Beethoven Musical Canon Analysis

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Now in time there are many great composer that have outlived their dying age by making an impact and leaving a permanent seal on this planet with the great symphonies they have composed, which in turn has inspired many composers throughout the preceding centuries.
A great influential composer is Ludwig Van Beethoven, born in Bonn, who lived from 1770-1826. Beethoven among the masters of classical music such as Mozart and Haydn, set the stage for the creation of the musical canon, which focused on the most famous compositions created. This musical canon set a tradition in the way music was composed, which in turn created the “musical museum”. This “museum” is filled with compositions that followed the musical canon which is what created the …show more content…

Since Beethoven was seen as such an influential composer, many sought to compose music similar to that of Beethoven and the other masters who had set the stage for classical music. Yet they could not be too similar to Beethoven and had to have uniqueness in their compositions. As Burkholder explains, composers that followed the musical canon, “...distinguished from their lesser contemporaries by their level of craftsmanship, by the strength of their musical personality, and by an ineffable quality of ‘inspiration,’ ‘beauty,’ or ‘truth’.(Burkholder 120). The craftsmanship can be interpreted as the way they created their compositions in a great way such as the main inspirers of these young composers did. The craftsmanship had to of course to make it an impact, like pieces in any museum, they have to show skill and express the quality of their design. Their strength in musical personality had to show their uniqueness and style they imposed when composing music, to the point where they could be distinguished through their compositions. This strength in personality had to pop out while still following and showing their inspiration, which was the most important quality, to that of the masters of classical music. The inspiration was a key factor that lead to the rise of the musical …show more content…

First off, it changed the purpose of music by having a young composer, if they wanted to, have their compositions in the “musical museum”, model their compositions after what they believed previous composers had set their minds to. As Burkholder states, “...they sought to create music in the tradition of art music which would say something new, while incorporating what was best and most useful from the music of the past” (Burkholder 120). Yes they had to create music that model their compositions after previous composer, but still had to express their personality in these compositions, by still pulling from older compositions of the masters. This in turn, presents the proof that the purpose of music had changed from trying to appeal to the present audience, to instead having young composers make their music to reach a higher more valuable goal, making an impact and immortalizing their music in the “musical museum”. Secondly, the conception of music saw a change through the present audience at the time. Since composers focused less on what the audience would think of the music it brought a mass of dislike among the audience, and made these compositions esoteric. With these two changes in music came the creation of the “musical

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