The life, work, and legacy of Ludwig van Beethoven
The life, work, and legacy of Ludwig van Beethoven
Overview of the life and works of Ludwig van Beethoven, featuring examples played by Brant Taylor, a cellist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Transcript
SPEAKER 1: Brant, thank you so much for joining us today.
BRANT TAYLOR: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 1: To get started, can you please just introduce yourself and what your job is?
BRANT TAYLOR: My name is Brant Taylor, and I am a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's cello section as well as a faculty member at DePaul University here in Chicago.
SPEAKER 1: Well, the one reason I wanted to talk to you today is because this month, we're celebrating Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday. Part of me is hoping that you will play a little bit of Beethoven for us. But before we get to that, I did want to ask some general questions. The first being how did Beethoven get his start in music?
BRANT TAYLOR: Well, he grew up in Bonn, Germany. Like many musicians, myself included, if you find yourself interested in it at a young age, your parents tend to notice that. So they'll get you a teacher.
His father taught him for a period of time, and then eventually, he studied with another teacher in Bonn before moving to Vienna when he was 21 years of age. And then that sort of opened a new chapter in his life. But he started in music actually, ironically, much the same way that many of us do, when we're young. We just have a teacher, and we take lessons and hope for the best.
SPEAKER 1: Great. Well, can you talk a little bit about some of his most popular pieces? And what would actually be helpful is maybe if you can play a portion of them for the viewers, because I think a lot of us recognize his pieces but may not know the exact name of them.
BRANT TAYLOR: Yes. This is a broad question partially because Beethoven revolutionized almost every genre of music that he touched. Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony" contains what is perhaps the most famous opening of any piece of music.
[PLAYING THE CELLO]
And in the second movement of this symphony, there's a beautiful melody that begins the movement with the cellos in a featured role of this theme and variations.
[PLAYING THE CELLO]
The most famous tune from the "Ninth Symphony" comes from the fourth movement, and it's the tune that Schiller's ode is set to. It's known as the "Ode to Joy," and it first begins very low in the orchestra in just the celli and the basses. So I'm going to play exactly that section of the music right now.
[PLAYING THE CELLO]
SPEAKER 1: So you mentioned the "Ninth Symphony," and I think that's probably his most praised work, as you just said. What makes it so special? Or at the time, what made it so different?
BRANT TAYLOR: Well, I mentioned maybe the most obvious one, which is that, rather than just an orchestra on the stage, there's an orchestra with a large chorus and four vocal soloists. And there had been music before that time written for musicians and singers, but nothing on so grand a scale, and, particularly, nothing that follows the usual narrative of a symphony. Literally, for the first time in music history, the sound of the human voice enters into the symphonic repertoire.
[MUSIC - LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, "ODE TO JOY"]
[OPERATIC NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
BRANT TAYLOR: This is the time to mention the deafness that Beethoven dealt with for most of his adult life. And the "Ninth Symphony" was composed at the time when this condition was in its very advanced stage. Pieces like the "Ninth Symphony" that we've been talking about would not exist in the form that they exist were it not for Beethoven's deafness.
SPEAKER 1: Did he sit down and just start writing music? Or did he play it first? What was Beethoven's process like?
BRANT TAYLOR: That's a great question, especially-- It's maybe interesting to speak about Beethoven as compared to somebody like Mozart. And Mozart tended to compose pieces in his head and write them out in their finished form with very, very few corrections. Beethoven, on the other hand, was a tinkerer. He kept sketchbooks with him wherever he went. And as ideas came to him, even when he was walking down the street, he would stop and write them down.
SPEAKER 1: Why do people consider him such a musical genius? What's the simplest answer for that question?
BRANT TAYLOR: I would say it's because when you listen to his music, there is a quality of universality to it. There's a good reason why we still bother to play it 250 years after Beethoven was born. And it touches on something unique and human and universal in the human condition, in the human soul in a way that continues to resonate today. That's probably the simplest answer I could give.
He also had this other element of true transformation. His music, when you follow it over the course of his composing career-- and it's more palpable with Beethoven, I think, than with any other composer. It's like putting on a shelf a row of just perfect examples of what's achievable in an art form.
Of course, every composer since then has looked at that and said, well, even if my language is going to be different, why wouldn't I want to at least try to do exactly the same thing, which is to have this sense of a unique voice and a sense of assuredness with which I approach what I'm doing? So in classical music, for sure, that's Beethoven. And he's not the only one, but he is maybe the best example of a composer who if he had not existed, music history would not be the same.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
BRANT TAYLOR: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 1: To get started, can you please just introduce yourself and what your job is?
