Divinity in Romantic Music And Poetry

“Bach’s music is expressive but not romantic, because it expresses the love to God instead of personal feelings.”

The quote above from the Beethoven lecture interests me. Although it is about the significance of divinity in Bach’s music, it reflects how the idea of divinity is used in Beethoven’s music and other works in the Romantic Era. Beethoven is fond with the idea of divinity and he uses it in plenty of works, such as his Piano Sonata 110, Symphony 9, etc. How does he use the idea differently from Bach so that it contributes to romanticism? Bach expresses his love and awe to God in his music, without showing his personal feelings; While Beethoven relates divinity to his personal feelings or human feelings, making it the salvation of human in a sorrowful world. And the expression of human feelings plays a fundamental role in romanticism. In the third movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata 110, the sorrowful arioso alternates with the peaceful fugue. The arioso, written in minor mode, is gloomy and secular; while the fugue, written in major mode, is light and sacred. The alternation represents the man’s moving between the painful human world and the heaven. And it sounds like he suffers from his life and cries sadly. Suddenly he finds that all the sorrows are gone. But he realizes shortly that he is still in pain. Where are the happiness and peace? Are they just illusions? They might not be. Finally the happiness and peace return and the movement ends joyfully. Thus, Beethoven presents the connection between divinity and the human world, paying a lot of attention to human feelings. Here is a link to Alfred Brendel's performance of the third movtment of Beethoven's Piano Sonata 110.

Besides Beethoven, lots of composers and poets in the romantic period connect divinity with the human world. Take Hemans’ “Evening Prayer” as another example. In Stanza 6, Hemans shows how desperate life is in the words “Watching the stars out by the bed of pain…And a true heart of hope, though hope be vain”. (Line 32-34). At the end of the stanza, she says, “Therefore pray!”(Line 36). Thus, Hemans tells the girls that life is desperate and painful. But if you pray to God, he will save you.