the same time, the main theme has the characteristics of Austrian folk dance music "Liandele", which is harmonious and dancing. But after careful taste, it is not difficult to find that at the end of the movement, the melody began to rush again, vaguely revealing a very uneasy atmosphere.
The third movement is actually an adagio movement, such as adagio, B flat major, 4/4 beat, and irregular variations, which shows that Beethoven intentionally made innovations in arrangement. Compared with the previous two movements, this movement is much quieter and more serene. Although the melody is gentle, it is feminine. Berlioz, a famous French composer and music critic, rated this movement as a "great movement". The third movement has two themes, the first of which is full of contemplation and has strong lyricism and philosophy. After the first two movements showed fierce fighting scenes, the third movement seemed to be a brief lull in the great war.
The fourth movement is the essence of the whole work, Allegro, in D major, in 4/4 beats. It is usually divided into two parts-prologue and human voice. In some records, the fourth movement occupies a single track, and in some records, the overture part and the vocal solo, duet and chorus part are divided into two tracks, but in fact, both of them belong to the whole of the fourth movement. Among them, the vocal part sings the poem Ode to Joy by the German poet Schiller! However, before the vocal part came on stage, the music experienced a long painful experience of instrumental part, which contained memories of the first three movements. This overture is strong, resolute and thrilling. Then the woodwind slowly led to the theme of "Ode to Joy", as if a ray of sunshine broke through the dense clouds and sprinkled on the earth, and the whole happy theme gradually kicked off, and Beethoven's real ideal kingdom was just around the corner!
After a series of preparations, the vocal part finally surfaced and began to sing "Ode to Joy"! As mentioned earlier, this poem is the composer's lifelong love. Therefore, at the last moment of the creation of the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven was not even willing to put the part of singing Ode to Joy into his own works too early. He didn't want to regard the Ninth Symphony as his final work in the field of symphony, as the embodiment of his highest ideal. At that time, he was still planning the Tenth Symphony and even the Eleventh and Twelfth Symphony. But in the end, Le Sheng gave in. Perhaps by fate or coincidence, the Ninth Symphony became Beethoven's last symphony and finally became the pinnacle of his composition career.
With passionate lyrics and rapid and majestic melody, Ode to Joy sings people's longing for freedom, equality and fraternity. Of course, Beethoven did not copy Schiller's original poems, but made some abridgements and modifications with his own unique ideas to meet the needs of music. Under the mutual contrast of exciting lyrics and Beethoven's superman melody, under the solo, duet and chorus of four different voices, "Ode to Joy" has been sublimated, and people who appreciate it have gained unparalleled strength and spiritual support. At the end of the movement, this atmosphere was shown to the extreme, and the whole work ended in an extremely bright and brilliant scene.
Today, the Ninth Symphony is recognized as Beethoven's highest achievement in the field of symphony. There are even many composers and musicians who think that no work can surpass the achievements of Bei Jiu. Whether this statement is biased or not, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony will be eternal! The spirit of ode to joy will never die!