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Spotlight: Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven by Joseph Mähler, oil on canvas, c. 1805
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, in A.D. 1770. From childhood, he demonstrated a remarkable musical ability, and he rose to prominence in his hometown, receiving his first commission in 1791. In his early twenties, he moved to Vienna, the centre of European classical music to advance his career. There, he built upon the traditions established by the composers Joseph Haydn (who was Beethoven’s teacher) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (whom he likely bumped into, but didn’t know personally), while developing a highly individual style that helped propel Classical music into the Romantic era.
Beethoven expanded the scale, complexity and emotional power of established Classical forms. His nine symphonies are particularly significant: the Eroica (Third) Symphony dramatically enlarged the possibilities of the symphony; the Fifth became famous for its powerful recurring motif; and the Ninth culminated in a choral setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy, expressing an ideal of universal human brotherhood. His piano sonatas, concertos, string quartets and Missa solemnis similarly pushed musical forms towards greater technical and emotional depth.
Despite his success, Beethoven’s life was marked by significant personal struggles. To say he was simply a ‘deaf composer’ is to over-simplify the story, however, it is true that Beethoven’s most devastating challenge was his progressive hearing loss (it began in his twenties and left him almost completely deaf by his mid-forties, at which point he was already famous). His Heiligenstadt Testament of 1802 (a letter to his brothers that was published after Ludwig’s death) reveals the despair he felt over his condition, yet he continued composing some of his greatest works despite being unable to hear them properly. His personal life was also characterised by difficult relationships, loneliness, and financial uncertainty.
Beethoven occupies an interesting position in the classical music pedigree of Western civilisation — he inherited the balance, structure and formal discipline of the Classical period but expanded these traditions into music of (at the time) unusual personal expression and philosophical depth. His example helped establish the modern idea of the composer as an independent artistic genius whose individual vision could challenge convention.
His influence extended to later composers including Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Wagner. Beethoven therefore represents both the culmination of the Classical tradition and the foundation of Romantic musical culture, where music became imbued with personal emotion. His enduring legacy lies not only in the masterpieces he created, but in his immense determination to succeed despite his struggles.
Verse: ‘You, Andrew Marvell’ by A. Macleish
And here face down beneath the sun
And here upon earth’s noonward height
To feel the always coming on
The always rising of the night:
To feel creep up the curving east
The earthy chill of dusk and slow
Upon those under lands the vast
And ever climbing shadow grow
And strange at Ecbatan the trees
Take leaf by leaf the evening strange
The flooding dark about their knees
The mountains over Persia change
And now at Kermanshah the gate
Dark empty and the withered grass
And through the twilight now the late
Few travelers in the westward pass
And Baghdad darken and the bridge
Across the silent river gone
And through Arabia the edge
Of evening widen and steal on
And deepen on Palmyra’s street
The wheel rut in the ruined stone
And Lebanon fade out and Crete
High through the clouds and overblown
And over Sicily the air
Still flashing with the landward gulls
And loom and slowly disappear
The sails above the shadowy hulls
And Spain go under and the shore
Of Africa the gilded sand
And evening vanish and no more
The low pale light across that land
Nor now the long light on the sea:
And here face downward in the sun
To feel how swift how secretly
The shadow of the night comes on . . .
Archibald Macleish wrote this poem in 1930. At the time, the sun still hadn’t set on the British Empire, yet Macleish’s verse hints that every great civilisation has its appointed moment in the sun. The West, he figured, would be no different. (Let us try to prove his hypothesis wrong.)
Pensées
The Socratic Method – Named for the Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, the Socratic method is a form of interrogative discourse in which a well-versed teacher asks questions of those who hold certain opinions or ideas in order to challenge their assumptions. Plato’s dialogues capture many of Socrates’s ‘teaching sessions’ (really just conversations) where he does precisely this. The Socratic method can be a powerful learning tool, though some modern pedagogical approaches have used it to justify a ‘student-led learning’ approach which de-emphasises the importance of an expert teacher to lead group enquiry.
Q ~ How can you think critically if you haven’t been taught anything first? What do you think? Is there a right way and a wrong way to employ Socrates’s famous teaching style?
Diversions
Watch: Is Western Civilisation already dead? Your humble editor speaks to Shawn Whatley on Concepts.
Listen: Soothe your senses with this exquisite piano piece by Edward Greig, performed by Nikolai Lugansky.
Read: These luxury trains let you experience overnight travel from a previous era.
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