Beethoven as democrat — Rhythmic similarities — Beethoven’s first and last compositions — Musical humour — The distinction in Beethoven’s chamber music.
The genius of this remarkable man has left us a heritage of undying beauty in every department of the art, and especially in that of chamber music.
Beethoven as Democrat
“Beethoven[19] (1770-1827) was the first great democrat among musicians. He would have none of the shackles which his predecessors wore, and he compelled the aristocracy of birth to bow to the aristocracy of genius. But such was his reverence for the style of music which had grown up in the chambers of the great, that he devoted the last three years of his life almost exclusively to its composition; the peroration of his proclamation to mankind consists of his last Quartetts—the holiest of holy things to the chamber musicians of to-day.” With regard to these works it has been said with, at any rate a certain degree of truth, that the musical ideas contained in them are too large for the means of expression, just as we find some movements of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas to be orchestral in feeling, and beyond the powers of the piano adequately to express. Some critics have ventured to regard the later Quartetts as loose and rhapsodical in form. This is, however, merely the penalty which conventionality seeks to impose on creative genius, and may be passed by as harmless.
Rhythmic Similarities
Among the many notable features to be found in Beethoven’s compositions, it has, more than once, been pointed out that there is a curious rhythmic likeness in certain works written by him about same time, and this is confirmed (as to the time of composition) by the sketches to be found in his note-books. The opening of the well-known Fifth Symphony, op. 67, composed about 1804, for example:—
may be compared with the Piano Sonata, op. 57, in F minor, written about 1805, and the Piano Concerto, op. 58, written about 1806. Another noteworthy instance is found in the String Quartett, op. 74, written in 1809.[20] The third movement of which opens thus:—
