Ioannis
Fulias, “The
music of Ludwig van Beethoven through Heinrich Birnbach’s first essays on
musical form (1827-1829)”, Polyphonia
21, Athens
2012, p. 52-97.
Although Heinrich
Birnbach (1793-1879) is not among the best known music theorists of the first
half of the 19th century, he is one of the first who examine from an analytical
point of view works by Ludwig van Beethoven, in a series of essays published
immediately after the death of the great composer in the periodicals Berliner
Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung (1827-1828) and Caecilia (1829). In these essays, the author is
systematically involved with the harmonic and thematic specifications of sonata
forms, mainly, and other structural models (various “rondo” forms,
variations and minuets / scherzos), secondarily, through factual observations
and analyses of selected works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, as well as other
composers from the early 19th century. Therefore, in the present paper a
critical review of the morphological data derived from Birnbach’s writings is
made, alongside with a modern appreciation not only of his analytical remarks on
specific works of Beethoven but also of the overall contribution of Beethovenian
creation in the formation of his theoretical viewpoints.
© Ioannis
Fulias