♫ So, it is in the second movement of op. 14 no. 1 that the resemblance to op. 10 no. 2 really comes to the fore. To refresh your memory, the second movement of op. 10 no. 2. ♫ Both second movements are Allegrettos, rather than true slow movements; both are in minor keys, (in the work’s parallel minor, F major/minor in the case of op. 10 no.2, E Major/minor here), which makes them dark spots in generally very sunny works; both of them are in the form of menuet and trio, even though they function, up to a point, as slow movements. Op. 14 no. 1 feels like a hybrid not just of a slow movement and a menuet, but of two dance forms: menuet and sicilienne. This is on account of its rhythm, which is very much reminiscent of a sicilienne. Yum ba bum, bum ba bum, bum. There are many famous instrumental sicillienes, among them the second movement of Mozart’s F Major violin sonata. ♫ Here is the almost-sicilienne second movement of Op. 14 no. 1. ♫ This movement really stands out in this sonata for its serious, even slightly sinister quality. It’s not just a question of the key, it’s also the harmonic language. Nearly every one of its most forceful dissonances is held out, and given a sforzando, doubly emphasizing it. ♫ It may be some sort of a dance, but I would certainly not call it light. The trio – in C Major, and in fact called a “Maggiore” – is a wonderful contrast to this. It is very nostalgic music – nostalgia is not a quality that I often associate with Beethoven, who strikes me as too idealistic and too determined to spend much time looking backwards. But this trio is launched by an enormous – two octave – downward leap, which reads as a deep sigh. ♫ This music is in C Major, but to me, anyway, it doesn’t sound like a happy major – more like smiling through tears. When the second half of the trio leads back to the e minor of the menuet proper, it feels pre-ordained, an inevitability. ♫ This is again a movement with a coda – a brief but moving one. It's moving in part because it is superfluous: it could end the movement perfectly satisfyingly, with the end of the reprise of the menuet. ♫ Instead, there comes a coda, which at first seems like it will be a second appearance of the trio. That is something that could be – Beethoven did it quite often, in the “Harp” quartet, the seventh symphony, the A Major cello sonata among others. A menuet or scherzo that is not merely ABA, but ABABA. So when the coda begins, we have reason to believe that we are really circling back. But no. ♫ It begins, and it brings hope; the hope is snuffed out very quickly. This is not the trio, but really just a reiteration of the last phrase of the trio, the one that brought back the menuet. The first time, it had no resolution. ♫ But now, we get a terse, severe cadence – not even a full chord, just single notes. ♫ The return to C major had brought just a dash of positivity, of sunlight; that is extinguished with those three final Es. It would be an exaggeration to call this a tragic movement, but it is fatalistic, and with the exception of the trio, it is, from beginning to end, undeniably dark.
