Stages in the Composition of Beethoven's Piano Trio Op. 70, No. 1

Abstract

The bicentenary of a major composer performs a variety of functions, some praiseworthy and rewarding, some trivial. First and foremost it is an occasion for reassessing his stature at the present time, and partly to this end it calls forth a vast number of performances of his music. Some of the performances are likely to be of unknown or little-performed works, and these, as well as the greater and more familiar pieces, are valuable material for making a second assessment of the composer, this time in relation to his contemporaries. It is from a study of that sort that we gain a surer picture of the circumstances that aided and that limited his achievement, and of the degree to which he was governed by the artistic conventions, habits and ideals of his age, even where he is recognized to have been at the same time the possessor of an original, indeed unique vision. But there is at least one more type of assessment that is surely appropriate to a bicentenary and not necessarily touched on by the other two: an assessment of his working methods. This is my justification for approaching a theme that might otherwise appear somewhat grandiose, namely a discussion of how Beethoven composed.