The art of music. Vol. 01 (of 14) : $b The pre-Classic periods
History
The art of music. Vol. 01 (of 14) : $b The pre-Classic periods
Music -- History and criticism; Musicians
But even these significant facts do not exhaust the aspects in which
Beethoven anticipated later artistic developments. It is a very
strange fact that after his deafness was quite established his sense
of tone color continued to expand. Even in comparatively early works
he had shown gravitation toward romantically characteristic effects
of instrumentation, as, for instance, in the familiar and supremely
wonderful color scheme of the scherzo of the C minor symphony. But
after he had quite lost his hearing his color sense grew in richness
and depth and variety to a bewildering extent. His mind seemed to be
specially occupied with finding tone colors which intensified the
expression in quite a new way, as, for instance, in the huge slow
movement of the sonata in B flat, opus 106, in the last movement of
the sonata in C minor, opus 111, and in the slow movement of the
Choral Symphony. Prior to his time there had been a great deal of
inert matter in orchestral scoring. The functions of wind instruments
were indeed defined, in so far as they were used either as actual solo
instruments or more often to supply a pleasant continuity of tone in
agreeable colors, while the strings did most of the actual talking. But
the standard of execution of the players, as well as the technique of
orchestration, was not advanced enough to bring the wind instruments
fairly into the operation on an equality with the strings, and they
were made to play what was definitely serviceable to the scheme, but
had in itself no musical definition and purpose. The greater part of
the advance that has since taken place in orchestration consists in
making every member of the orchestra contribute to the complex of
polyphony by playing actual and apt musical passages. It implied the
growth of texture toward vitality in every part of the artistic scheme,
and a development of organization of the very subtlest description.
For it must be kept in mind that the employment of instruments of
diverse tone color in the modern manner does not imply their constant
employment, but their apt employment only; which is so contrived by
the genius of composers who can really think in orchestras that the
tone qualities affect the sensibilities of the hearers to the utmost by
their relations to one another. Even the feeblest intelligence would
be capable of discerning the fact that great effects of color are made
through juxtaposition. A very vivid piece of coloring is not vivid
because the individual colors are vivid, but because various colors
are disposed so as to give particular colors their utmost effect upon
the sensibilities. A glowing red does not glow of itself but because
the sensibilities have been so affected by other colors that they
have become highly susceptible to red. Groups of nerves are affected
in various ways by tone colors, and the secret of art is so to use
the various tone colors that each shall minister in full measure to
the effect of others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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