As we all know, Beethoven's music creation can be divided into three periods: early, middle and late. Beethoven's most familiar and frequently played work is his mid-term creation. The music industry has reached an understanding that before 1802, it can be regarded as Beethoven's early days. At this time, although Beethoven has revealed his talent and gained a firm foothold in Vienna, his creative connotation and style are still immature. From 1802 to 1803, Beethoven experienced a painful mental crisis due to ear disease-he almost collapsed and wrote a copy of Heiligenstadt's will. To the admiration of later generations, Beethoven defeated himself with the power of art, thus entering the mature period of creation: Beethoven's middle period. A material crystallization that marks this spiritual victory is the very famous Third Symphony (Hero).
From then on to 18 12, Beethoven created a large number of famous works in history in the past ten years. At present, many Beethoven's works that frequently appear in concerts come from this period, including Walstam's piano sonata, Passion's piano sonata, the fifth symphony (Destiny), the sixth symphony (Pastoral), Razumovski's 59th Quartet, violin concerto and the fifth piano concerto. These works not only have a high performance rate, but also have an immeasurable impact on the music development of later generations. It can be inferred that in view of Beethoven's high artistic achievements, even if he quit writing at the age of 42, he is fully qualified to become one of the highest-ranking masters in the whole music history.
Because of this, it is not difficult to understand that people are often used to understanding and understanding Beethoven from the perspective of medium-term style. To sum up, Beethoven typically embodied the "hero" style in the middle period. In music technology, Beethoven's pursuit is embodied in "expansion": he fully explored the various potentials of music language at that time, such as the large-scale expansion of music style, the extraordinary expansion of length, the high-density operation of theme/motivation music, the great improvement of harmony tension, the high-intensity treatment of rhythm impulse and so on. In terms of spiritual connotation, Beethoven's creation in this period may be defined as "man can conquer nature". "People" here refers not only to collective people, but also to individuals. Beethoven's mid-term works clearly show strong personal initiative and heroism, thus fully affirming the positive power of mankind. This personal consciousness with a strong sense of modernity is the ideological legacy of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Beethoven grasped the pulse of the times through his unique personal experience (life and art) and made the strongest sound of the times through the special way of sound. This is why future generations will still feel excited or even excited when they hear Beethoven's mid-term works.
After 18 12, Beethoven's creation fell into a low tide. Subsequently, the style and expressive connotation of his works changed obviously. The "Beethoven's Late Style" was born from this, and finally formed from 18 17 to 18 18, and remained until his death. Beethoven's creation in the last ten years has therefore become an independent style unit, marking a brand-new artistic realm.
What kind of state is this? After such a spectacular scene in Beethoven's middle period, how can we imagine a more outstanding artistic landscape?
This is exactly the answer that Beethoven wanted to give in his later creation. A musician who has firm confidence in the world, life and art and has achieved overall success, with the arrival of his later years, re-opens the road of introspection, and finally cultivates into a wise philosopher who understands the world and achieves nirvana through thorough reflection and observation. If Beethoven in the middle period embodies the grand spirit of "man can conquer nature", then Beethoven in the later period has reached the distant realm of "harmony between man and nature". The former is "man" against "heaven", and after a smoke-filled struggle, "man" finally won; In the latter, "man" no longer pays attention to external gains and losses, but seeks reconciliation with "heaven" and finally reaches an agreement with "heaven" to obtain inner peace. Since the 20th century, more and more people have realized that Beethoven's creation in his later years is the composer's greatest artistic crystallization, and his late style is his greatest artistic creation.
