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Beethoven: Composers
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Beethoven's most impressive choral work is the Missa Solennis, written for the enthronement of his pupil Archduke Rudolph as Archbishop of Olmutz, but finished too late for that occasion. An earlier work, the oratorio The Mount of Olives, is less well known. In common with other composers, he wrote a number of songs. Of these the best known are probably the settings of Goethe, which did little to impress the venerable poet and writer, who ignored their existence, and the cycle of six songs known as An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved). The song Adelaide is challenging but not infrequently heard.
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In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France, and Beethoven, in a tremendous fury, ripped the title page from the score. According to his friend and student Ferdinand Ries, he stormed that now even his hero had become a tyrant, and that he would not dedicate a symphony to such a person. The symphony's new sub-title, "Eroica," implied more of a general heroism than specific deeds, and its inscription, "composed to celebrate the memory of a great man," seems to refer to the earlier Napoleon, the idealistic young hero who now lived only in memory. When the work was published in 1806, it was dedicated not to Bonaparte, but to Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz, one of Beethoven's most loyal patrons. That Lobkowitz had offered to pay handsomely for the privilege even before Beethoven became disenchanted with Napoleon may well have precipitated the composer's action. Besides, the concert tour to Paris had been cancelled.
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Beethoven rapidly proceeded to make his mark as a brilliant keyboard performer and improviser and as a gifted young composer. In 1795 his first mature published works appeared: the three Piano Trios, Op. 1 รข€“ and his career was officially launched. Beethoven's work could be divided into three distinct periods. The first period include the First (1800) and Second (1802) Symphonies ; the first three piano concertos (1795-1800); the first group of string quartets (1800); and a number of piano sonatas, among them the Pathétique (1798) and the Moonlight Sonata (1801). The compositions of the first period are dominated by the tradition of Haydn and Mozart.
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Beethoven is acknowledged as one of the giants of Western classical music; occasionally he is referred to as one of the "three Bs" (along with Bach and Brahms) who epitomize that tradition. He was ... a pivotal figure in the transition from 18th century musical classicism to 19th century romanticism, and his influence on subsequent generations of composers was profound.[24]
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In 1815, on the death of his older brother, Casper Carl, Beethoven devoted his emotional energies to a costly legal struggle with his sister-in-law for custody of her 9-year-old son Karl. The mother received a temporarily favourable ruling, and only the intervention in 1820 of Beethoven's most powerful patron, the Archduke Rudolph, won the composer custody of his nephew. Beethoven was not an ideal parent and enormous friction developed between the two, contributing to Karl's attempted suicide in 1826.
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On his deathbed Beethoven was planning a tenth symphony, a composer to the very end. Despite his notoriously brusque manner, Beethoven was revered by Viennese society as its greatest celebrity. His funeral was attended by 20,000 friends and admirers.
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