sonatas, continued (Beethoven – Opus 44)
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Category: Beethoven
December 9, 2023
sonatas, continued (Beethoven – Opus 97)
“Wisdom“
Constantin Brâncuși
_________
the best way to sharpen your aesthetic pencil
is always to put one thing up against another,
then decide which you like best, the outcome
is never right or wrong, it is quite simply a
function of your aesthetic sensibility, the
more you exercise that taste muscle, holding
one element up against another, to compare,
the more you develop an informed, if not ever
conclusive, opinion, which develops eventually
into, if not authority, at least wisdom
what do you want to be when you grow up,
I asked myself in my very early teens, I
want to be wise like my grandmother, I
answered, have I reached my goal, you
tell me, though it is still, and ever will be,
my quest
you’ve heard already in my last instalment
Frank’s Opus 1, no 1, a trio, here’s
Beethoven’s “Archduke“, also a trio, his
Opus 97
which do you like best, there is no correct
answer, but your choice will tell you a lot
about yourself
enjoy
R ! chard
November 30, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 30
“Moses“ (1956)
Marc Chagall
________
Beethoven’s Opus 111 is, to my mind,
the equivalent of the Sermon on the
Mount, or Moses’s rendering of the
Ten Commandments, see above, in
our post-Christian world, the world
where God is dead and where we’re
all left to our own devices for better
or for worse
Beethoven confronts a Listener,
who is, or is not, there, pleading
for meaning, purpose
the first movement is rebellious,
despite, ever, his reverence for
his abstract Interlocutor, bowing
before, heeding, this self-anointed
Adjudicator, the Deity we fashion
for ourselves
we are witness to this interchange
the second movement is more
subservient, pleading more
rationally, less explosively, his
case, we hear this too
there are only two movements,
dichotomies, war, peace, man,
woman, chaos, order, none of
them a choice
Beethoven says to exist, to be,
itself, encompasses its own
glory, that is our grace,
whether or not there is a
hereafter
listen
R ! chard
psst: thank you so much for your
participation, however
intermittent, in my Month
of Sonatas, I am not only
grateful, but honored, by
your presence
November 29, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 29
“Evening Prayer“ (1888)
Anna Ancher
_______
from the very first few notes of Beethoven’s
Piano Sonata no 31 in A-flat major, Opus 110,
we understand we’ve entered an entirely other
reality, the melody is unorthodox, not a lyric,
but, talking against the grain, the beat,
become a sentence, we are witness to
Beethoven addressing the infinite,
Beethoven at prayer, see above
the notes are clear, concise, naked,
happening, again, against the beat,
profoundly intimate, arhythmic,
unadorned, unadulterated, they are,
consequently, prophetic, not only
entertaining, but a moral code, a
metaphysical example of our role
in the shared fate of our nebulous
universe
Beethoven says we must believe
in our own beauty, our worth, it is
our only salvation
it is a mighty revelation
listen
R ! chard
November 28, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 28
“Geranium”
Odilon Redon
_______
we’re reaching the end of November, with
only three sonatas to go, which will be
devoted to Beethoven’s last three, they
exist in their import, impact, beyond
whatever’s been since, or before,
recorded
if Beethoven’s Hammerklavier was a
treatise on the physical possibilities
of a piano, its breadth of tonal range,
the scope of possible volumes, soft,
loud, not to mention its ability to, in
one instrument, play all the scales,
his following three sonatas, evolved
from the physical to the metaphysical,
“To be, or not to be”, he might as well
be asking, much like Shakespeare
there’d been metaphysical works before,
Bach’s cantatas, Handel’s Messiah, but
this metaphysics was of another order,
there’d been a revolution in France, the
Christian God had been there even
made illegal, Christians sent to the
guillotine, see Poulenc’s formidable
Dialogue of the Carmelites for proof
of that
Beethoven’s prayer, his evocation, in
his last three works for solo piano,
were to the Entity that might, or might
not be, out there, “To be, or not to be,
that [remained] the question”
the miraculous is that Beethoven, with
profound humility and respect, notes
that are clear, concise, and
straightforward, confronts the Entity
with nothing but his unadorned self,
at a loss in a sea of meaning, even
suffering despair, presenting, as an
argument the evidence of his life,
his art, his manifest and irrevocable
being, much as a flower would,
could it speak, no more, admittedly,
no less, but nevertheless a flower,
see above, and there is, Beethoven
says, glory in that
here’s his Opus 109, listen, enjoy
ponder
R ! chard
November 19, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 19
“Over the Town“ (1918)
Marc Chagall
________
Johannes Brahms is pretty well the last of
the great Romantics, 1833 – 1897, he wrote
his Piano Sonata no 3, in F minor, Opus 5,
when he was not quite twenty, with the
same bravura as Beethoven, let me point
