Beethoven

It is customary to divide Beethoven's com positions into three groups, following the sug gestions of a Russian, W. von Lenz, who, in 1852, issued a book entitled (Beethoven 'et ses trois styles.' The first group in which the influence of his predecessors is still more or less obvious includes, among many other things. the first two symphonies, the septet, the first stx string quartets, the aria (Ah Perfido,' the song 'Adelaide,' etc.; the second, which shows Bee thoven in the full vigor of his manhood, orig inality and creative power, begins after the year 1800, and includes six symphonies, from the third (Eroica) to the eighth, the opera (Fidelio,> the violin concerto, the Coriolan overture, the Egmont music, the Rasurnovsky quartets, the Kreutzer sonata, the 'cello sonata in A, 14 sonatas for pianoforte, etc.; the third, which begins after a period of great tribulation and depression in his life, includes the last five pianoforte sonatas, the string quartets op. 127, 130, 131, 132, 135, the (Missa solemnis,' the ninth symphony, the 'Ruins of Athens,' etc. Concerning some, at least, of the works of this third period opinion is still divided. There are critics who thuik that, partly in consequence of his deafness, Beethoven had become garrulous, incoherent and vague, whereas others profess to find in the compositions of this period the highest summit of all musical creativeness.

A better way than Lenz's of considering the achievements of Beethoven's genius is to cast a glance at each class of his compositions itself. The eminent English critic, Dr. Huef fer, wrote that °Beethoven is in music what Shalcespeare is in poetry, a name before the greatness of which all other names. however great, seem to dwindle.' This is an exaggera tion. There is, in reality, only one department of music — the symphony — in which Beethoven is incontestably pre-eminent; in all the others he has his equals, and in some his superiors. In the Lied, or art-song, he is far inferior to Schubert and half a dozen other masters; in the grandeur of choral writing he never equalled Bach and Handel; his 'Fidelio) is not equal to the best operas of Mozart, Weber, Wagner, Gounod, Bizet and Verdi; his piano forte compositions are harmonically less fasci natingand less idiomatic in style, than Chopin's and S'chumann's, and in the realm of chamber music there are works of Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, and particularly Schubert and Schu mann, quite equal to the best of Beethoven's. His weakest works are in the department of vocal music, especially the Lied. He once said to Rochlitz: "Songs I do not like to write.' He looked on them as bagatelles into which it was hardly worth while to put his best ideas. Hence, among his songs, there are only a few which show his genius to advantage. The best of them are 'Adelaide,"Die Ehre Gottes,> and (Consult Finck's,

two masses, a sonata, 66 songs with pianoforte, 18 canons, 7 books of English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh and Italian songs with pianoforte, violin and 'cello, etc. He himself considered his second mass— — his most successful work, but the musical world is much more enamored of his (Fidelio,) which, while conventional in the first act, rises in the second to such a sublime level of drama tic expressiveness that it is to be much regretted he never found time, to execute his other oratic plans, which included a Macbeth, a and an Alexander. The history of (Fidelio) and its four overtures is of particular interest, but the limits of space forbid its inser tion.

For pianoforte there are 38 sonatas, 5 con certos, 21 sets of variations, and more than 50 short pieces— bagatelles, rondos, preludes, landlers, etc. Hans von Billow spoke of Bach's (Well-Tempered Clavichord' as the Old Testa ment of music and Beethoven's sonatas as the New, °in both of which we must believe;' and he declared that the mere technical mastery of these sonatas is "the task of half a life-time.° They mark a tremendous advance over all his predecessors excepting Bach. In wealth of melodic ideas and rhythmic variety, as well as i in structural finish, and especially in emotional expressiveness, they far surpass all previous works of their kind; yet it was not till several decades after the composer's death that they began to be generally appreciated and played in public. 7he pendulum then swung to the opposite extreme, and every Beethoven sonata was supposed to be a peerless masterwork which is far from being true. (Read the ad mirable comments on all these works in chap. VII of J. S. Shedlock's (The Pianoforte Sonata' ). In the matter of form Beethoven was by no means the pedant many of his ad mirers would have him. The orthodox sonata is supposed to consist of four movements; but of his 38 sonatas only 15 have four movements; 11 have 3, and 6 have only 2; moreover, his two-movement sonatas are by no means "torsos," as some have foolishly called them; they include op. 90 and op. 111, two of his very best works, the op. 111 being, in fact, his last word on the subject.