Biamonti 3, Hess 46
These are two fragments, one has the character of a minuet and may come from an intended minuet movement or variation movement, or perhaps even a final movement, the other perhaps episodes of a rondo. The first makes use of a canonic moments between violin and piano likely Beethoven is trying to be cute here - it bears some similarities to the “Spring” sonata. The rondo fragments move back and forth between the major and minor, I don’t get the sense that they are meant to be continuous. A recording exists on the Unheard Beethoven website.
Showing posts with label Sonata. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sonata. Show all posts
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Piano Sonata in D major: "Kurfürstensonate" (Electoral) #3 (1783)
Biamonti 2; WoO 47, #3
Throughout his career, Beethoven had a predilection for beginning works in the middle of things, establishing his opening tonality, not with a steady statement of I-IV-V-I as you might find in the opening of a Bach French Suite, but instead beginning obliquely jumping in on the V or the V of V before cadencing on the I. This technique is actually pretty well-known in the world of the Great American Songbook, look at the opening of many of the Gershwin favorites, for instance, but is not something that is generally taught in textbook beginnings. In Beethoven, the most well-known example of this is perhaps the long introduction to his First Symphony, but other examples are equally legion. These include, Beethoven’s first usage of this technique, in the first and last movements of this, the most successful of the Kurfürstensonaten. In the first movement, a jolly pastoral with a strong Mozartean cast, though still an element of pastiche, the theme begins on an upbeat, giving a sense of V-I that is very appealing. In the final, we begin in the middle of a circle of fifths sequence before cadencing on the tonic. Presumably from a semiotic standpoint Beethoven is trying to signal that we are beginning in medias res, and perhaps reflecting in the pastoral of the first movement a more heroic or classical form.
Oddly, until recently this was viewed as an anomaly, an anomaly that L. Poundie Burstein has tried to rectify with his award-winning article of 2005: The Off-Tonic Return in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58, and Other Works. In it, Burstein outlines four different normative strategies for bringing back a theme that doesn’t start on the tonic. The first movement here evidences the technique of using the end of the development as a half-cadence, while the final movement ends the development similarly but takes longer to get to the tonic.
The second movement is a series of variations on a minuet in the greater diminution style that is also appealing. All three movements are pleasurable to play, but not masterpieces in any reckoning.
Throughout his career, Beethoven had a predilection for beginning works in the middle of things, establishing his opening tonality, not with a steady statement of I-IV-V-I as you might find in the opening of a Bach French Suite, but instead beginning obliquely jumping in on the V or the V of V before cadencing on the I. This technique is actually pretty well-known in the world of the Great American Songbook, look at the opening of many of the Gershwin favorites, for instance, but is not something that is generally taught in textbook beginnings. In Beethoven, the most well-known example of this is perhaps the long introduction to his First Symphony, but other examples are equally legion. These include, Beethoven’s first usage of this technique, in the first and last movements of this, the most successful of the Kurfürstensonaten. In the first movement, a jolly pastoral with a strong Mozartean cast, though still an element of pastiche, the theme begins on an upbeat, giving a sense of V-I that is very appealing. In the final, we begin in the middle of a circle of fifths sequence before cadencing on the tonic. Presumably from a semiotic standpoint Beethoven is trying to signal that we are beginning in medias res, and perhaps reflecting in the pastoral of the first movement a more heroic or classical form.
Oddly, until recently this was viewed as an anomaly, an anomaly that L. Poundie Burstein has tried to rectify with his award-winning article of 2005: The Off-Tonic Return in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58, and Other Works. In it, Burstein outlines four different normative strategies for bringing back a theme that doesn’t start on the tonic. The first movement here evidences the technique of using the end of the development as a half-cadence, while the final movement ends the development similarly but takes longer to get to the tonic.
The second movement is a series of variations on a minuet in the greater diminution style that is also appealing. All three movements are pleasurable to play, but not masterpieces in any reckoning.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Piano Sonata in F minor: "Kurfürstensonate" (Electoral) #2 (1783)
Biamonti 2; WoO 47, #2
This second of Beethoven’s Kurfürstensonaten, or Elector Sonatas, begins with a dramatic dotted rhythm and large chords. It then moves into a pastiche of typical galant gestures; the rapid descending passagework, the Murki bass, the Mozartean tremolando closing figures. We get intimations of famous moments – consider the ascending dyads in measures 11-12 in relation to the Pathetique Sonata for instance. The Sonata form is slightly more assured, he gives us a recapitulation, but the introduction ends up serving as a retransition back to that first theme.
