My Music Blog

Beethoven did not find composition effortless and easy as was the case with other composers such as Mozart or Schubert. His process of musical composition was often a little tortured with numerous scribbling, scraps and rewrites being done before finally the piece was complete.

It’s one of the things which made it hard at times for him to keep track of his various works in progress as he was not the most organized of people and in fact had a male secretary to assist him in his various affairs.

He was known to frequently enjoy walks among the woods on the outskirts of Vienna and each summer would go away to the countryside where he would spend more time walking. He cherished nature and would carry a notebook and pencil with him on his excursions, jotting down melodic ideas and sketching vague musical structures. If you look at Beethoven’s writing it’s rather hard to decipher and difficult to read, especially in the informal sketches.

A lot of what at first glance may have seemed innocent doodling would eventually morph into majestic symphonies, concertos and sonatas. It seems that Beethoven’s mind would come up with the initial idea quite spontaneously but then require time to gestate before the rewriting would begin. He would rewrite over and over and over until it was perfect.

This process is in stark contrast to Mozart where the pieces were already perfectly finished in his head before he even put pen to paper, in effect he was simply writing out what he had already finished composing.

These facts do not make Beethoven any less or any more of a composer than Mozart – just that the process of how they composed was very different. In each case however, the results were equally as sublime.