A Handbook of Musical History and Bibliography from St. Gregory to the Present Time

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ...It occurred to a Russian amateur, named Lenz, that the works of Beethoven might be divided into three periods, and to support his theory he wrote a book entitled, Beethoven et ses trois styles. Such arbitrary divisions are generally fanciful, and development of genius is in most cases a gradual process rather than a sudden abandonment of previous methods. There can be little doubt, however, that with his third symphony, Op. 55, known as the Eroica, composed in the year 1804, at about the same time as the great sonata for pianoforte dedicated to Count Waldstein, Op. 53, the master stands revealed in the full splendour of his genius. The work is absolutely Beethoven, owing no obligation to any previous composer, It is well known that the work had its origin in Beethoven's admiration for Napoleon, whom he supposed to be a model of Republican virtue. His design was to call it the Bonaparte Symphony, when the news came that the First Consul had made himself Emperor. The dedication was destroyed in a rage, to be replaced by the following title: -- Sinfonia eroica per festeggiare il sowenire fun grand uomo. To this second period belong the symphonies in B flat, Op. 60, that in C minor, Op. 67--generally looked on as his finest orchestral composition, and that is equivalent to calling it the finest that had ever been written--the pastoral symphony, Op. 68, --the three magnificent quartets, Op. 59, known as the Rasounioffsky--the violin concerto, --the first mass in C, --the pianoforte concerto in G, and several of his finest piano sonatas. During this time also he wrote his only oratorio, The Mount of Olives, which, in spite of much beauty, scarcely ranks among his greatest works. In the year 1803, Schickaneder, whom we have known as the friend of Mozart, ...