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Beethoven
compositions:
The Great Fugue
“Waldstein” Sonata
“Emperor” Piano Concerto
“Choral” Symphony
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Beethoven, the Black Spaniard
By Deborah D. Moseley
Just how does an individual with a
Teutonic surname born in eighteenth-century Germany
acquire the moniker “The Black Spaniard”? One of
the homes in which Beethoven resided in Vienna, Austria,
the music capitol of European Music at that time, was
called the “Schwarzspanierhaus,” the “House of the Black
Spaniard.” In the book entitled
Beethoven by
David Jacobs (p. 133), is a facsimile of this
non-extant building, which, according to the author,
was formerly a monastery. The center facade has
the sign “I Resley,” the left facade is unlabelled. But
the right facade is labelled, “Zum Schwarzspanier,” “To
the Black Spaniard.”
Such an individual living amongst a
land of predominantly White citizenry must have had
some apparent physical and ethnic characteristics and
strains in his heritage to not only be branded “The
Spaniard,” but also “The Black Spaniard.”
Additionally, in a PBS presentation about Beethoven,
the host and narrator, Russian Actor Peter Ustinov, said
that Beethoven would become angry when people called him
“inferior.” Clearly, he must have been an exotic and at
times disparaged presence in Germany and Austria.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 -1827)
was born in Bonn, Germany, but his family originated in
Belgium, which was then called Flanders. Interestingly,
his family name, as noble and grand as it sounds, is a
Flemish one quaintly and literally meaning “beet
garden.” For over 200 years, Belgium/Flanders had been
occupied by Spain. One need only look at a map to see
how close in proximity Southern Spain is to Northern
Africa, separated by the Strait of Gibraltar, which,
from a geological standpoint, appears to have forged its
way through an erstwhile connection between the two
terrains.
Africans had easy access to Spain,
the zenith being the 700 year reign of the Moors in that
country. (“Moor” comes from Greek/Latin root words
meaning “Black” or “dark-skinned.”) The
protracted Black presence in Spain apparently
protracted its presence in Belgium/Flanders along with
the Spanish. Thus, Beethoven inherited this Black
Spanish strain. Which leads to a very critical
question: Why the proliferation of spurious portraits
that hide his ethnic heritage as a man of color?
Beethoven was one of the most
innovative and amazing musical geniuses, ever. His
deafness made that amazing genius even more so. As a
Black woman and a musician who has spent a lifetime
listening to, studying, and performing his music, I
believe his music reveals a cultural connection to his
African ancestry. In the Blom edition of
Grove's
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 20, is stated,
“A rhythmic or time-active cast of thought was inherent
in his nature,” and “(n)umerous examples could be given
from familiar music in which an off-beat accent converts
an ordinary into an extraordinary passage.” The
distinctive characteristic of off-beat accents, or
syncopation, is intrinsic and integral to Black people's
music making, which gives it a unique vitality and
kinetic energy.
My favorite examples of this
rhythmic trait are his mammoth string quartet known as
“The Great Fugue,” which sounds
"way ahead of its time"
and foretells 20th century atonality. Also, the second
movement of the last Piano Sonata he wrote,
Op. 111 in C
minor, sounds like the genesis of jazz. I believe he
had exquisite foresight as to how music would evolve in
the future. He was an astounding piano improvisateur,
which moved Mozart to prophesy, “He will give the world
something worth listening to.” The last movement of the
“Waldstein” Sonata, op. 53, has a syncopated bass, which
might inspire gospel music clapping. It is also the same
off-beat pattern used in reggae and Hip- Hop music.
Beethoven makes prolific use of the
syncopating kettle drum in much of his orchestral music,
such as the dramatic Symphony No. 5, which contains one
of the world's most famous themes, and the majestic
“Emperor” Piano Concerto No. 5. He was the first
composer to invigorate European Classical Music
with prodigious use of this decidedly inherent
African rhythmic trait. He was also one of the first
composers to deviate from the musical template
of eighteenth-century rules and regulations. In
his Fourth Piano Concerto No. 4, the piano begins the
opening, as opposed to traditionally beginning with the
orchestra. The “Waldstein” Sonata begins in G major,
even though it is written in C major.
He was the first composer to
include a chorus in a symphony, which became known as
the
“Choral” Symphony No. 9, the theme of the hymn
“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” He was also one of the
first composers to inject his personal thunderous
temperament in his music, as evidenced in such piano
works as the
“Appassionata” Sonata,
Op. 57 and the
fittingly named “Tempest” Sonata, op.31, no.2. He was
the first composer to explore and exploit the virtuosic
possibilities of the piano, which necessitated piano
makers' building stronger, more durable instruments.
