An Outline of The History of Western Music Grout ... - The Reel Score

) two works share the Revolutionary atmosphere of the French Revolution
4. Rasumovsky Quartets
a) dedicated to the musical amateur Count Ramsumovsky - the russian ambassador
to Vienna who played second violin in a quartet said to be the finest in Europe
b) style was so new that musicians were slow to accept them
1: single, double, and triple pedal points
2: frequent changes in texture
3: horn imitations
4: pointillistic exploitation of the instruments extreme ranges
5: fugal work and unisons
5. 4th to 8th Symphonies
a) 4th, 5th, & 6th were all composed between 1806 & 1808
b) 7th & 8th were both completed in 1812
6. Orchestral Overtures - are related in style to the symphonies usually taking the form of
a symphonic first movement
7. Piano Sonatas & Concertos
a) Moonlight Sonata, Waldstein Sonata, Appassionata
b) as a pianist, he composed concertos to play at his own concerts
1: retained Mozarts's division of the concerto into three movements and the
general outline of the Classic form
2: greatly expanded the music's expressive range and dimensions
E. Third Period
1. Financially stable and secure, but his deafness increasingly became a serious trial
a) last 5 piano sonatas, the Missa solemnis, Diabelli Variations, the 9th Symphony,
the final quartets
b) by 1816, his deafness was complete - sparked a change in musical character
1: compositions came to have a meditative character
2: urgent sense of communication replaced by a feeling of assured tranquillity &
calm affirmation
3: musical language became more concentrated & more abstract
4: classic forms remained but greatly evolved & expanded
2. Characteristics of Beethoven's late style
a) Variation Technique - worked out themes and motives to their utmost potential
1: variation differs from development because it treats an entire musical period not
just fragments or motives
2: in works of Haydn, Mozart, & Beethoven, variation occurs in three situations
i- as an independent theme-and-variations composition
ii- as a theme-and-variations movement of a symphony or sonata
iii- as a technique within a larger formal plan (as in sonata form when the first
theme is varied in the recapitulation)
3: each variation is built on motives derived from some part of the theme, but
altered in rhythm, tempo, dynamics, or context so as to produce a new design
b) intentional blurring the divisions between phrases
c) improvisatory character of some passages give some idea of his actual
improvisations at the piano