In casual conversation with a composer/theorist the other day--a friend whose musicianship and knowledge I trust--the Beethoven "Spring" Sonata came up (Op. 24 in F for piano and violin). He brought up the extraordinary modulation in the slow movement. At the same instant he said "To F# minor" and I said "To D major."
According to him it is actually a modulation to G-flat minor.
I don't think it is a modulation in any traditional sense, but rather the sound that pivots between piano heaven (G-flat major, the measure preceding the F# minor measure) and violin heaven (D major, the measure following). This is the difference between acoustically generated thought and the need to have things make sense on paper.
I know from a lifetime of involvement in Beethoven's chamber music for mixed ensemble that he was fascinated by the acoustical specificity of instruments, the clash between them furnishing much of the so-called thematic material of the compositions.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
String Improvisations, continued: Full Spectrum
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| Full Spectrum mostly wool 71" x 44" |
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| Full Spectrum detail |
Another String Improvisation on sale. Silent auction bids open May 15 at www.tonalrefraction.com
Crocheted of recycled string, mostly wool
Another Beethoven Moderato
Ever since I realized that this word moderato has a specific meaning -- actually more of an implication than a literal meaning -- I have been on the lookout for it. Beethoven does not use it in his piano sonatas, though I did find it in the Sonata for Piano and Natural Horn, where it is used for both the first and the third movements.
I just found it again in Op. 96 for Piano and Violin, the great G major Sonata, first movement. It changes everything to realize that the implication is that the beat is primarily lyrical rather than metric.
The issue of metric beats is a critically important one, since we learn at an early age to count quarter note beats. But not all meters should be considered divisible into quarter notes. Classical composers (through at least Brahms!) are very clear about when they want clearly delineated quarter note divisions and when they do not. A slur over a set of 4 sixteenths should be pronounced as articulating the beginning of a discernible four-note group whether or not it begins at a recognizable quarter note beat. But a succession of, say, seven sixteenths with no slur should be articulated as seven distinct units tunable according to the ear of the player, but not accented metrically.
The difference this makes is gigantic, nothing less. Likewise the technical demand this implies is gigantic. But the energy thus accessed is well worth the effort as is the humor. I thoroughly endorse this reading.
It may, indeed, be why the tempo is sometimes marked Allegro vivace: One aspect of the material will be metered in quarter note beats while another will not. Thus the material partakes of two different natures, not incompatible but totally different. It would account for the sforzati that sometimes occur on the beat in sixteenth-note passages. Why should they be there unless they are part of an essentially unaccented succession of notes?
The accents that we too readily impose upon everything we play give a false sense of security and keep us from noticing what is or is not happening. (By that I mean that they keep us from noticing how bored we get when we play metrically dentical measures one after the other.)
I just found it again in Op. 96 for Piano and Violin, the great G major Sonata, first movement. It changes everything to realize that the implication is that the beat is primarily lyrical rather than metric.
The issue of metric beats is a critically important one, since we learn at an early age to count quarter note beats. But not all meters should be considered divisible into quarter notes. Classical composers (through at least Brahms!) are very clear about when they want clearly delineated quarter note divisions and when they do not. A slur over a set of 4 sixteenths should be pronounced as articulating the beginning of a discernible four-note group whether or not it begins at a recognizable quarter note beat. But a succession of, say, seven sixteenths with no slur should be articulated as seven distinct units tunable according to the ear of the player, but not accented metrically.
The difference this makes is gigantic, nothing less. Likewise the technical demand this implies is gigantic. But the energy thus accessed is well worth the effort as is the humor. I thoroughly endorse this reading.
It may, indeed, be why the tempo is sometimes marked Allegro vivace: One aspect of the material will be metered in quarter note beats while another will not. Thus the material partakes of two different natures, not incompatible but totally different. It would account for the sforzati that sometimes occur on the beat in sixteenth-note passages. Why should they be there unless they are part of an essentially unaccented succession of notes?
The accents that we too readily impose upon everything we play give a false sense of security and keep us from noticing what is or is not happening. (By that I mean that they keep us from noticing how bored we get when we play metrically dentical measures one after the other.)
Monday, May 12, 2014
Repetitive Listening Syndrome
Okay. Let's admit it: There is too much music that we have heard too many times, always played the same way, never commanding our attention. We are bored to the point where we have ceased to believe that Beethoven might be the least bit interesting. And let's not even mention that other one....
What on earth has happened? How could we have let it happen? Is the damage reversible?
Perhaps the first thing to remember is that neither Beethoven nor that other one was a graduate of an American conservatory of music. Think about it.
That means that their use of pitches, beats, barlines, tempo markings, and all those other easily understood elements was not subject to passing or failing grades. What made them write the way they did has absolutely nothing to do with the way we are taught to read their writing. That is why their music is so tremendously difficult to read that very few people go to the trouble to get below the surface.
There is more to it, dear reader, than counting to four.
What on earth has happened? How could we have let it happen? Is the damage reversible?
Perhaps the first thing to remember is that neither Beethoven nor that other one was a graduate of an American conservatory of music. Think about it.
That means that their use of pitches, beats, barlines, tempo markings, and all those other easily understood elements was not subject to passing or failing grades. What made them write the way they did has absolutely nothing to do with the way we are taught to read their writing. That is why their music is so tremendously difficult to read that very few people go to the trouble to get below the surface.
There is more to it, dear reader, than counting to four.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Beethoven Dumbed Down
We do not need to pity Beethoven for being boring, for he is not. His music has been rendered hopelessly dull by generations of piano teachers insisting that counting to four is all there is to it.
Give the student the illusion that they have learned something by disguising all the mystery, all the conundrums, all the humor of a piano sonata, and there you have the generations-old win-win situation.
Who is laughing? Probably Ludwig van B.
He had a way of putting in the last two bars of a movement the hint as to what you had missed all along. How many of us get the joke?
Is this why people find it so hard to believe that there is another, a better way?
Give the student the illusion that they have learned something by disguising all the mystery, all the conundrums, all the humor of a piano sonata, and there you have the generations-old win-win situation.
Who is laughing? Probably Ludwig van B.
He had a way of putting in the last two bars of a movement the hint as to what you had missed all along. How many of us get the joke?
Is this why people find it so hard to believe that there is another, a better way?
Saturday, May 10, 2014
More String Improvisations: Fuzzy Squares
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| Closeup of Fuzzy Squares |
Regular Basis
The point of taking lessons is not so much that you will learn in a linear manner from one lesson to the next, but that you will find yourself open to change because you will have put yourself in a position to welcome it should it occur.
It is a particular kind of ritual.
However, it does depend on the openness of the teacher, as well as your openness as a learner - aren't we all learning all the time? Ah! There's the rub.
Classical music has too long been associated with a "been there, done that" mentality that leaves no room for change.
That is not at all where I stand or how I practice either teaching or learning.
It is a particular kind of ritual.
However, it does depend on the openness of the teacher, as well as your openness as a learner - aren't we all learning all the time? Ah! There's the rub.
Classical music has too long been associated with a "been there, done that" mentality that leaves no room for change.
That is not at all where I stand or how I practice either teaching or learning.
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