In view of the particularity of Beethoven's later creation, a writer who knows well about music theory revealed a little truth. Czech writer Kundera wrote in the book Curtains: "In the last ten years ... he (Beethoven) has reached the peak of his art; His sonatas and quartets are different from those of any other composer. Because of the complexity of the structure, they are far away from classicism, and at the same time they are not close to the young romantic composer's idea: in the evolution of music, he embarked on a road that no one followed; Without disciples and followers, his free work in his later years is a miracle and an island. "
This passage accurately defines the historical position of Beethoven's late creation and style. However, in the domestic music and cultural circles, the understanding of Beethoven's later creation is still insufficient. This naturally leads to the distortion of Beethoven's overall understanding. Looking back carefully, we will find that there are some problems in the two expressions of "happiness through pain" and "romance with classical achievements" In fact, the phrase "from pain to joy" cannot cover the spiritual essence of Beethoven's later creation. The expression of "combining classical achievements and starting romance" basically did not consider Beethoven's artistic pursuit in his later period. We will see that Beethoven's later creation is actually a very personal creative transformation of classical music language and artistic ideal, without any follow-up by future generations, so it is by no means a "masterpiece". Beethoven's late style actually completely deviated from the romantic music thoughts and techniques, so it was by no means a "precedent". In his later years, Beethoven seems to have quietly emerged from history and entered an "island" that seems difficult for future generations to understand.
How did this process happen? Why is this happening? Let's cut the camera back to the original state of history. Second, external life: times and personal environment.
18 12 Beethoven was "middle-aged". Because of his many masterpieces, he was regarded as the greatest composer alive at that time. He was respected by all the dignitaries in Vienna and his career was in full swing.
Because of this, his next artistic direction has also become a problem. Beethoven felt confused and uneasy from time to time.
This seems to be a coincidence. The political situation and spiritual climate in Europe are also undergoing profound changes, echoing Beethoven's inner confusion; Beethoven's inner confusion is a true portrayal of European spiritual atmosphere. 18 12, Napoleon's invasion of Russia failed, and the arrogant Napoleon began to go to the end. This event has some symbolic significance-the enlightenment thought represented by the French Revolution began to be doubted or even resisted. The conservative trend of thought against enlightenment began to sprout and spread gradually. At this point, the optimistic belief of rationalism began to waver. Compared with the Enlightenment, the fundamental view of human nature began to dim.
Accordingly, in the art of music, the concept of romanticism is accumulating strength, while the ideal of classicism is facing disintegration. Different from the classical large-scale structural thinking that emphasizes proportion and balance, the romantic and lyrical melody began to move to the foreground, and local colors became the theme of music. There are new romantics such as Weber and Schubert. Faced with such a situation, Beethoven was at a loss. Generally speaking, he doesn't like the creation of the younger generation. For example, he looked down on Rossini (thinking that he wrote too fast and didn't write seriously) and didn't think highly of Spoel and Weber (thinking that they were too flashy). Although he became more and more famous at this time, he consciously became less and less understood in his musical taste. What is the development direction of music? Beethoven is at the crossroads of an important turning point in style. At this stage, the number of his creations dropped sharply. Some works also vaguely reveal the feelings of quasi-romanticism, such as the vocal divertimento "To a Lover Far Away" (18 16) and the piano sonata in A major (101(18/6). In these works, we can even feel some Schumann-style liquidity and lyrical interest. He is asking the way, but he hasn't decided yet.
At the turning point of artistic style, three major events in personal life had a profound impact on Beethoven's psychology in the future, and prompted him to change his artistic direction and even his attitude towards life.
The first event is a famous love letter to the mysterious "eternal lover". It happened at 18 12. In June this year, Beethoven wrote a very warm and sincere love letter to a mysterious woman, in which he called her a "forever lover". Beethoven has fallen behind for a long time, and there have been various speculations about who this woman is. This has also become a famous topic in Beethoven's biography research. Maynard Solomon, an authoritative American Beethoven scholar, wrote in 1977 through rigorous scientific research that this woman is Anthony brentano. She is ten years younger than Beethoven, born in a noble family in Vienna, and her husband is a businessman in Frankfurt. Both she and Beethoven seriously considered the possibility of getting married and starting a family. But it turned out that Beethoven could not marry her for various reasons. Since then, Beethoven has never had an affair with any woman. It is not difficult to imagine Beethoven's inner pain and struggle. Although he longs for the beautiful love in the world, he has to accept the cruel reality that he can't get a normal love life.
The second event is that Beethoven's ear disease is getting worse and worse. By 18 18, he finally couldn't hear the outside world at all, so he had to keep in touch with the outside world with "quotations" (other people's questions need to be written in "quotations", and Beethoven will answer them orally after reading the text). His complete deafness further aggravated his inner loneliness and isolation. As you can imagine, this will definitely affect his artistic creation and attitude towards life.
