Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven by Charles Rosen, Essay Example

Chapter 1, “The Musical Language of the Late Eighteenth Century”, provides the context in which Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven became introduced to and began their music training.  I found this chapter to be interesting primarily because people thought of Beethoven as “not a revolutionary but as an eccentric betrayer of a great tradition”. Modern music enthusiasts would be in shock to have heard this, because when we study the evolution of music in the 1800’s, it is easy for us to see how music evolved into the style that artists such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven took advantage of in their music. While the evolution of music during this time period is intuitive, we also consider these artists to be revolutionaries, because they continued this evolutionary chain; the nuances that Beethoven and similar artists included in their work drove widespread enjoyment of classical music, to the extent that we still are able to enjoy these works today.

Chapter 2, “Theories and Form”, attempts to define the style of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.  A major discussion in this chapter concerns the sonata, as it was important to music in the 1800’s, but was not fully defined until the era had ended. I believe this is an interesting concept because it makes it difficult for art and music enthusiasts to definitively study music during their own time period. While it was not possible to fully define the sonata until the period had passed, experts like Czerny claimed that he was the first to describe it. Yet, agree with the author that modern musicians and music theorists have a greater understanding of the sonata overall, because we are able to retrospectively observe its evolution throughout music history. Despite our increased ability to understand the sonata however, it is interesting that classical musicians of the 1800’s were able to incorporate its use without fully understanding the musical movement they were undertaking.

Chapter 3, “The Origins of the Style”, discusses the balance that is necessary to achieve when creating classical pieces. The way that this chapter describes style in comparison to baroque music forces me to compare these different musical styles to the different ways in which stories are told. According to the author, the baroque style is full of emotion that seems obvious to the listener. In classical music, these emotions are more subtle, allowing the audience to get more into the story before recognizing how it will end. Ultimately, classical music tells a more compelling and complex story than the music of the baroque period.

Chapter 4, “The Coherence of the Musical Language”, and Chapter 5, “Structure and Ornament”, further discuss stylistic elements of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. It is interesting to note that the basis for comparison that the author continually uses is baroque music. To the untrained listener, baroque music and classical music sounds similar, and it is true that there are subtle differences between the two.  One of the major differences between the two is that in classical music, there was a shift from use of a lot of counterpoint and classical performances make use of a much larger orchestra. It is interesting that when one goes to see a musical performance today, classical music is generally preferred by audiences over baroque. I believe that classical music more effectively tells an interesting story, and has more freedom for nuances due to the size of the performance group.