His was the first piano music to
require the pianist to play the trill and the melody
with one hand, as in the “Hammerklavier” Sonata where
he took piano music where it had never gone before. (It
reminds me of Robert Johnson, who played the chords and
the melody simultaneously on the blues guitar). With his
daring musical innovations, formidable piano technique,
the injection of deep musical subjectivity as opposed to
abstract musical objectivity, he rendered the composer
free from stilted, restrictive dogma and ushered in the
Romantic Period.
He gave inspiration to Liszt,
Schumann, and Chopin. I opine that in the ugly throes
of Institutional Racism during Beethoven's lifetime when
Chattel Slavery in America was in full operation and
Europe was preparing to subjugate the entire continent
of Africa for itself, the European Colonialist and
Imperialist Masters found it necessary to obscure
certain facts in order to justify keeping an
entire people in bondage and sub-human status.
The U.S. Constitution even slated
Black people as being only 3/5 human. Such an
imperative necessitated academic fraud. The dubious
system that portrayed the Ancient Egyptians as White
people is the same dubious system that portrayed
Beethoven, one of the greatest composers ever, as White.
The same dubious system is still intact, which
would motivate Hollywood to give false ethnic
representations in the Beethoven movies 'Immortal
Beloved', and 'Beethoven Lives Upstairs.' Fortunately,
the world does consist of honest people who were and are
willing to nullify historic prevarications.
In Alexander Thayer's
Life of
Beethoven, vol.1, p. 134, the author states, “there
is none of that obscurity which exalts one to write
history as he would have it and not as it really
was. The facts are too patent.” On this same page, he
states that the German composer Franz Josef Haydn was
referred to as a “Moor” by Prince Esterhazy, and
Beethoven had “even more of the Moor in his looks.” On
p. 72, a Beethoven contemporary, Gottfried Fischer,
describes him as round-nosed and of dark complexion.
Also, he was called “der Spagnol” (the Spaniard).
Other “patent” sources, of which I
found many, include, but are not limited to, Beethoven
by Maynard Solomon, p.78. He is described as having
“thick, bristly coal-black hair” (in today's parlance,
we proudly call it “kinky”) and a “ruddy-complexioned
face.” In Beethoven: His Life and Times by
Artes Orga, p.72, Beethoven's pupil, Carl Czerny of the
“School of Velocity” fame, recalls that Beethoven's
“coal-black hair, cut a la Titus, stood up around his
head [sounds almost like an Afro]. His black
beard...darkened the lower part of his dark-complexioned
face.”
Also, in
The Changing Image of
Beethoven by Alexandra Comini, p.31, the author
relates the Czerny account using the word 'bristled' and
'shaggy' in reference to the composer's hair. On the
same page, a composite description is presented based on
eye-witness accounts: “his complexion was brownish, his
hair was thick, black and bristly.” I suggest that
his physical appearance was so strikingly uncommonplace,
that those who knew him and had seen him could do no
other than give an accurate description.
According to Alexander Thayer, p.
238, “A true and exhaustive picture of Beethoven as a
man would present an almost ludicrous contrast to that
which is generally entertained as correct. Sculptor and
painter in turn have idealized the work of his
predecessor, until the composer stands before us like a
Homeric god—until those who knew him personally, could
they return to earth, would never suspect that the grand
form and noble features . . . are intended to represent
. . . their old friend.”
According to the Sadie edition of
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p.392,
the most approximate impression we can expect of
the composer's physical appearance is the 1814 engraving
by Blasius Hofel and the 1812 life mask, which clearly
reveals his broad, flat nose (which can be seen in the
Jacobs book, pp.142-143, the Hofel portrait on p.
150.) The author of this edition of Grove's, p.
392, insists that the “idealized portraits and busts . .
. owe nothing to literal or even to poetic truth.” So a
picture is not always worth a thousand words.
In a just and equitable society a
person's skin color is supposed to be of no
consideration. Beethoven was a phenomenal genius and
during the many years of childhood and adult life when I
was unaware of his ethnic heritage, being constantly
confronted by persistent and insistent portrayals of his
image as White which I thought were correct, that just
did not matter. I saw him as a great composer whose
music I enjoyed listening to and performing.
Unfortunately, the European
oppressors, colonialists, and imperialists who
instituted a universal system based on color superiority
and color inferiority, falsifying and
suppressing evidence to exalt one people and debase
another have made it matter. Such perpetration of
academic theft was based on color, which makes color a
major consideration in the imperative of seeking
academic justice for the people whose great and
noble past was stolen and hidden from them to prevent
their aspiring to a great and noble present and future.
It is time to build that just and equitable society
that redresses academic pilferage, recognizing the
color-blindness of genius and the historic contributions
of all people thereby engendering understanding,
respect, and equality.
posted 15 February 2007
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Go, Tell Michelle
African American Women Write to the New First Lady
Edited Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and Peggy
Brooks-Bertram
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updated 2 October
2007
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