4 ms·
“Never” since when? I was under the impression that Beethoven and the other famous composers after him were pretty big and known internationally in a word with
by soneca 2y ago
“Never” since when?
I was under the impression that Beethoven and the other famous composers after him were pretty big and known internationally in a word without internet. I would call that “mainstream”
If you are talking about 20th century, then I would agree with you
- texuf 2y agoBack then it was just called music.
- defrost 2y agoThere were many types of music during the time of Beethoven, he himself embodied at least three distinct styles; Viennese classicism (early), heroic (middle), quartets, chamber and solo (late). Maybe leave the empty inaccurate quips to other forums?
- PhilipRoman 2y agoThere was always plenty of folk music, which I guess would be comparable to popular music nowadays.
- soneca 2y agoNo, it was not. Well, kind of depends of what you mean by “back then”. But the term classical music is not a modern creation talking about old music. The term was created while people were creating this genre of music. Classical originally was meant to refer to things from Antique Rome. But, unlike other art forms, like literature and sculpture, no music from Antique Rome survived, no one knew how it sounded. This kind of created the opportunity to redefine what “classical” meant in music, so a few people decide, centuries ago, that this genre of music would be called “classical” at that time already, not now. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music
- spacechild1 2y agoOn the contrary, instrumental concert music was a relatively new phenomenon and many people considered it inferior to vocal music or even called it empty noise. The idea that Classical symphonies or sonatas were the popular music of that era is completely wrong. See https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumentalmusik https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumentalmusik (sorry, German only).
- BurningFrog 2y agoThis was before radio or recordings, and only the very top of wealth and power could listen to one of the few symphony orchestras performing Beethoven's compositions. Within that small privileged world he was indeed famous across the planet.
- hoseja 2y agoIt was also a powerful world.
- defrost 2y agoLudwig van Beethoven 1770 – 1827 overlapped with Franz Liszt 1811 – 1886 who had early Beatlemania | Swiftie Fever degrees of fervour, dubbed Lisztomania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisztomania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisztomania Infamously depicted by Roger Daltrey in Ken Russell's movie Lisztomania (1975) (NSFW) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peJ_ncxXung https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peJ_ncxXung
- giraffe_lady 2y agoThis talks about how enthusiastic his fans were, but still nothing to indicate that his fandom extended beyond the sphere of aristocratic power that was the main audience for classical music at that time. The historical record tends to be overwhelmingly biased towards the interests of the ruling classes, mostly because they were the ones creating the historical record. But taking that into account while reading this, and remembering that people outside of this class were the vast majority of people, I don't see any reason to think he had a massive body of fans outside of this small powerful group.
- defrost 2y agoThe claim was that "only the rich and powerful could listen to [classical music] played by an orchestra at a dedicated concert hall" thus limiting the general awareness. While that's as aspirational as having the time off and the money and the luck to attend a taylor Swift Concert today, the hoi pollai were indeed familiar through d/loads today and, in past times, through sheet music in beer halls and smaller parlours - music was widespread throughout society beyond just grand concert halls, it was played by "gypsy" trios and quartets who played their own styles and riffed on motifs by "the greats", Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, etc.