Audio & Insight |
Beethoven Sonata for Piano, Op. 109 in A Major, mvt. 3 |
At the beginning of the third movement, Beethoven gives instructions in two languages. In Italian: "moving (though not quickly), very singing and expressive." In German: "singing, with deepest (most inward) feeling." The sentences are similar, but they are not the same.
It seems natural that Beethoven would use the German language for his description of 'deepest feeling', if only because German was the language in which he could say what he felt. And although there is indeed a group of cultural ideas built up around Empfindung, it is at least equally important to see that it would make sense for a child of Bonn to use a German word if he wanted to use his own voice. Additionally, Beethoven's Italian was not particularly effective outside the vocabulary of musical conventions, so if he really wanted something to make sense, he was wise to choose his native language over the lingua della musica.
Following the spirit of the German words, there is a kind of closeness to these variations. They don't have to go far to end up far from home, though they must use fairly subtle strategies to do so. Even casually scrolling down this page, one can see that the tonality stays for the most part quite comfortably in the green-blue vicinity of E Major, with few disturbances. Amidst this calm, though, there is a slippery challenge for the thematic memory. The variations seem to trace the gradual opening up of a single, inward musical purpose until they find a way, at the end, to make everything take flight.
If you are curious about the colourful harmony-based audio players, you can find out more if you click here
It seems natural that Beethoven would use the German language for his description of 'deepest feeling', if only because German was the language in which he could say what he felt. And although there is indeed a group of cultural ideas built up around Empfindung, it is at least equally important to see that it would make sense for a child of Bonn to use a German word if he wanted to use his own voice. Additionally, Beethoven's Italian was not particularly effective outside the vocabulary of musical conventions, so if he really wanted something to make sense, he was wise to choose his native language over the lingua della musica.
Following the spirit of the German words, there is a kind of closeness to these variations. They don't have to go far to end up far from home, though they must use fairly subtle strategies to do so. Even casually scrolling down this page, one can see that the tonality stays for the most part quite comfortably in the green-blue vicinity of E Major, with few disturbances. Amidst this calm, though, there is a slippery challenge for the thematic memory. The variations seem to trace the gradual opening up of a single, inward musical purpose until they find a way, at the end, to make everything take flight.
If you are curious about the colourful harmony-based audio players, you can find out more if you click here
Theme
To begin, all is quiet, marked mezza voce. the basic rhythm is lilting, almost ceremonial, with a fairly light first beat and roughly equivalent second beat.
Variation 1 - molto espressivo
The first variation is close enough to the the theme, and contains a melodic outline strong enough that it can sometimes be hard to differentiate as a step beyond the original theme. On first hearing, it can seem as though this melody contains the real 'theme', and the first iteration serves more as an enigmatic musical source. In any case, it is slightly more dance-like, a bit more expansive, and more overtly singing than the theme. The mezza voce marking of the main theme opens up here to molto espressivo.
Variation 2 - Leggieramente
The second variation is two variations in one. It begins as a sort of game, low pairs of notes against high ones, with the high ones carrying the notes of the theme (you can sing along if you remember the theme, and it is peculiarly informative to do so—you can feel how, when these pairs of notes are combined with the theme, there is a texture similar to that of the opening of the first movement).
Then, suddenly, there is a repeat which is not a repeat at all, a smooth motion marked teneramente ('tenderly') with chords, then the high/low pairings of the variations start come closer together, and smoothed. It also begins to venture further from the contour of the theme. The part marked in yellow, about 3/4 of the way through, contains an audible and sensible departure from the previous patterns.
Then, suddenly, there is a repeat which is not a repeat at all, a smooth motion marked teneramente ('tenderly') with chords, then the high/low pairings of the variations start come closer together, and smoothed. It also begins to venture further from the contour of the theme. The part marked in yellow, about 3/4 of the way through, contains an audible and sensible departure from the previous patterns.
Variation 3 - Allegro vivace
The third variation comes out of nowhere. In order to keep the theme in your head above it, you'd have to imagine it about three times as fast, and take it out of its 3/4 frame. It's almost a joke.
Variation 4 - Etwas Langsamer als das Tema.
Un poco meno andante ciò e un poco più adagio come il tema.
(piacevole -- 'pleasant') There are rather a lot of verbal instructions for something which ought to flow, a little slowly, and pleasantly, However, the rhythmic distance from the main theme is surprisingly large. The music becomes so flowing that it seems to reduce the theme to a kind of liquid.
Variation 5 - Allegro, ma non troppo
The fifth variation squares things up quickly. It is a fugue, self-consciously studious and Bach-like, a little puzzling. Rather than being strictly AABB like the main theme, it has what sounds like a third B section, giving it a kind of definitive confidence. Or perhaps there is a proto-b section in the middle... it's a little bit bent, even as it remains familiar.
Variation 6 - Tempo primo del tema.
A whole range of dimensions come together create growth in this variation; it escapes, it opens (the literal "growth" in the word crescendo is very clear to see in the waveform). The variation begins with a version of the theme which is a kind of aerodynamic abstraction of the original, and it takes off. One of the mechanisms of crescendo which is clear to see is the increase in the speed of the notes, as they move from quarters:
to eighths:
to triplets:
to triplet-sixteenths:
to thirty-second notes with the theme doubling its pace (for the repeat of the A section of the theme):
to double trills with the theme tripling its pace (for the second half of the second A section):
to the first version B section, where it explodes over a low trill:
to the second version B section, the theme thrown high into the air over a trill and cascades of scales in the left hand:
This is the only variation which hangs on for longer than sixteen bars. It uses the extension simply to descend.
It is as though Variation 6 has eight variations stuffed inside of it, each more explosive than the last... or perhaps it should be viewed as a single process.
It is as though Variation 6 has eight variations stuffed inside of it, each more explosive than the last... or perhaps it should be viewed as a single process.
Variation 7 (Theme)
The last variation doesn't have its own title, and doesn't really need one. It's just the original theme, unadorned, without repeats, probably with innigster Empfindung, but by now there's no need to press the point.
© Timothy Summers