Beethoven cast a looming shadow over the nineteenth century. For
composers he was a model both to emulate and to overcome. "You have
no idea how it feels," Brahms confided, "when one always hears such
a giant marching behind one." Exploring the response of five
composers--Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, and Mahler--to
what each clearly saw as the challenge of Beethoven's symphonies,
Evan Bonds richly enhances our understanding of the evolution of
the symphony and Beethoven's legacy.
Overt borrowings from Beethoven--for example, the lyrical theme
in the Finale of Brahms' First Symphony, so like the "Ode to Joy"
theme in Beethoven's Ninth--have often been the subject of
criticism. Bonds now shows us how composers imitate or allude to a
Beethoven theme or compositional strategy precisely in order to
turn away from it, creating a new musical solution. Berlioz's
"Harold en Italie," Mendelssohn's "Lobgesang," Schumann's Fourth
Symphony, Brahms' First, and Mahler's Fourth serve as illuminating
examples. Discussion focuses on such core issues as Beethoven's
innovations in formal design, the role of text and voice, fusion of
diverse genres, cyclical coherence of movements, and the function
of the symphonic finale.
Bonds lucidly argues that the great symphonists of the
nineteenth century cleared creative space for themselves by both
confronting and deviating from the practices of their potentially
overpowering precursor. His analysis places familiar masterpieces
in a new light.
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