BRANT TAYLOR: My name is Brant Taylor, and I am a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's cello section as well as a faculty member at DePaul University here in Chicago.
SPEAKER 1: Well, the one reason I wanted to talk to you today is because this month, we're celebrating Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday. Part of me is hoping that you will play a little bit of Beethoven for us. But before we get to that, I did want to ask some general questions. The first being how did Beethoven get his start in music?
BRANT TAYLOR: Well, he grew up in Bonn, Germany. Like many musicians, myself included, if you find yourself interested in it at a young age, your parents tend to notice that. So they'll get you a teacher.
His father taught him for a period of time, and then eventually, he studied with another teacher in Bonn before moving to Vienna when he was 21 years of age. And then that sort of opened a new chapter in his life. But he started in music actually, ironically, much the same way that many of us do, when we're young. We just have a teacher, and we take lessons and hope for the best.
SPEAKER 1: Great. Well, can you talk a little bit about some of his most popular pieces? And what would actually be helpful is maybe if you can play a portion of them for the viewers, because I think a lot of us recognize his pieces but may not know the exact name of them.
BRANT TAYLOR: Yes. This is a broad question partially because Beethoven revolutionized almost every genre of music that he touched. Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony" contains what is perhaps the most famous opening of any piece of music.
[PLAYING THE CELLO]
And in the second movement of this symphony, there's a beautiful melody that begins the movement with the cellos in a featured role of this theme and variations.
[PLAYING THE CELLO]
The most famous tune from the "Ninth Symphony" comes from the fourth movement, and it's the tune that Schiller's ode is set to. It's known as the "Ode to Joy," and it first begins very low in the orchestra in just the celli and the basses. So I'm going to play exactly that section of the music right now.
[PLAYING THE CELLO]
SPEAKER 1: So you mentioned the "Ninth Symphony," and I think that's probably his most praised work, as you just said. What makes it so special? Or at the time, what made it so different?
BRANT TAYLOR: Well, I mentioned maybe the most obvious one, which is that, rather than just an orchestra on the stage, there's an orchestra with a large chorus and four vocal soloists. And there had been music before that time written for musicians and singers, but nothing on so grand a scale, and, particularly, nothing that follows the usual narrative of a symphony. Literally, for the first time in music history, the sound of the human voice enters into the symphonic repertoire.
[MUSIC - LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, "ODE TO JOY"]
[OPERATIC NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
BRANT TAYLOR: This is the time to mention the deafness that Beethoven dealt with for most of his adult life. And the "Ninth Symphony" was composed at the time when this condition was in its very advanced stage. Pieces like the "Ninth Symphony" that we've been talking about would not exist in the form that they exist were it not for Beethoven's deafness.
SPEAKER 1: Did he sit down and just start writing music? Or did he play it first? What was Beethoven's process like?
BRANT TAYLOR: That's a great question, especially-- It's maybe interesting to speak about Beethoven as compared to somebody like Mozart. And Mozart tended to compose pieces in his head and write them out in their finished form with very, very few corrections. Beethoven, on the other hand, was a tinkerer. He kept sketchbooks with him wherever he went. And as ideas came to him, even when he was walking down the street, he would stop and write them down.
SPEAKER 1: Why do people consider him such a musical genius? What's the simplest answer for that question?
BRANT TAYLOR: I would say it's because when you listen to his music, there is a quality of universality to it. There's a good reason why we still bother to play it 250 years after Beethoven was born. And it touches on something unique and human and universal in the human condition, in the human soul in a way that continues to resonate today. That's probably the simplest answer I could give.
He also had this other element of true transformation. His music, when you follow it over the course of his composing career-- and it's more palpable with Beethoven, I think, than with any other composer. It's like putting on a shelf a row of just perfect examples of what's achievable in an art form.
Of course, every composer since then has looked at that and said, well, even if my language is going to be different, why wouldn't I want to at least try to do exactly the same thing, which is to have this sense of a unique voice and a sense of assuredness with which I approach what I'm doing? So in classical music, for sure, that's Beethoven. And he's not the only one, but he is maybe the best example of a composer who if he had not existed, music history would not be the same.
[MUSIC PLAYING]