#Beethoven250 Day 16
Two Preludes for Piano or Organ (Opus 39), 1789?
Published in 1803 as Opus 39, these two preludes are evidently earlier composition exercises. Each prelude modulates through all 12 major keys from C, G, D … B♭, F, C.
#Beethoven250 Day 16
Two Preludes for Piano or Organ (Opus 39), 1789?
This video includes the score. The second prelude makes two complete cycles through the circle of fifths in less time than the first prelude. That’s Beethoven showing off!
“In the year 1789 … nothing else was talked of in Germany but the philosophy of Kant, about which were poured forth in abundance commentaries, chrestomathies, interpretations, estimates, apologies, and so forth” — Heinrich Heine
On 14 July 1789 a Paris mob stormed the Bastille, initiating the French Revolution. The Enlightenment milieu in which Beethoven grew up in Bonn viewed the Revolution as a triumph of humanist ideals, and a defeat of tyranny and the Church. Later impressions were more nuanced.
Barnard Solomon wrote “Bonn in the 1780s was part of the honeymoon of culture and the state, who lay down together on the bed of reason.” The German Enlightenment, characterized in Bonn by intellectual freedom & patronage of the arts, influenced Beethoven’s entire life and music.
Rather than favoring democracy, the German Enlightenment idealized philosopher-monarchs, epitomized by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, who implemented many liberal reforms while fostering advances in literature and music. However, a despot is still a despot, and Joseph II was that.
Perhaps unfairly, Joseph II was portrayed as something of a doofus by actor Jeffrey Jones in the movie “Amadeus,” but it might be close to how Mozart viewed him. His most famous line in the movie regarding Mozart’s music (“Too many notes”) seems to be historically accurate.