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Music in Romanticism: Ludwig van Beethoven.

Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that started in Europe at the end of the 18^th century. It was a strong reaction of rebellion against political and aristocratic society rules, the industrial revolution that was being introduced, including the rationalization of nature through science. Romanticists wanted to understand the world as a person, through exploring nature, destruction, and ruin. They supported the heavy use and exploration of an individual's expression of emotion and imagination. Some of the characteristics of the movement were equality, questioning the belief of God, as well as having intense intellectual and emotional experiences, such as terror, horror and awe.   Romanticism spread to people’s beliefs, what they fought for and was heavily communicated at the time through the mediums of literature, art, and music.  

Romanticism has influenced many different musical composers such as Richard Wagner, Claude Debussy, Frederic Chopin and Ludwig Van Beethoven. All of these composers come to mind when thinking about Romanticism era musicians with Beethoven being the obvious, along with Chopin, who has had a computer game dedicated to him and his works in 2007. It is a Japanese Role-playing game that features Chopin as one of the main characters and explains his life and showcases his work throughout the game at points. To summarize the concept and Chopin’s role in the game: he is dying in the real world, but he dreams of a magical word where he has to fight together with his new companions against the corrupt. Odd seeming, I know. But this is just one of the examples of how much Romanticist Composers/musicians have influenced and inspired entertainment and the world even today.   

But compared to these other composers, Ludwig Van Beethoven was seen as one of the founders of Romanticism and had more of the expressive colour that characterizes it, than Classical artist Wolfgang Mozart who was one of his greatest influences.  He was a self-driven creative artist that disliked patronage, loved the ideas of Enlightenment and only composed according to his will and talent. Some of his greatest compositions are “Moonlight sonata” and  “Für Elise” along with his famous symphonies. Mozart was not the only inspirational model Beethoven had, he also saw Napoleon as a Hero of Romanticism.

Napoleon was admired by many; they saw him as a true symbol of Romantic ideals and that he was a liberator, a Romantic adventurer! They believed that he would fight and deliver “power for the people, to the people”, and felt that he would change history for the good, through enlightenment and equality.

Beethoven dedicated his 3^rd symphony “Eroica” (Italian for Heroic) to Napoleon, but withdrew the dedication once Napoleon declared himself Emperor of France and invaded Germany. This left Beethoven with feelings of betrayal and rage, in that one action, Napoleon made the Romantic ideals he was symbolized as to the people, who admired him, doubtful, especially to Romanticists like Beethoven and Bryon. It has been said that Beethoven was so enraged once he found out about what he had done, he crossed out Napoleons name from his “ Eroica” score so hard that it created a hole in the page. As you can see in the image below.

 

 

He later renamed  “Eroica” to a title that translates as, "Heroic Symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man" which in my opinion show’s how bitter he was on how Napoleon had turned out to be, but still celebrated the memory of what he started out as. Whilst knowing the story behind the piece, listening to “ Eroica” makes me  imagine the story of a fanciful man riding on his horse into victory through a battle leisurely  and grand.  This is maybe how Beethoven viewed the “Hero” side of Napoleon.

Born in the late 18^th century, Beethoven was a happy child, but his life turned to depression and anger though his 20’s as he was losing his hearing right up to his 50’s when he became deaf. He reserved his self from people and thus his social activities suffered, surprisingly his musical talent didn’t. He continued composing even while deaf; this is when his 9^th symphony was born.

Beethoven’s 9^th symphony has been considered one of the best compositions by critics and is used now for important events such as the fall of the Berlin wall, or the signing of a peace treaty etc. In my opinion this is because of how extraordinary the piece was then and still today, it was the first of its kind to have a choir included, and could be the longest symphony there was, it’s such a busy piece that works, that was created whilst deaf. It was also Beethoven’s last, but he defiantly went with a big finish. Becoming deaf and knowing this could be his last chance I could imagine that he gave this symphony his all, emotions, life, everything.

Whilst I have listened to the Second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 op.125 I find that  the beginning is unforgettable with the drums and violins acting as thunder and lightning, which leads into sounds like the movements of battle, flying, fleeting and running. As clouds break apart to pour light and thunder onto the landscape, I can’t help but imagine a war or a hunt taking place or having to run away from a threat, but in a sense of it being fanciful and slightly joyous. The nature shown through this is exactly what Romanticism is about, but also leads me into thinking about the fanciful violence shown in “A Clockwork Orange”

Many of Beethoven’s works have been used and remixed in Stanley Kurbrick’s film adaption of “A Clockwork orange”. Clockwork Orange is about a young man called Alex who is a gang-leader, that leads his gang on sprees of rape, mugging and what he called “Ultra-violence”, surprisingly he also loved Beethoven, especially his 9^th. Eventually, he finds himself at the mercy of the state, once captured, and try’s to bid his ticket out of prison through volunteering for a new brainwashing experiment designed to remove violence from a person who is a danger to other’s through conditioning. During the film, while Alex is being brainwashed against violence of any sorts, they used the forth movement of the 9^th symphony in the background of the short movies he had been forced to watch. Once noticing this, he strongly reacted to show how disgusted he was that they should use such a wonderful thing in relation to such violence, and begged them to stop. He ended up conditioned against not just violence, (feeling agonisingly sick against it) he was also conditioned against Beethoven’s 9^th. Once out of prison, he finds he has no place there although he has been “cured” and goes through scenes of paying the price by the ones who he wronged. Eventually he is locked in a room with Beethoven’s 9^th played loud, and attempts suicide by jumping out the window, because the symphony was just too much for him.

It has been said that in classical music there is a superstition, that for a composer their 9^th symphony shall be their last as they shall die after they have completed it. Beethoven was one of the victims to this curse. Beethoven’s 9^th did seem to be like a curse throughout the whole movie of “Clockwork Orange” often played in scenes of violence, and eventually caused Alex’s attempted suicide. The number 9 and imagery of Beethoven was placed throughout the film, even following Alex into jail. Even the man that cause’s Alex’s suicide looks similar to a Beethoven bust, as he sits waiting for Alex to do himself in. Perhaps the film was trying to communicate the message that Beethoven was mysterious and a punisher that created a violent music, or that Alex had fallen victim to the cursed 9th.  The almost joyful violence of Beethoven’s 9^th symphony and Alex’s glee to “ultra-violence” in Clockwork orange surprisingly fit each other to create a certain odd and slightly disturbing aura; the film wouldn’t have been what it is without it.  

The below video is Clockwork orange's remix of the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony.

I have found that it is important to find out what sort of character Beethoven was,  along with his inspirations, life and attitude to fully appreciate and understand his works. But, before I had looked into Beethoven’s work in a more thorough way, I listened to his “Moonlight Sonata” which suited my tastes for music more than his other works. In my opinion, whilst listening to “Moonlight Sonata” I feel there’s a sense of sadness, infused with indifference, moodiness and calm anger. It’s a soothing and hypnotic melody, but at the same time you could imagine a tragedy unfolding.  Now I could say that describes Beethoven’s attitude and life, that “Moonlight sonata” is a reflection of him-self perhaps, after all Romanticism is about capturing ones intense emotions.