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Beethoven Sonata for Piano and Violin, Op. 96, mvt. 3 — Theme and Variations |
Variations are about the tense relationship between musical memory and musical invention. The more one invents, the more there is to remember, and the easier it becomes to forget. For Beethoven, a composer who aimed always to keep 'the whole in view', variations were a perpetually fruitful form for exploring the borders of expression while maintaining a sense of an anchored narrative. By the end of his life and career, he would push the borders of invention to the point of breaking his own variations. The variations of the last movement of the Violin Sonata, Op. 96, begin to show how this breakage would work.
As a starting point, one might do well to bear in mind that although Beethoven is remembered for his written works (works which are remembered in no small part because they were written down in the first place), his unwritten works—his improvisations--were said to have been at least equally powerful. So we can take this page to consider a "theme and variation" movement almost as a sort of jazz standard, with 1) a memorable, simple theme which can function as its own little piece; 2) a sequence of chords under the theme; and 3) a sequence of pieces (variations) built upon the memory of that first little piece. And that is enough to begin to hear their musical behaviour. The process of writing would certainly have brought further invention and refinement.
The audio players contain measurements of harmonic content in the live audio, colouring harmonies which are close to one another in harmonic function as close on the visible spectrum. If you would like to learn more about these audio players, click here
As a starting point, one might do well to bear in mind that although Beethoven is remembered for his written works (works which are remembered in no small part because they were written down in the first place), his unwritten works—his improvisations--were said to have been at least equally powerful. So we can take this page to consider a "theme and variation" movement almost as a sort of jazz standard, with 1) a memorable, simple theme which can function as its own little piece; 2) a sequence of chords under the theme; and 3) a sequence of pieces (variations) built upon the memory of that first little piece. And that is enough to begin to hear their musical behaviour. The process of writing would certainly have brought further invention and refinement.
The audio players contain measurements of harmonic content in the live audio, colouring harmonies which are close to one another in harmonic function as close on the visible spectrum. If you would like to learn more about these audio players, click here
Theme
Here then, is the modest little piece upon which the whole series of variations rests:
It's an unassuming theme. The piano plays the first half of the melody once, and the violin once; the piano plays the second half once, the violin once. It is a familiar scheme, not far from Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. But something weird happens in the second half--at the part marked in blue-green. The piece is essentially in the key of 'orange' (G Major), but there comes a 'green' key (B Major), which brings a strange, slightly hard-to-hear harmonic shift. This turn is not jarring, but it still is a little bit... off: a bright daydream inside a bright daydream, a turn of the head counter-clockwise. This harmonic pattern will repeat itself in every variation--until suddenly it doesn't.
Variation 1
The first variation just drifts away. Where one might expect to find a few ornaments on top of the recently-introduced theme, or at least a kind of quickening, this first variation turns toward wavelike abstractions. It is immediately rather hard to remember the first variation—even to remember its mood--as almost every corner of its contours has been knocked off. The harmony and basic landscape remain (as the color scheme suggests), but now dialogue between violin and piano drive the plot. It is as though the first step were to clean the air of the theme itself.
Variation 2
The second variation seems to be formed from small trumpet-triumphs and little reminiscences of the birdcall opening of the first movement. Little licks of the theme create an element of memory, but it still seems to be the unmistakeable blue-green harmony that's keeping the music tethered to the idea of theme.
Variation 3
The third variation is even more abstract than the first, as though the theme had walked though a door and come out transformed to a Bach prelude. Traces of the original melody are evident, but they are stretched and pulled. The harmony remains, but it too is beginning to strain.
Variation 4
The fourth variation explodes upwards, and then rains gently downwards, and then explodes upwards, and then rains gently downwards, and then explodes upwards... and so on. It seems like it's going to really get somewhere and make a big finale, but instead it keeps calming itself down. And down...
Variation 5
... until it calms itself down too much, and loses its moorings, falling into a dreamlike version of its theme, almost removed from time into a barely perceptible 6/8 meter--roughly calculated, it's about twelve times as slow (thankfully, it doesn't repeat each section). On top of that it wanders into strange chromatic arabesques...
Variation 5a (tail)
... which eventually lead into more distant harmonies....
Variation 6 (false start - wrong key)
And then it finds itself, and starts a theme. But the key is wrong. Not orange (G Major) or even blue-green (B major), but purple (E-flat Major)
remembering the key...
Then, it finds its way back, as though reminded, to G Major:
Variation 7 (pseudo-finale)
And it seems like everything is going to be fine. The theme is once again recognisable, and the fast notes run along, un-bothered. The form is back.
(pseudo-coda)
Things could be coming to an end. A big finale seems close at hand.
Variation 8 (cryptic fugue)
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But then, as though from the distant past, a fugue appears, and the sense of harmonic mooring seems lost again. The best connection between this variation and the theme is in the fugue subject and melody, which you can hear at right.
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Variation 9 (finale? no repeats)
The escape from the fugue really seems like it has found a solution. We breeze through the main theme, very clearly now, without repeats.
(coda)
The usual fireworks begin.
(pseudo-b-section)
A final reminiscence of the blue-green second half of the theme...
Enough already.
Enough already. Finish.
The form of the piece seems almost to dramatise a debate with Pierre Rode, the violinist who premiered it: "I did not make great haste in the last movement for the sake of mere punctuality," Beethoven wrote to the Archduke, "the more because, in writing it, I had to consider the playing of Rode. In our finales we like rushing and resounding passages, but this does not please R and--this hinders me somewhat." But in the end, Beethoven wins. Or maybe the Archduke. Or whoever wants a resounding passage to end things.