Beethovens Symphony vs. Steve Lawrence Song - Essay Example

?Beethoven’s Symphony vs. Steve Lawrence Song Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Germany in 1770, and lived until 1827. He was a composer and a pianist. He attended a music school when he was still a young child. His father was also in the same profession where he was the music instructor and later the music director at the prince elector’s palace in Bonn, Germany. With the electors support, Beethoven moved to Vienna in his early 20s where he was to learn music with the old master, Joseph Haydn. Beethoven composed six symphonies during his music career. This involved playing of the then equipment, which now are outdone by modern technology. An example is the first six string quartets that he used to compose his first symphony between 1798 and 1800. These symphonies were published as contrasted to Steve Lawrence songs, which were recorded, as we shall see later. In his symphonies, we can see strength of character, depth of emotion, level of originality, and ingenuity of motivic and tonal manipulation. It was during this period that he composed the Symphony No. 5, Allegro Con Brio. This symphony was performed together with the sixth symphony at a theater in Vienna. According to the people, Ludwig van Beethoven was the most influential composer. He solitary unbolted the way for the Romantic Era in classical music, by pervading new principles into the prevailing forms that he inherited from the Classical Era. The Symphony number 5, is in C minor and was composed between 1804 and 1808. This symphony comprises of four movements. These include an opening sonata, an andante, and a fast scherzo and attacca to the end. this symphony is scored for piccolo, two clarinets in B flat C, two oboes, two flutes, two bassoons, contrabassoon, 2 horns in E flat C, two trumpets, 3 trombones which included alto, tenor, and bass in fourth movement only, timpani which was in G-C and strings. The Symphony number 5 in C minor involves a number of movements that are played in various sections of the symphony. We can hear in the symphony a combination of the First movement Allegro con brio, Second movement, Andante Con Moto, Third movement, Scherzo Allegro, and Fourth movement, Allegro. The first movement opens in the four-note motif. It is done in the traditional sonata form that was used in the traditional classical music such as Haydn and Mozart. In addition, the movement starts with two dramatic fortissimo phrases, which are the motif. The symphony uses imitations and sequences to expand the theme. The imitations tumble over each other with rhythmic regularity, which makes them, appears as if in single form. This forms a flowing melody. After a brief fortissimo bridge, which is played by horns, is played just before the second theme is introduced. At this stage, we can hear the second theme, which is played in E flat major. This is a relative major, which is more lyrical. It involves playing the piano and the four-note motif with the string companionment. The four-note motif is again based on the codetta. This involves using modulation, development section follows, sequences and imitation, which includes the fortissimo bridge (Price 10). The second movement in this symphony is played in A flat major. This involves a lyrical work in double variation form. This means that the themes in this case are varied. It also involves a long coda. This movement involves playing clarinets, bassoons, violins, with a triplet arpeggio in the violas and bass. The third movement involves a ternary form, which consists of scherzo and trio. A new scherzo and trio form are used in this movement. This movement also has an opening theme that contrasts the previously played themes. This happens due to the use of wind instrument that is regularly repeated. The horns are also included in the movements that are played louder than in the previous movement. This section is in C major. The fourth movement begins with interruption after the scherzo. It has sonata forms used at the end of the development stage. This happens by the music halting on a dominant cadence and later the music continues after a gap with a quiet reappearance of the horn theme of the scherzo movement. The end of the symphony includes a long coda that includes the main themes of the movement. This happens in a compressed form. At the very end, the symphony tempo is increased and it ends with 29 bars of C major chords that are played in fortissimo. The music, now firmly grounded in C major, verves quicker and faster as it dashes towards the ending. It flows onwards, stops and flows again, until the protracted tempo that conveys this monumental work to its final magnificent end. Steve Lawrence is an American born actor and singer born in the mid-20th century. Lawrence has played a number of records in the 1950s and the 1960s that made it into the billboard charts. His genre of music includes the blue-eyed soul, R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop rock, and jazz. His music includes the uses of electric organ, synthesizers, bass, drums, guitar, mandolin, violin and other strings. In contrast to the Symphony Number 5, Allegro Con Brio by Beethoven, Steve Lawrence music involves modern equipment’s that are not used in Beethoven’s music. Steve Lawrence did his music as a group or as an individual. His career spanned over 25 years in the music industry. In contrast to Beethoven’s music, Steve Lawrence performed in nightclubs and concert headliner (Cain web). Steve Lawrence maintained his love for traditional pop music. In his career, found time to write songs, act in films, star in Broadway musicals, and produce Emmy-winning television specials as well as hosting a few TV series (Lawrence web). Steve Lawrence music is quite different from Beethoven’s music. It involves different genres and contains lyrics, which is not there in Beethoven’s music. The genre involved in Steve Lawrence music is rock. Similarly, to Beethoven, Steve Lawrence went to school to study music. He trained to play the piano and saxophone. These instruments are largely used in his song, You Had to Be There. The song is involved more in delivering the message to the people in an audio and visual form unlike Beethoven music, which is more instrumental. Lawrence music, unlike Beethoven’s symphonies does not show a strength of character, depth of emotion, level of originality, and ingenuity of motivic and tonal manipulation. The music is continuous unlike Beethoven’s where it is characterized by regular stops. Moreover, the song involves only one theme. The instruments used in this song are electrical and requires less skills to perform as compared to those used by Beethoven. The song involves a monotone none through which changes even with the change in stanzas and choruses. In addition, we can note that the song is more of a poem than the symphony of Beethoven. It involves more cases of operas than the symphony. Steve Lawrence song is an art song. It is a creative work of his mind where he expresses it in a song format. It involves programmatically titled short piano works that are recorded and joined using modern equipment to give out a final product, the song You Had to Be There (Sinfonia web). In conclusion, Beethoven’s symphony used combination of movements such as allegro con brio, Second movement, Andante con moto, Third movement, Scherzo Allegro and Fourth movement, allegro. These include an opening sonata, an andante, and a fast scherzo and attacca to the end. There are different themes that are included in the symphonies as compared to the modern music. We can also learn that there has been an emerging trend in the kind of instruments that have been used overtime. Moreover, modern music involves communicating a lot through words while symphonies involved more of instruments. Works Cited Cain, Terry “The Burgess Hill Symphony Orchestra Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67.” 2012. Web 4, March 2012. Lawrence, Steve. “Greatest 20th Century Songs.” 2012. Web 4, March 2012. < http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/steve-lawrence/album/greatest-20th-century-songs-soul-concerts/track/you-had-to-be-there> Price, Florence. “Symphonies nos. 1 and 5.” Volume 66 of Recent researches in American music. New York: A-R Editions, Inc. 2008. Print. Sinfonia, Nicolaus “The Very Best of Beethoven.” 2012. Web 4, March 2012. Read More