The third (and most important) event in life is a famous lawsuit-fighting for the custody of nephew Carl. One of Beethoven's younger brothers died of illness in 18 15, leaving a minor son Carl. Beethoven had doubts about the character and ability of his brother's widow, and he wanted to raise his nephew by himself. However, my sister-in-law disagreed with Beethoven's wishes. Beethoven and his brother-in-law went to court for the custody of Carl and launched a protracted lawsuit. This lawsuit is mental torture for everyone involved. Beethoven doubted his brother-in-law for no reason, and his brother-in-law also maliciously slandered him. To make matters worse, Beethoven was too strict and unsociable with Carl, which led to Carl's resistance and disgust. 1In the summer of 826, Carl shot himself in despair (attempted). This incident was an extremely heavy mental blow to Beethoven, who was sickly in his later years. Although there are many mistakes between brother-in-law and Carl in the whole process, it is undeniable that Beethoven also exposed his personality defects and his behavioral shortcomings that it is difficult to communicate with ordinary people normally.
It was in this era and life situation that Beethoven went to his "late stage". Third, artistic discovery: style route and spiritual realm
In1817-1818, Beethoven laboriously completed the piano sonata in B flat major (106) under "disturbing circumstances" (as he said in his letter to the publisher). This is Beethoven's late style declaration-he finally made a choice. This work is the most difficult, difficult, huge, profound and dangerous masterpiece among Beethoven's piano sonatas (perhaps all piano sonatas). In terms of music style, it flatly rejected the romantic laissez-faire, resolutely returned to the integrity and rigor of classical large-scale music forms, and showed some extreme character of being merciless and willful in the deep excavation and abstract refining of audio materials. The slow movement called "the sound of nature" is particularly worth mentioning. Here, Beethoven rose to the lonely and bright starry sky for the first time in his life, and created a real distant artistic conception of "harmony between man and nature" with pure voice. Perhaps, the only human language description that can barely match this song can only be Kant's famous saying-"I am above the brilliant starry sky, and the moral law is in my heart!" "
Beethoven determined his future artistic direction through his work 106, and entered the peak of his later creation. About ten years after his death, 1827 wrote more than ten masterpieces [roughly in chronological order, including four late piano sonatas (works 106, 109,10,1/kloc-)
This is the sound of Beethoven's "known destiny", and the secret order and spiritual will are left to the world. What does it say? What do you mean?
From the perspective of technical style, Beethoven's late works are remarkable because Beethoven thoroughly reflected on the fundamental nature and operation mode of music language, which in many ways simply crossed the19th century and directly predicted the concept and spirit of modern music in the 20th century. For example, in view of the theme-motivation development technique of music, Beethoven changed the traditional thinking mode of complete melody, and often imagined the central motivation as an abstract structure of "cell" or even "heredity", thus making the operation of music highly concentrated and the structure of music extremely tight. The first movement and the last movement of the piano sonata in B flat major (Op. 106) or the music like "The Big Fugue" (Op. 133) are highly compressed, which makes people feel that the artistic originality of this kind of music cannot be fully understood only by hearing without carefully reading the score and analyzing it in advance. For another example, after listening to Beethoven's later works, you will soon notice the composer's extensive use of polyphony. If polyphony is only a special technique for special effects in his mid-term works, it will become the normal state of all-round infiltration in his later works. In particular, fugue, the representative symbol of polyphonic music, has become an acoustic building with both baroque legacy and classical creativity in Beethoven's hands under Bach's inheritance. Almost every capital of Beethoven's later works has fugue as the structural center of gravity. Their functions and meanings are different, but their attributes and writing methods echo each other. From the current standpoint, Beethoven's thought and practice is almost a typical (but unrepeatable) demonstration of cultural creation by creatively transforming the artistic heritage of predecessors and integrating it into the current context. For another example, in String Quartet in C-sharp minor 13 1, we see the boldest but most subtle application of sonata form: the external structure seems to be abandoned, but the internal essence is all preserved; In Diabelli's Variations on a Theme (120), when the theme of that vulgar waltz rings, it may be hard for the listener to imagine what Beethoven would do with this theme: this crown jewel of personality variation in the whole music history is the best example of "turning decay into magic".
