Thursday, August 1, 2013

Beethoven Op. 10 and Op. 11

I keep a time line of all Beethoven works where I can consult it at any time.  A wow moment this morning!

Op. 10, No. 3 is the Piano Sonata in D major which begins with the tonic as an accented upbeat white key octave slurred to an unaccented leading tone (C#) downbeat black key octave.  So many contradictions and nothing has even happened yet!

Hmmmmm: I reached for my time line.  Sure enough, the piece this was calling to mind was Op. 11, the Trio in B-flat for Piano, Clarinet, and Cello which begins with the three instruments playing in octaves: F (the clarinet's favorite note); F-sharp (fabulous on the piano); G (every cellist's favorite note).

In both cases the composition begins with a stark unlikelihood.  Acoustical fun and games.  And they were written in the same year.