Why Is Beethoven As A Transitional Composer

The purpose of this essay is to highlight Beethoven’s musical career and how he was responsible for and assisted in the sudden and drastic transition from the Classical style of music in the 18th Century to the Romantic style of music in the 19th Century. As Giorgio Pestelli states in his book The Age of Mozart and Beethoven, “In few other periods has the social world of music suddenly undergone such vast and radical changes as it did in the years 1770 -1820” The way in which he achieved his status as a transitional composer is the main focus of this essay, and shall be what I aim to determine by the end through research of Beethoven and his life.
Being born towards the end of the 18th Century in 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven was inevitably going
Before this, composers (or maestro di cappella ) had little or no place in the society of the day. A composer was “a servant of greater or lesser rank depending on his patron’s inclination or on the fame that he himself enjoyed.” A composition did not belong to them, it belonged to their master and was not published without the master’s permission. A composer was not allowed to accept commissions besides their masters without authority. They also had many mundane everyday duties such as buying instruments and keeping them tuned, supervising the musical library, composing performances of every type of music required by the master either for public or for private use. In short, the life of a composer was not an adventurous or free one during the Classical era. This all changed after the French Revolution, and “the figure of the independent musician very gradually made headway in the second half of the eighteenth century.” The French Revolution was the decisive action which removed the lowly status of the musician. It also ridded the musical world of Classical style, and made way for the new style of the Romantic period. This is where Beethoven’s alternative style came into
This was the first major factor that affected his work which made him stand out from every other composer of the time. It is said that his attitude towards composing had always been modern in the sense that he had a different concept of music than everybody else . He treated his patrons “recklessly” , such as complaining if the payment he was given had shrunk. He was to be assured to create.
His musical creations were divided into three “periods” with the publication of Wilhelm von Lenz's influential work Beethoven et ses trois styles (Beethoven and his Three Styles). Each period demonstrates different style characteristics of his works, also different personal developments in his private life. This, in my opinion, was the research which defined Beethoven as a transitional composer.
The first phase extended from his first compositions as a 7 year old in the year 1777 to 1802, during which he was attempting to master the classical musical style of the period.The first half of this phase is known by scholars and von Lenz as the Bonn half. This period was when Beethoven was living and composing in Bonn,