Beethoven actually advocated far-left Napoleonistic policies himself...
Beethoven may have had left-wing beliefs, but his music is non-political.
Thus he was a leftist, against the monarchies.
Mozart was a free-mason.
Haydn was working for the Esterhazys. That's a difference.
Music and art are never un-political.
How can Music be political?
Paining and sculpture? Yes.
Literature? Of course.
But music?
Explain to me the politics of Beethoven's piano sonatas, string quartets, symphonies (save number 9)? I'm not speaking of Words and music. That's another matter. But again, it is the words that are at fault, not the music.
ALL music is political, and that has nothing to do with words.
The mere fact that Beethoven abandons the rules of strict sonate-forms , as set by Haydn,
[and liszt even more....]
Well, for me, all art/music/ is by definition a political statement.
Pop-music, is a statement of intelectual ultra-liberalism; or middle-class stupidity.
Rap is a statement of anti-whiteism.
But those styles are not music, or texts
that is just rubbish.
Real Music/without vocals:
is a political statement, or an expression of a revolutionairy Zeitgeist, or a more conservative Spirit.
Palestrina e.g. is much more conservative than Luigi Nono (communist a**hole).
Palestrina struggled to have polyphonic music in the Church-mass,
in a moment that some cardinals wanted to abolish the use of polyfony, and surely polytextual, multi-lingual works.
Lots of Renaissance composers wrote a French song (slightly pornographic sometimes
, crazy times,....) on a Latin Cantus Firmus,
with an German folksong and a Flemish poem e.g.
That style was forbidden, and then Palestrina-style, with understandable vocals were the only allowed style.
There is a relation between the philosophy and compositional method of the Barok as well.
Romanticism is a paradigm in art, that is aiming to express PERSONAL feelings.
Barok never intended that.
Mozart wrote all works on demand.
Never wrote anything without getting an order.
Bach, Haydn e.g. were servants.
They couldn't write music, that was so unconventional like Beethoven did.
The function of Barok and Classic/Romantic music is different. "Zeitgeist"
The music [musak] of contemporary composers such as Stockhausen ...
isn't that ringing a bell , that we are living in a weird time
