GRMUS H678 — Beethoven From the Enlightenment

2 credits
Fall
Edgardo Salinas

This seminar explores the lasting influence that Beethoven’s music and reception has had both within Western art music and in the cultural history of modernity, following a trajectory that begins in the Enlightenment and culminates with today’s Digital Age. We will start by exploring how Beethoven’s iconic works embodied aesthetic ideals introduced by the early Romantics in response to the philosophical and political upheavals of the Enlightenment. We then examine the critical reception of Beethoven’s music in the 19^th century as well as the appropriation of his music by totalitarian regimes in the 20^th century. The class concludes by analyzing the transformative effects that digital technologies are having on the performance and consumption of Beethoven’s music and on the future of classical music at large. Works to be discussed in detail include Beethoven’s symphonies nos. 3, 5, 6, and 9, his only opera Fidelio, the Missa Solemnis, and the late string quartets. The seminar has been planned in conjunction with the symposium of the same title taking place at Juilliard in October 2020. Students will be expected to attend the symposium and write a report responding to the presented papers. The final project involves a research essay and an oral presentation on one of the topics included in the syllabus.