Page 163 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

ROMANTIC 1810–1920 161

A powerful crescendo then leads before one of Beethoven’s most
to two sets of three chords, each Romantic themes appears, free in
followed by a dramatic silence its pacing and encompassing
heralding the sixth movement. In expressive leaps. After the theme
this short adagio, led by the viola, reaches its culmination, a “ghost”
the four-note motif from the first appears, recalling the melody first To play a wrong note is
movement is transformed by heard at the very start of the work. insignificant. To play without
denying the use of its fourth and After this, the music begins to passion is inexcusable.
most expressive note. An optimistic reflect the drained physical state of Ludwig van Beethoven
upward motion is always repelled by the players after continuous playing
a sad, descending answer. for almost 40 minutes. The music
In the seventh movement, the dissipates as the tempo gets slower,
previous ideas come to a satisfying yet the expected soft ending to the
musical conclusion. As the music piece does not appear. In one last,
progresses, fragments of the first defiant gesture, the energies of the
movement begin to surface until players are revived for a last push were his final gift to the world
the four-note motif reappears. Many to end on three affirmative chords. before his death in 1827. With
dark and menacing sounds follow them, Beethoven transformed
Lasting influence the string quartet—influencing
Beethoven’s late quartets—which Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms,
A statue of Beethoven was erected, start and end with four movement Bartók, Schoenberg, Shostakovich,
in 1880, on the Beethovenplatz in
Vienna, Austria. The figures sitting structures (Op. 127 and Op. 135) and Tippett—and became an
below the composer are allegorical but experiment with five, six, and imposing mentor and inspiration
representations of his symphonies. seven movements (Op. 130–132)— to all those who came after. ■

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