July 2011

July 2011

Monday 26 March 2012

Want to write a fugue?

So you want to write a fugue?


Glenn Gould once wrote a brilliant spoof on the 'cleverness' and 'nerves' needed to write a fugue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2JFgfc7c70

Constanze Mozart
And you can imagine in the Mozart household, 'frau Mozart' - venting her frustration about the merit of Mozart's (economical) skills - whilst a vase was finding its way through the air towards 'herr Mozart's head: 


"Why don't you ever write a fugue?"


It was such a baroque thing in those days! 


But Mozart finally did in his Requiem, although the end result frightfully resembled Bach's Well Tempered Clavier!


Bach's WTC II a minor fugue


Beethoven though did have the cleverness and the nerves to write fugues. And made the form classical and his own!


Apart from his 2nd piano concerto, which he really wrote before his first, in his Piano Sonatas already in no. 6 he will start using fugal forms and there is nothing baroque-ish about them! 


Opening 3rd movement Opus 10.2

Beware the tempo though and it is good to consider that this Sonata is a tribute to Joseph Haydn and his 2/4 is really to be thought as 4 8's and not in two! There is hence no need to emulate the dazzling speed chosen by most modern pianists, although it seems to be part of the fun! Let it settle over the years! In typical Beethoven manner this final movement is also in Sonata Form and hence is NO  rondo!
Opus 10.2 opening.
The first movement likewise is in 2/4 and in typical Joseph Haydn style, watch those little motives so typical of Haydn. Beethoven has stepped down to the level of the general piano player of his days and he will have that player in mind for the foreseeable future. The sonata also has only three movements instead of four, which seemed to have suited Beethoven's desire to please the publishers.  


The second movement is Minuet and Trio, but really Scherzo and Trio and like the first movement shouts Joseph Haydn all over! But as a tribute, not as an imitation of Haydn's music!


Beethoven must have been in a really jolly mood when he started his final movement! But the fugue as form will stay with him and especially in his final period will elevate his music to a level which stands on its own, transcended above any musical style, also without any consideration of a the ability of the pianists to play them...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K9dHNH1Wps  


Barenboim plays the second movement with great drama and then the fugue... starting at 4.14. Don't try that at home! Even he at 5:23 looses a bit of control, well.. hardly!

Sunday 11 March 2012

Grand Sonata


Opus 7


Eb major or C minor is Beethoven's favourite key for sure. Composers do certain things in certain keys and the texture of a work in a certain key often is elaborated upon in later works in the same key. 


Study of the Sonatas, which have 3 flats is an enlightening enterprise in itself. 7 out of the 32 sonatas use that key signature and you can follow the development. Beethoven final sonata will be in C-minor and..... refer back to the Pathetique.


Opus 7 is his fourth Sonata and is a grand sonata. After this sonata Beethoven, during a long period, will scale down the length of his sonatas. Beethoven probably realised it is one thing to write grand sonatas for the piano, but it is another thing for the general public to be able to play them!
Opening Opus 7
The opening of this sonata will be elaborated upon in the famous Pathetique Sonata (no. 8), which also claws back material from sonata no. 5 also in C minor. 




Pathetique


Pathetique final mvnt
Opus 10 Middle Mvnt











Beethoven then keeps building on what he has done in previous sonatas en continues to refer to material already used. That is nothing unusual. That is how composers develop and how you can see that a work is written by a certain composer. 


J.B. Lully Royal Music-standard Enforcer
But in Beethoven's art it goes well beyond what composers do in the baroque period, namely writing the same music again and again. 


Handel is a notorious example. 


Or for instance Jean Baptiste Lully, who at the age of 18 concluded he now had mastered the art and knew it all. And put himself at the head of the Royal controlled art establishment to inspire other composers to do likewise...


Nothing like that in Beethoven's art. Beethoven continues to develop and explore what more can be done with the same material.


Opus 7 mvnt 2


The second movement is absolutely divine and one of my favourites. The long lines and long pauses give it so much momentum that it captivates the listener. "Ah", said the lady sitting next to me in the concert hall, whom I had never met, after listening to this movement. "This is so much better than sex". 


Further down Beethoven will give his staccato left hand above which the right hand plays a beautiful line in legato. An effect he will use very often in his later sonatas. 






Then follows the minuet and trio of which really the trio is remarkable. Presented in Eb minor (6 flats) it is truely captivating. When you hear it the first time, you will stop with what you are doing and drop your pencil in amazement. 


The final movement is Beethoven's first attempt to write a rondo. A real rondo that is, not a sonata form movement. And the simplicity of the form is just not for him! The B-sections deviate into variations and at the end Beethoven does something, which (thank God!) he will never ever do again. 


The Lloyd Webber modulation!




That is: you end in a certain key: just move up a semi-tone and repeat the whole thing a semitone higher. Andrew Lloyd Webber does it all the time, and he should be forgiven, you can't expect BritPop to know about modulation! 


But at least we can say, indeed Beethoven has done it all and isn't it cute he has done one thing in his youth he probably has regretted for the rest of his life?!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqJaLbbDXD4

Barenboim youtube recording stops exactly at the point of above mentioned modulation! Couldn't stand it either?....


But this little experiment by Beethoven, quickly forsaken, has made Lloyd Webber into the wealthy man he now is (apart from using a lot of out of copyright classical themes)...