The second movement is more tuneful but overloaded with unfulfilling passagework. Like the WoO 47, #1, it references the material from the first movement, but ultimately I get the sense of a dice game of materials, phrases and gestures tied together with little sense for their overall meaning or any throughline.
This second of Beethoven’s Kurfürstensonaten, or Elector Sonatas, begins with a dramatic dotted rhythm and large chords. It then moves into a pastiche of typical galant gestures; the rapid descending passagework, the Murki bass, the Mozartean tremolando closing figures. We get intimations of famous moments – consider the ascending dyads in measures 11-12 in relation to the Pathetique Sonata for instance. The Sonata form is slightly more assured, he gives us a recapitulation, but the introduction ends up serving as a retransition back to that first theme.
The second movement is more tuneful but overloaded with unfulfilling passagework. Like the WoO 47, #1, it references the material from the first movement, but ultimately I get the sense of a dice game of materials, phrases and gestures tied together with little sense for their overall meaning or any throughline.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Piano Sonata in E flat major: "Kurfürstensonate" (Electoral) #1 (1783)
Biamonti 2; WoO 47, #1
A simple sonatina in the Haydn mode. In his 1949 article Harmonic Aspects of Classic Form Leonard Ratner lays out the now widely accepted notion that sonata form should be as well understood in its harmonic binary-ness as it is in its bithematicism. That is to say, the notion that a Sonata has two conflicting themes or two conflicting theme-groups that reconcile in the work’s recapitulation needs to be balanced by an understanding of a larger scale harmonic progression from the tonic to the dominant and back again or its overall debt to binary form. In a typical binary form, say an Allemande from a Bach French Suite, the harmonic motion is from a tonic to a dominant with a foray into a relative minor in the first half of the B section before returning to the initial tonality. Thematically, it tends to spin out one them. In a Sonata, at its most basic level, we have the same harmonic journey, but add to it (at least) two primary themes, each in its own key. When these themes recur at the end of the work, the second has been altered to match the key of the first.
The first movement of this early sonata exists in a land somewhat in between. It maps the harmonic journey of the sonata and the second theme recurs in the tonic at the end after a developmental sequence, but the first theme only returns after the repeat, and in the dominant much like a standard work in binary form. This seems to me reminiscent of early Haydn piano sonatas, but I haven’t explored those very much. If we assume that Beethoven knew what he was doing, and I’m not certain that he did – the work seems to bear the sense of being composed left to right – we are probably seeing a transitional mid-century sonata variant akin to some of the types outlined by Rosen in his study Sonata Forms.
Moving on, the Andante demonstrates Beethoven’s lack of skill with its awkward phrase endings and the rondo is a bit more assured with its jolly head motive, but not particularly good or memorable.
A simple sonatina in the Haydn mode. In his 1949 article Harmonic Aspects of Classic Form Leonard Ratner lays out the now widely accepted notion that sonata form should be as well understood in its harmonic binary-ness as it is in its bithematicism. That is to say, the notion that a Sonata has two conflicting themes or two conflicting theme-groups that reconcile in the work’s recapitulation needs to be balanced by an understanding of a larger scale harmonic progression from the tonic to the dominant and back again or its overall debt to binary form. In a typical binary form, say an Allemande from a Bach French Suite, the harmonic motion is from a tonic to a dominant with a foray into a relative minor in the first half of the B section before returning to the initial tonality. Thematically, it tends to spin out one them. In a Sonata, at its most basic level, we have the same harmonic journey, but add to it (at least) two primary themes, each in its own key. When these themes recur at the end of the work, the second has been altered to match the key of the first.
The first movement of this early sonata exists in a land somewhat in between. It maps the harmonic journey of the sonata and the second theme recurs in the tonic at the end after a developmental sequence, but the first theme only returns after the repeat, and in the dominant much like a standard work in binary form. This seems to me reminiscent of early Haydn piano sonatas, but I haven’t explored those very much. If we assume that Beethoven knew what he was doing, and I’m not certain that he did – the work seems to bear the sense of being composed left to right – we are probably seeing a transitional mid-century sonata variant akin to some of the types outlined by Rosen in his study Sonata Forms.
Moving on, the Andante demonstrates Beethoven’s lack of skill with its awkward phrase endings and the rondo is a bit more assured with its jolly head motive, but not particularly good or memorable.
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