THE STYLISTIC INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH VIOLIN SCHOOL ON THE BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO OP. 61

Neacsu, Cristian

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/90225 Copy

Description

Title

THE STYLISTIC INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH VIOLIN SCHOOL ON THE BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO OP. 61

Author(s)

Neacsu, Cristian

Issue Date

2016

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Associate Professor Christina Bashford

Committee Member(s)

• Professor Charlotte Mattax Moersch
• Associate Professor Stefan Milenkovich
• Clinical Assistant Professor Andrea Solya

Department of Study

School of Music

Discipline

Music

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

A.Mus.D. (doctoral)

Keyword(s)

• Music
• Beethoven
• violin
• concerto
• french
• school
• 61
• Cristian
• Neacsu

Language

en

Abstract

Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is universally considered one of the most significant essays in the genre. Though much has already been written and explored, this project investigates the stylistic influences of the French Violin School in relation to this concerto. The violinists at the forefront of the French School were involved in different ways with opera. Their acquaintance with vocal music transferred to the violin, inevitably driven by their pursuit of new ways of expression, resulting in works that highlighted the lyrical singing quality of the violin and possibly foreshadowing the Romantic style of the nineteenth-century. For Beethoven, the early 1800s were a time of exploration as he searched for his own voice and perhaps it was the lyrical quality of French violin music as well as the idiomatic writing of the solo violin that turned him toward the works of the French violin school. A portion of the paper assesses the extent to which Beethoven adopted idiomatic language popular with French masters in writing the solo part of his violin concerto, and shows how he incorporated that language to create something unique, a model for the large-scale symphonic concerto that became popular with nineteenth-century composers. This research also studies the treatment of melodies in Beethoven, Viotti and Kreutzer concertos. A chapter on the cadenza is included that surveys the different cadenzas written for Beethoven’s Concerto and their stylistic implications, along with my own cadenza for the first movement.

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90225

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