But what if you are a rock musician, or a serious guitar devotee? Perhaps you have listened to every famous rock guitarist from the '50's until today. Perhaps you have mastered many styles but found Hendrix impossible to imitate. You may be aware of how Hendrix's influence has touched almost every guitarist who came after him. To you, Beethoven may seem ancient and irrelevant. Thus you may feel that Hendrix is greater.
A good place to start comparing the two is on the mastery each had over various aspects of music. Hendrix was clearly a great electric guitarist, some would say the greatest. He had a certain sensual energy and intense emotional power in his performances that no other instrumentalist could replicate. He was also an excellent improviser, combining elements of rock and the blues and sound textures that he created with his guitar using feedback and other techniques. He surprised listeners with his imitations of the sounds of sirens, guns, bombs, etc. A veteran of the army, Hendrix somehow was able to recreate the sounds and the feelings of modern warfare in his music. His powerful compositions helped fuel the American anti-war movement, along with the compositions of other rock groups from his era.
Beethoven was a great pianist. Like Hendrix, he pushed the boundaries of his instrument further than they had ever gone before. He had an emotional power in his playing that had never been known before. Beethoven also played the viola, and had an intimate familiarity with every other concert instrument of his day. We know this because he wrote brilliantly for virtually every instrument in the orchestra. Not only did he use all of them in his symphonies, but he wrote sonatas and concertos for many instruments. He also wrote the most complex and meaningful string quartets ever written, and wrote much vocal music including masses, an opera, and many songs for voice and piano. He was known as a great improviser and could create intricate pieces instantly with melodies offered to him by onlookers.
Hendrix's compositions, in general, were not particularly innovative. He typically wrote rock songs that were variations on the basic blues formula used in many other rock songs. He recorded a few extended compositions that were based on stream of consciousness jams, which, while unique in sound and of the highest quality, were not unlike jams of other groups at that time, such as the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Starship. It is primarily as a guitarist that Hendrix is revered.
Beethoven made several significant innovations in composition. He inherited the symphony from Haydn, but made a number of changes. One of the most obvious was his replacement of the minuet movement of the symphony with his invention, the scherzo. The minuet was a courtly dance in 3/4 time, while the scherzo (which means joke) was a fast and wild movement fused with a rough humor never dared by his contemporaries. Beethoven also extended the length of the movements in the symphony and added an emotional level that was never tapped before. Another innovation was his use of the trombones, which made their dramatic debut in the symphonic literature in the last movement of his 5th Symphony. In that symphony, he also added a second coda to the first movement, which had never been done before by anyone in any piece of music.
What about influence? Hendrix influenced many of the rock guitarists who were playing when he was alive, and he continues to influence young rock guitarists. His influence has extended to other instruments as well. Many of his songs are still covered in venues across the country, and continue to be heard on radio and television.
Beethoven is credited with starting the Romantic Period in music. You can hear a distinct change in the sound of classical music before and after him. Among the composers who were influenced by him were Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz, Mendelshonn, Liszt, Dvorak, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, Strauss, and Brahms. In fact, Beethoven's influence can be strongly felt in virtually every composer of note that followed him for the next hundred years, until the innovations of Debussy. Indeed, the whole romantic era can be looked upon as a commentary on the musical ideas and concepts of Beethoven.
Beethoven was the trailblazer of the concept of the musician/artist. Before him, there were musicians who were great artists, but they were looked upon by society as the servants of their powerful benefactors (usually royalty or clergy). Even the great J.S. Bach used to sign letters to his patrons, "Your Humble Servant." Beethoven lived during the revolutionary times known as "The Enlightenment." He became a leader in the struggle for equality. He risked his freedom, and even his life, by talking back to, and even insulting, royalty who did not show him the respect he felt he deserved. For instance, he was known to make outbursts during his concerts if people talked while he played, no matter what their station. There is also the famous story about the time he was walking down the street with Goethe, the great author. Goethe saw some royalty approaching, so he stepped off the sidewalk to let them pass, as was the custom. Beethoven refused to step aside. Amazed at his daring, Goethe questioned his actions. Beethoven said that there were many princes in the world but only one Beethoven and therefore, they should step aside for him! Only a man of great talent and inner strength could get away with that. It is known that he dedicated his third symphony to Napoleon, whom he saw as a great liberator. Yet, when Napoleon declared himself emperor, Beethoven ripped the dedication off the score and trampled it! Such were the actions of a musician who remains a legend to this day.
Jimi Hendrix was indeed a trail blazer in his own right. He created sounds from his electric guitar that had never been dreamed of before. He also used amplifier feedback to create colors that were unknown. Hendrix sonically turned his guitar into a whole battlefield. He made music of an intensity never heard before. His anti-war music in particular, was extremely powerful. His persona was that of someone unafraid to break down barriers, musical and social. He spoke of a world of tolerance and acceptance.
Yet, without Beethoven there would have been no Hendrix. Beethoven was, in a sense, the first "rock star." He was the first musician to stand up to authority and say that talent makes one more important than money or title. He was the first to stand up and say that an artist has the right, if not the duty, to express his own unique vision. He was the first musician to use his popularity to make critical comments about the inequities of society and to stand up to power. He started the trend of the great musical rebel, a trend that was later picked up by Elvis, Lennon, and Hendrix.
As one can see, when you do a detailed comparison between these two great musicians, the differences speak for themselves. But Hendrix fans shouldn't feel bad: even musicians as great as Brahms and Wagner made comments about how much greater they thought Beethoven was than themselves. Beethoven was a phenomenon and renaissance man.
Hendrix was a great musician, but was he greater than Miles Davis? Was he greater than Coltrane, Parker, or Armstrong? Can we even say that he was greater than Frank Sinatra? After all, Sinatra was the most influential singer of his generation. Miles Davis revolutionized the trumpet, and Parker and Coltrane the sax. They influenced most of those who followed on their instruments. I would say that Hendrix fits in somewhere in this category; that of the great and influential instrumentalist. He may even be comparable to some famous classical musicians who are best known for performing on, and composing for, one instrument, like Chopin, Paganinni, or Liszt. Yet even they are not thought of as being in the same category as Beethoven.
If you think about it objectively, you will see that there are no musicians in popular music today that can come anywhere near Beethoven, in terms of his wide ranging knowledge and ability in all kinds of areas of music. For instance, how many rock stars could compose a symphony, let alone a symphony of the size and complexity of Beethoven's 9th? Most rock stars, if they compose at all, just write songs, others only play their instruments, some sing and dance, others just rap or talk to a beat. Even among those musicians who could potentially compose a symphony, such as modern day classical composers, we don't hear music of the power and influence of Beethoven.
I think we must come to terms with the reality that the era of the great composers is over. Mankind has hit the heights and depths that music can reach. Now humanity is attempting to hit the heights and depths of other fields of endeavor. Yes, there will always be great musicians, but just as we no longer have a Shakespeare writing plays, or a Da Vinci doing portraits, we no longer have a Beethoven writing symphonies. We should rejoice that there ever was a Beethoven, and while there will always be a need for new music, we should never forget the roots of western music and should give credit to whom it is due. The fact of Beethoven's towering influence does not make Hendrix any less exciting, less vital or less influential. Hendrix had a raw energy and a power that can never be diminished. Every talented musician has his own unique greatness. Nevertheless, no matter how strong our emotional bond may be with any particular artist, we must be aware of the larger picture and not let emotions blind us. We can still appreciate new music and create new music, while acknowledging that there once was a giant stamping his feet in the primordial jungle of western music!
