OLLI-Beethoven Week 3

Beethoven in America

Sonata Op. 27, no. 2 • Second movement: – Minuet and trio

• Third movement – Sonata form – Fast, driving – Completely opposite mood of first

Sonata Op. 27, no. 2 • “Moonlight” • Sonata quasi una fantasia • Unusual: – Slow – Dance – Fast

• First movement: – Contemplative, meditative, spiritual quality

Three Periods • Early – 1792-1802 – Classical “imitation”

• Middle – 1802-1815 – “Heroic”

• Late – 1815-1827 – “Reflection”

Early Background • Similarities to Mozart – Father a court musician – at Bonn – Displayed early talent on piano

• Differences: – Father a drunkard – Abusive childhood – Had no chance to travel as Mozart did

Early Vienna Years • Study with Haydn and others • Reputation as pianist • Cultivated aristocracy – Refused to act part as servant

Changes in Vienna • French Revolution • No longer private orchestras – more freelance situation • Publishing more important – many dilettante performers

1st Period Music • • • •

Focus on piano Avoided big genres until 1800 Used classical models Differences – Heavier, more powerful – More dynamic – Strong contrasts

2nd Heroic Period • Events – Beethoven’s growing awareness of his deafness – French Revolution and aftermath

Music – many well-known works • Symphonies 2-8 • 10 Piano Sonatas Op. 31 – Op. 90 – “Tempest” – “Waldstein” – Appassionata

• Five of his seven concerti written during this time • Five String quartets, Op. 59, 74, 95 • Opera – Fidelio

Musical Characteristics • Expansiveness • Greater intensity and instability throughout movement – Expanded coda – Climax moved to coda

• • • •

Blurring of seams of the form Bolder harmonies Unity of work as a whole Greater emotional power

Symphony No. 3, Eroica • • • • •

Groundbreaking work Beethoven moved beyond classicism Huge, expansive Originally connection to Napoleon Beethoven changed his mind

Napoleonic Wars • Vienna occupied, 1809

• “If I as a general knew as much about strategy that I as a composer know about counterpoint, I’d show you a thing or two.” – Beethoven to a French officer.

First movement • Large sonata form • Unusual features – First theme – does not complete – Many themes in exposition – no clear break between first and second group – New theme in development – Recapitulation obscured – Very large coda, contains climax

Symphony 3 Eroica 1st mvt.

Eroica ii Marcia funebre • •

Funeral march, mood important. Apparent ABA, but with interruptions.

• A – alternates between two themes, two keys and two timbres. • B section highly contrasting, in key and in motion. Binary in itself – each section closing with a fanfare.

• Return deflected – music veers off in another direction. Violence of interruption significant. Goes into elaborate fugue. • Greater motion at return. • This sets you up for the coda. Begins with viola intoning C-Ab.. Tries to build up momentum, but never does.

Eroica iii, Scherzo • Unusual proportions

EROICA FOURTH MOVEMENT INTRO EXPOSITION DEVELOPMENT RECAPITULATION CODA

THEME AND VARIAT ION? After Introduction, theme and 12 variations plus coda.

Fourth movement: Fanfare Theme -- bass Variation 1 – Eb Variation 2 – Eb Variation 3 – melody Fugato – Cm Further variation – melody D (via Bm) March section – Songlike varation – C Cm b Second fugal passage E Huge cadence – V

Theme – Eb – oboe – slow flowing Theme Horn – powerful – climax Coda

SONAT A FORM?

Eroica as a whole • Main theme of i and iv related – Themes different but outline same notes and harmonies in scale – Not true of middle movements

• What is it about? Napoleon? Abstract concept of hero Prometheus? Beethoven? Victory over death

Modernism – Beethoven becomes a Classicist • “For in both these composers (Bach and Beethoven) the idea of law and order – of obedience to the formative intellect and regulative reason – greatly prevailed. They relied supremely on the masculine powers of formulation; . . . Theirs was essentially the Germanic genius for the organization and control of ideas. Hence the superiority of Germany in the matter of symphonic structure and classic form.” – Colin McAlpin

• “Beethoven, despite all the sublime flights in the works of his latest period, was grounded throughout in classicism. He never shook the formal foundations and principles of classical music, or broke them down. . . [They derided] “superfluous attempts . . . to prove that Beethoven’s last period belongs wholly to romanticism.” – Guido Adler and Theodore Baker

Modernist view • Music became non-referential • [Music is] “a unified, closed, totality” Milton Babbitt

• “We must not for a moment think that the symphony is about these narratives, for it is precisely the other way around; these narratives are about the symphony.” – Scott Burnham, Beethoven Hero, p. 25

Toscanini on the Eroica • “Some say the Eroica is about Napoleon. Some say Prometheus. I say it is about Allegro con brio.