Bernard Chasan to Steve Schwartz's question:
>>When Beethoven and Haydn arrange British folk songs, do they
>>change from classical to popular?
>
>And the answer is- of course he changed. I assume that when Beethoven
>wrote a string quartet or a symphony his approach and his intent was quite
>different from his approach to his song settings. Which does not make the
>settings inferior- just small scale.
I would response the opposite way. The fact itself that those songs
need to be arranged proves that Beethoven was working there on a product
especially modified for his own social class (and/or higher). Any of
Beethoven's work came to us from oral tradition (that would surely happened
if Beethoven would ever change from classic to popular:-)
Pablo Massa
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