Op. 2, No. 1: 3rd Mvt.: Adding Ambiguity to an Old Form

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From the course by Curtis Institute of Music

Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas

490 ratings

Curtis Institute of Music

Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas

490 ratings

Our relationship to Beethoven is a deep and paradoxical one. For many musicians, he represents a kind of holy grail: His music has an intensity, rigor, and profundity which keep us in its thrall, and it is perhaps unequalled in the interpretive, technical, and even spiritual challenges it poses to performers. At the same time, Beethoven’s music is casually familiar to millions of people who do not attend concerts or consider themselves musically inclined. Two hundred years after his death, he is everywhere in the culture, yet still represents its summit. This course takes an inside-out look at the 32 piano sonatas from the point of view of a performer. Each lecture will focus on one sonata and an aspect of Beethoven’s music exemplified by it. (These might include: the relationship between Beethoven the pianist and Beethoven the composer; the critical role improvisation plays in his highly structured music; his mixing of extremely refined music with rougher elements; and the often surprising ways in which the events of his life influenced his compositional process and the character of the music he was writing.) The course will feature some analysis and historical background, but its perspective is that of a player, not a musicologist. Its main aim is to explore and demystify the work of the performer, even while embracing the eternal mystery of Beethoven’s music itself. This season's Curtis courses are sponsored by Linda Richardson in loving memory of her husband, Dr. Paul Richardson. The Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation supports Curtis's lifelong learning initiatives.

From the lesson

Op. 2, No. 1, and Op. 10, No. 2

This lecture delves into two of the early sonatas: the F minor, Op. 2, No. 1 (the first of the 32), and the F Major, Op. 10, No. 2. Unlike “The First Thirteen” lecture, which was nominally about the Sonata Op. 7 but sought to address the early period in general, this lecture focuses on the specific characteristics that make each of these works unique; one is predominantly a dramatic piece, whereas the other is highly comic. The lecture is also about Beethoven’s complex relationship with the musical past—how he used it as an inspiration even as he tried to leave it behind.

Re-introduction2:02

Beethoven at 24: Style and Priorities4:47

Op. 2, No. 1: Wrestling with the Past6:13

Op. 2, No. 1: 1st Mvt.: Mining his Materials5:19

Op. 2, No. 1: 1st Mvt.: Sonata Form in the Minor Mode4:41

Op. 2, No. 1: 2nd Mvt.: Borrowing from Haydn, and Himself8:53

Op. 2, No. 1: 3rd Mvt.: Adding Ambiguity to an Old Form5:56

Op. 2, No. 1: 4th mvt.: Releasing the Shackles8:05

Meet the Instructors

Jonathan Biss
Neubauer Family Chair in Piano Studies
Performance Faculty

[music]

So, onto the third movement! This movement is, in terms of character, the most ambiguous

of the four: if the first was all anxiety, and the second was all calm, the third is

almost equally poised between the two. This movement, which is back in the minor mode,

is the third of four, and it is a menuet: to review, this is an innovation, because

prior to Beethoven, sonatas had, at most, three movements. This means that the menuet

is an addition to the structure, if not an outright intrusion. It’s interesting: among

the 32 sonatas, there are 6 of them that have two movements, 13 with three, and 13 with four.

(This depends slightly on how one numbers the movements of some of the late period works,

but that’s nothing to worry too much about.) That means that he didn’t ultimately particularly

favor the four movement model to the more traditional three; but each of the first four

sonatas has four movements. This shows that Beethoven was eager to establish, right off

the bat, that for him “sonata” meant a work of scope equal to that of a symphony.

So, the presence of this movement, in Sonata Number 1, is already unconventional. The music

itself, much like the first movement, begins in a rather old-fashioned manner, but in short

order begins playing with our expectations. Here is the menuet, without the trio and without repeats:

[music]

So, this is a bit unusual, in that it’s got a whole lot of sturm und

drang – storm and stress – for a menuet, which is, after all, a dance. But that’s

not wholly unprecedented – Mozart’s G minor Symphony has a menuet that is every

bit as agitated. What is both revolutionary, and totally characteristic of Beethoven, is

the subtle rhythmic subversion that is taking place throughout. Again, a menuet is a dance,

and one of the fundamental features of a dance is that the beats of the bar relate to one

another in a way that is regular and predictable – people are meant to dance to it, after all!

In a waltz, for example, the second beat of the bar is extended: One-TWO-three. One-TWO-three.

In the menuet, the main stress is on one: ONE-two-three. ONE-two-three.

Now, a good performance will certainly not hammer this into your head, but it is part of

the basic underpinning of the music.

In this menuet, though, the primacy of the first beat is constantly being challenged by the

third. Beethoven does this by inserting sharp sforzando accents on the third beats, and

by changing the articulation in ways that shift our focus. This first happens just a

few measures into the piece:

[music]

When that sforzando appoggiatura

[music]

comes, you’d have to be a very accomplished dancer not to trip!

Then, he starts playing around with articulation. This is worth getting into, because articulation

is often a major source of character in music. At the beginning of the movement, these third

beats, or “upbeats” – that’s the word for the final beat of the bar, with the first

beat of the bar being called the “downbeat” – these upbeats are separated from the next bar. So:

[music]

At the beginning of the second part of the menuet, Beethoven writes a slur over

the bar line, meaning that the notes are meant to be connected:

[music]

The separation had the effect of clarifying the rhythm for the listener; which, with the slur, the

rhythm becomes more ambiguous, which means that the primacy of “one” is again threatened. Then at the

climax of the movement, Beethoven writes a whole series of sforzandos that keep moving

around: first they are on the upbeat, then they move to the downbeats, then finally back

to the upbeat.

[music]

So, [music]

three-one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three.

[music]

It's interesting to note that Beethoven did this often in his early menuets – more often than not, when

there is a menuet in an early sonata, Beethoven places emphases on what should be weak beats.

It seems there was something about the form which struck him as potentially staid, and

which he therefore wanted to upset.

And Beethoven’s way of playing around with the meter makes this movement not only daring,

but also much more effective in the context of the piece than it otherwise would have

been. Again, we’ve had a first movement which was ever restless, followed by a second

which is clearly designed to console in its wake. The third movement’s return to minor

already inches us closer to the dark world of the opening, and the lack of rhythmic stability

in it takes us closer still. In the last movement, as we’re about to see,

we go all the way back, and then some.

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