Welcome back to Between the Barlines! Today, we are going to start talking about a new composer, and it’ll be our final composer of the classical era. This composer is very interesting; I mentioned earlier in the season how up until I started studying for my DMA comprehensive exams last summer, I always thought of Beethoven as a classical composer. However, it seems that he is more likely to be grouped into an early romantic composer rather than a classical composer. Hopefully, in the next 3 episodes, we can figure out together why that exactly is! Today, we are going to look at the first of 3 periods in Beethoven's compositional output. This is the early period. Let’s get started!

Music mentioned in this episode:

Sonata No. 1, Op. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te6GILsxcoQ

Sonata No. 2, Op. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1g4tFxdsi8

Piano Concerto No. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY7PKtpistE

Piano Concerto No. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxXtsRkTj-I

String Quartets Op. 18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbBmH9mj2R0

Symphony No. 1 in C Major: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A41fuD3dUA