Beethoven inherited the tradition of classical music school and inspired the style and spirit of romantic music school, thus occupying a very important position in the history of music. He is one of the most influential and popular piano composers in history. Since 1814, his hearing has declined sharply, so he gave up piano playing and conducting, but insisted on writing.

Beethoven wrote 9 numbered symphonies, 36 piano sonatas (including 32 numbered and 1 unfinished), 1 violin sonatas, 16 string quartets, 1 opera and 2 mass, etc. These works have a far-reaching influence on the development of music, so Beethoven is honored as "Le Sheng" in the Chinese-speaking world.

musical achievements and characteristics

Beethoven's works include 32 piano sonatas, 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, violin concertos, triplets and string quartets. There are 138 works with Op numbers.

There are 25 works with the label WoO., which means that the works are "Werke ohne Opus-Nummer" (works without Op numbers). Although many of these works were published before his death, he did not think that these works deserved an Op number.

Less common are the works numbered "Hess", ***14 volumes, which were supplemented by the Swiss composer Willy Hess for the complete works of Beethoven.

Beethoven's most famous works include Symphony No.3 Hero, Symphony No.5 Destiny, Symphony No.6 Pastoral, Symphony No.9 Chorus, Sonata of Sorrow and Sonata of Moonlight, etc. His 32 numbered piano sonatas, including Pathetique and Moonlight, are regarded as the "New Testament" by Hans von Poirot as pianos (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 the early piano sonatas, such as Pathetique, its harmonic features, frequent octaves and rich texture reflect the influence of muzio clementi and Yang Dusek on Beethoven. In the middle and late period, his works showed his 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 had yet to be discovered. However, Beethoven's teacher Neve has made Beethoven feel the greatness of this "father of European music" in his teaching. Beethoven once said: "He is not a stream (a German homonym for Bach), but a sea."

in p>1855, W. delanz put forward the famous dichotomy of Beethoven's creative period. Although this division has been criticized constantly, saying that it is too absolute and inaccurate, it is very helpful for people to understand the development of Beethoven's creative style:

1. Early period: about 182-4 years ago. During this period, Beethoven clearly showed his dependence on the classical tradition.

2. heyday: from about 182-4 to 1812-14. 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 earlier Heiligen's convalescence.

3. Transition period: With the final performance in 1814/15, Beethoven fell into a low yield for several years until his ear disease worsened severely in 1819, 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. Late period: After the trough, since Beethoven started to write "Solemn Mass" in 1819, his works have shown the creative characteristics in the late period, which are introspective and philosophical, and the scale has been further expanded. However, because the creation of the former took a long time, it was not until 1822 that Beethoven had more works of other genres.

Extended information:

Creative characteristics

Beethoven's life experienced the drastic changes in European society before and after the French Revolution, and his works were 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 performance range of piano has also been greatly enhanced.

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

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

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-ludwig van beethoven.