Beethoven: The Innovator
Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) was one of the most innovative figures in the music history. I recently finished taking a class on Beethoven at Stanford taught by a brilliant music scholar, Stephen Hinton . The class was a fascinating journey into Beethoven's nine symphonies and into his life. Beethoven played a key role in evolution of symphonies from classical period (1760 - 1820) to Romantic period (1820 - 1918). Following are a few key innovations he was responsible for: 1. Movements : A classical period symphony has three or four movements. They are usually in the sequence of Fast -> Medium -> Dance -> Fast tempo . The three-movement classical period symphonies follow Fast -> Medium -> Fast tempo. Beethoven experimented with and popularized the following in the Romantic period: i) Changing the order of movements. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is an example ii) Expand the number of movements. Beethoven's Sixth Symphony is an exam