Although music should be explained from the above technical and style aspects, I think it is not enough for any music, especially in Beethoven's later period. Beethoven was great in his later years, not only because of his exploration and achievements in musical style, but also because of his development in musical character and creation in musical artistic conception.
Here, we need to introduce some basic aesthetic and philosophical ideas about music. Beethoven himself once said a famous saying: "Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and all philosophy." Can music really do this? How can music, like philosophy and wisdom, inspire and guide the recipients in life? Is Beethoven's remark a casual joke or a serious thought? The author thinks that Beethoven's late creation is the highest quality example-music can really show the essence of the world and the true meaning of life in a unique acoustic way. In an absolute sense, Beethoven's late music is directly the acoustic body of the highest realm of life-that is, some sources in the deepest part of the world and some realms in the deepest part of life. Only through Beethoven's sound structure can it be revealed for the first time, and it will last forever, so that we can see (hear) and understand such world essence and life situation. Beethoven's later works prove that music and art are not only the pastime and decoration of life, but also a way to answer the proposition of life and explore the origin of the world in the most serious sense.
What kind of attitude towards life and even world philosophy does Beethoven's later works give people? As I mentioned earlier, compared with Beethoven's mid-period, Beethoven changed from "man can conquer nature" to "man and nature live in harmony" in his late period. Here, "self" gives way to "self". In other words, it has changed from "the realm with me" to "the realm without me". The "from pain to joy" in the middle period deepened to the "tempering to the stars" in the later period. The elements of anger are obviously reduced, and transcendental and philosophical attitudes prevail. Introspective meditation, detachment and tranquility become the keynote. The indomitable and unstoppable momentum still exists (such as the scherzo in the second movement of the Ninth Symphony), but in many cases it increases a little hesitation and concession (such as the last movement of the string quartet in C minor 13 1 and the string quartet in A minor 132). Interestingly, unlike Mozart's tolerant, clear, peaceful and sweet realm, Beethoven's artistic conception in his later period is deeper, more vigorous, more awe-inspiring, more uplifting, more humorous and more conciliatory. Considering Beethoven's difficult relationship with his nephew and daughter-in-law, as well as external unfavorable factors such as deafness, infirmity, old age and loneliness, he must feel deeply helpless and even disappointed with the normal secular life. But at the same time, he tried to get rid of the interference of secular affairs, immersed himself in an ideal or sublimated world, and sought and determined the world significance and life value for himself and others through music writing.
He still has the right to issue the grandest inspiring horn and popular ode (solemn mass and ninth symphony), but his deepest feeling at this time comes from his real personal heart, which is particularly touching and therefore has special objectivity and universality. Because, in the deepest place, human nature actually transcends all barriers and is closely related. Through religious feelings about privacy (the third movement of string quartet in A minor, Op. 132, "A song of thanking God for those who have recovered from a serious illness") and the demonstration of the authenticity of human voice (the aria movement of string quartet "Ka Watinne" in B flat major, Op. 130), Beethoven put his daily life into perspective. The local memory of folk life (German dance music in 130 years) and the ardent nostalgia for the aristocratic world in 18 century (Diabelli's last variation) add multi-dimensional historical and cultural dimensions to music, and also make Beethoven's later music more generous and warm. In such wonderful music as Introduction to the Last Movement of Works 106, Beethoven directly wrote the thinking state and process of people into music, thus breaking through the conventional category of music. Although many late works have special difficulties in playing because of their peculiar musical ideas, Beethoven's last quartet (Op. 135 in F major) deals with seemingly heavy propositions in a humorous way. ...
This is a profound spiritual universe. Beethoven's later creation not only reached his personal artistic peak, but also marked a commanding height in the whole music development history. Beethoven's life creation, through the development of the first three periods, shows an impressive process of spiritual progress, which not only reveals what a person is, but also shows what a person should be-although Beethoven, as an ordinary person, inevitably has such personality weaknesses and psychological defects, through his own music creation, let us hear and appreciate the rich possibilities of human nature and the spiritual height that a person can achieve in his ideal.
Benchmarking Management Work Plan for 2023 1
Looking back on the work of this department in the past year, it can be said that it has be