Monday, June 22, 2009
A Brief Delay
Apologies on the dearth of postings lately. I've been in the process of moving and the blog has suffered. New posts should begin appearing later in the week.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Piano Quartet in E flat major (1785)
Biamonti 12, WoO 36, #1
the Piano Quartet was not a particularly well-known genre in the early years of Beethoven's life, nor was the key of Eb-minor, owing to its difficulty for performers. Nonetheless, this didn't particularly stop Beethoven from writing this set of three early piano quartets, some say biting into the combination before even Mozart did so.
This first quartet, in two or three movement (the first leads attacca into the second), is a mixed bag. After a long and very satisfying Adagio in the singing style, a bold Allegro follows; the symphonic fragments of Hess 298 appear. Its propulsive energy is a result no doubt of its syncopated six-measure opening phrase as it is of its use of the Mannheim Rocket figuration (and what I'll call the Mannheim crash - a reverse Mannheim Rocket after the repeat sign). I'd be remiss not to add the oft-cited remark that the structure and harmonic goals of this work and the others of this collection owe a direct debt to Mozart's Sonatas for Violin and Piano; here K. 379.
The second half of this quartet - a Theme and Variations is utterly pedestrian.
the Piano Quartet was not a particularly well-known genre in the early years of Beethoven's life, nor was the key of Eb-minor, owing to its difficulty for performers. Nonetheless, this didn't particularly stop Beethoven from writing this set of three early piano quartets, some say biting into the combination before even Mozart did so.
This first quartet, in two or three movement (the first leads attacca into the second), is a mixed bag. After a long and very satisfying Adagio in the singing style, a bold Allegro follows; the symphonic fragments of Hess 298 appear. Its propulsive energy is a result no doubt of its syncopated six-measure opening phrase as it is of its use of the Mannheim Rocket figuration (and what I'll call the Mannheim crash - a reverse Mannheim Rocket after the repeat sign). I'd be remiss not to add the oft-cited remark that the structure and harmonic goals of this work and the others of this collection owe a direct debt to Mozart's Sonatas for Violin and Piano; here K. 379.
The second half of this quartet - a Theme and Variations is utterly pedestrian.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Sketch in C minor: sketch for a movement of a Symphony; unfinished (1785)
Biamonti 11; Hess 298
Beethoven was a meticulous sketch writer and filled pages and pages with often indecipherable music. Some pages he carried around with him to his death when they were sold to the publisher Artaria. One imagines that throughout his career Beethoven was looking for opportunities to clean up early works, which he had a certain fondness for, or else from a cynical perspective, cash in on his fame with pieces that could yield him a quick profit. Most composers - myself included - have piles of early sketches and pieces that they hold on to and hope to resurrect, so in this way these collections are nothing special. One of the most important sources of fragments and sketches from Beethoven's early years is what has been intriguingly refered to as the "Kafka Miscellany." There is no connection here to the writer, but rather to J.N. Kafka, a Viennese musician and collector who owned the pages for some time in the nineteenth century. The miscellany itself was published in an elegant dual volume facsimile and transcription edited by Joseph Kerman in 1973 and is currently in the possession of the British Museum.
Within this collection are numerous fragments and early drafts of known works including this: the first theme and beginning of the second theme of a first movement of a symphony. The first theme is a standard minor Mannheim Rocket (a rapid upward arpeggio) that develops somewhat, the second, a descending scale figure with Lombard snaps (the rhythm: sixteenth, dotted sixteenth or a variant): one of those things that, in good hands, could take off into something quite powerful. But here remains a tantalizing remnant.
The good folks at Unheard Beethoven have created a midi version of this.
Beethoven was a meticulous sketch writer and filled pages and pages with often indecipherable music. Some pages he carried around with him to his death when they were sold to the publisher Artaria. One imagines that throughout his career Beethoven was looking for opportunities to clean up early works, which he had a certain fondness for, or else from a cynical perspective, cash in on his fame with pieces that could yield him a quick profit. Most composers - myself included - have piles of early sketches and pieces that they hold on to and hope to resurrect, so in this way these collections are nothing special. One of the most important sources of fragments and sketches from Beethoven's early years is what has been intriguingly refered to as the "Kafka Miscellany." There is no connection here to the writer, but rather to J.N. Kafka, a Viennese musician and collector who owned the pages for some time in the nineteenth century. The miscellany itself was published in an elegant dual volume facsimile and transcription edited by Joseph Kerman in 1973 and is currently in the possession of the British Museum.
Within this collection are numerous fragments and early drafts of known works including this: the first theme and beginning of the second theme of a first movement of a symphony. The first theme is a standard minor Mannheim Rocket (a rapid upward arpeggio) that develops somewhat, the second, a descending scale figure with Lombard snaps (the rhythm: sixteenth, dotted sixteenth or a variant): one of those things that, in good hands, could take off into something quite powerful. But here remains a tantalizing remnant.
The good folks at Unheard Beethoven have created a midi version of this.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Concerto for Piano & Orchestra in E flat major (1784)
Biamonti 10; WoO 4
Among the papers found at Beethoven's death was the manuscript for this early concerto which has been treated exhaustively in Plantinga's tome: Beethoven Concertos: History, Style, Performance. The manuscript, a piano reduction that includes indications of Tutti and Solo and certain instrumental colors, is in the hand of a copyist with certain corrections by Beethoven. From this, Willy Hess, the Swiss musicologist and composer, created a performing edition. The result is a three-movement work in a galant style, nothing particularly remarkable. The themes are not chiseled as we would expect them to be in later Beethoven, the piano lacks thematic elegance and instead is a strong representative of the arpeggio school of piano concerto writing, going so far as to avoid the "theme" in the first movement. The Rondo has a catchy tune and a sprint into the minor, but all in all the concerto is nothing special. While it seems likely that this was composed for Beethoven to play, Plantinga reports that there is no documentary evidence of this.
Among the papers found at Beethoven's death was the manuscript for this early concerto which has been treated exhaustively in Plantinga's tome: Beethoven Concertos: History, Style, Performance. The manuscript, a piano reduction that includes indications of Tutti and Solo and certain instrumental colors, is in the hand of a copyist with certain corrections by Beethoven. From this, Willy Hess, the Swiss musicologist and composer, created a performing edition. The result is a three-movement work in a galant style, nothing particularly remarkable. The themes are not chiseled as we would expect them to be in later Beethoven, the piano lacks thematic elegance and instead is a strong representative of the arpeggio school of piano concerto writing, going so far as to avoid the "theme" in the first movement. The Rondo has a catchy tune and a sprint into the minor, but all in all the concerto is nothing special. While it seems likely that this was composed for Beethoven to play, Plantinga reports that there is no documentary evidence of this.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Song in A major: "An einen Säugling"; "Noch weisst du nicht, wes Kind du bist" (1783)
Biamonti 9; WoO 108
Like the previous song:"Schilderung eines Mädchens" this work, which translates to "To an Infant" was published as a one-off in Boßler's weekly musical magazine Blumenlese für Klavierliebhaber. Its quirky poetry relates the notion that soon each infant will realize that the woman nursing him or her is its mother; similarly, we, too, will realize the same about God. In SAT speak: infant:mother::we:God. To this odd sentiment, Beethoven writes an awkward Mozartean pastoral with a weak middle modulation in a volkstumliche - folksy - style, signalled by ubiquitous parallel thirds. The folksy style must be a conscious choice to make the music match the countryside ethos of the text: the only women nursing their own children at the time were the poor and the peasantry, certainly not the market of Boßler's magazine, intended as it was for the burgeoning middle class. That being said, I think Beethoven was too young to be making any point beyond that.
Somehow this work is not included in the Brilliant Classics edition.
Like the previous song:"Schilderung eines Mädchens" this work, which translates to "To an Infant" was published as a one-off in Boßler's weekly musical magazine Blumenlese für Klavierliebhaber. Its quirky poetry relates the notion that soon each infant will realize that the woman nursing him or her is its mother; similarly, we, too, will realize the same about God. In SAT speak: infant:mother::we:God. To this odd sentiment, Beethoven writes an awkward Mozartean pastoral with a weak middle modulation in a volkstumliche - folksy - style, signalled by ubiquitous parallel thirds. The folksy style must be a conscious choice to make the music match the countryside ethos of the text: the only women nursing their own children at the time were the poor and the peasantry, certainly not the market of Boßler's magazine, intended as it was for the burgeoning middle class. That being said, I think Beethoven was too young to be making any point beyond that.
Somehow this work is not included in the Brilliant Classics edition.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Allegretto for Piano Trio in E flat major (1783)
Biamonti 8; Hess 48
A miniature of Beethoven's youth: a minuet with a fragment of a trio. The minuet is in a dotted military rhythm with a small dissolutionary development. Competent.
A miniature of Beethoven's youth: a minuet with a fragment of a trio. The minuet is in a dotted military rhythm with a small dissolutionary development. Competent.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Song: "Schilderung eines Mädchens"; "Schildern, willst du Freund, soll ich dir
Biamonti 7; WoO 107
A strange little tune that almost seems a sketch for something else, all of 20 measures in a seemingly hybrid form, that amazingly, perhaps as a result of this brevity, still manages to sound so well put together. A dramatic moment at the rapid jarring diminished B is followed by an ending that seems new, yet has a closing function. Apparently it originally appeared in 1783 in Boßler's weekly musical magazine Blumenlese für Klavierliebhaber. Lockwood calls it "derivative."
A strange little tune that almost seems a sketch for something else, all of 20 measures in a seemingly hybrid form, that amazingly, perhaps as a result of this brevity, still manages to sound so well put together. A dramatic moment at the rapid jarring diminished B is followed by an ending that seems new, yet has a closing function. Apparently it originally appeared in 1783 in Boßler's weekly musical magazine Blumenlese für Klavierliebhaber. Lockwood calls it "derivative."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