out, his sonata has five movements, a sign,
as I’ve said before, of bristling confidence
as a form grows from its original, pristine,
shape, it can only grow by evolving,
becoming something, eventually, that it
wasn’t, by dint of breaking all the rules,
transgressing
style becomes the manner in which a
work is transformed from its integral
state into something more decorated,
more intricately designed, like adding
lace to a perfectly adequate collar, or
making a soufflé out of an egg
but who wouldn’t, won’t
a point is reached where style overcomes
substance then, and becomes the focus
of the entertainment, one watches the
bravura
to my mind, this, however wondrous,
sonata, hasn’t the emotional appeal
that I’d heard in the earlier Romantics,
that would keep me rapt to the end,
the draw for me is the prestidigitation,
the manual dexterity, which is like
watching someone fly through the
air with the greatest of ease, but be
not otherwise moved, see above
but that’s me, and that’s to my mind
incidentally, since this is Brahms’
last sonata, he only wrote three,
this is probably the last of the
great Romantic sonatas, after
which Impressionism
R ! chard
November 18, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 18
“A Melody of Schubert“ (c.1896)
Francesc Masriera
________
though there are other, and quite significant,
composers who fit into this category,
Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin pretty
much define, all by themselves, the
Romantic Period
Chopin composed only two sonatas of note,
plus one more that is overlooked for being
an early, student effort, not up to the
standard of his later ones, Chopin, rather,
wrote mostly shorter pieces, nocturnes,
études, preludes, polonaises, and more,
that later became the very stuff of his
reputation
Schubert wrote enough sonatas that he
could be compared to Beethoven, indeed
it can be difficult to tell one from the other,
much as it can be difficult to tell Haydn
from Mozart, products in either case of
being both of their respective eras
when I was much younger, a guest among
a group of academics, where I’d been invited
by the host’s wife, a co-worker, what I knew
of Classical music, in the large sense, which
is to say comprising all of the musical periods,
Classicism, Romanticism, Impressionism,
and beyond, was all self-taught
is that Beethoven, I asked the host, about
a piece of music he’d put on
that’s Schubert, he replied, aghast, as
though I’d just farted
I blushed, deep red, confounded
Schubert, having great admiration for
Beethoven, took on many of the older
composer’s lessons, four movements
instead of the Classical three, for
instance, and many of the technical
tricks of his forebear
but there’s an essential component of
their styles that marks one from the
other, an easy way to tell them apart,
Beethoven always composes against
the beat, Schubert following it
listen to the first few notes of Beethoven’s
“Pathétique”, for instance, the beats are
erratic, confrontational, the mark of a
revolutionary, Beethoven was brashly
proclaiming his worth, he had something
to prove
Schubert, who was essentially playing
for friends, just wanted to entertain
them, which he did in spades, without
bombast or bluster
listen to his Piano Sonata in A major,
D959, for example, no swagger, no
ostentation, delivering nevertheless
something quite, and utterly,
enchanting, everything following,
unobtrusively, the beat
enjoy
R ! chard
November 17, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 17
Venus de Milo
_______
about the “Hammerklavier”, I have so much
to say, I’ll try to make it clear and simple
first of all, hammerklavier is the German
word for piano, more specifically, klavier
means keyboard, hammer is a hammer,
what strikes the strings that make the
notes sound, rather than pluck them,
as in the harpsichord
by the time of the “Hammerklavier”, 1818,
the harpsichord had gone a long way, from
fortepiano to pianoforte, through to,
eventually, our modern piano
with the “Hammerklavier”, Beethoven is
into his late stage, he’s not only telling
a story but delivering a thesis, on the
depth and range of the piano, not only
technically, structurally, but also
metaphysically, for that time
listen to the adagio sostenuto, the third
movement, Beethoven transports you,
moments after the first few notes have
been struck, into a meditation
adagios had been only emotional until
then, sentimental
this one’s a precursor to the adagio of
his last piano sonata, his no. 32, so
profound I want them to play it at my
funeral, it’s like looking in a mirror,
but more about that only later, maybe
I remember turning a corner in the
Louvre – I’d been overwhelmed by
the quantity of works, stopped only
briefly before famous representations,
the “Mona Lisa”, for instance, more
historically interesting to me than
aesthetically, dusty, it seemed, with
age – and coming upon the “Venus
de Milo”, shimmering, breathing
apparently, see above, and being
transfixed forever
that someone, centuries ago,
millennia, could create something
so beautiful, so transcendent, so
timeless, full of grace, who’d have
someone, centuries later, be
mesmerized, made me believe
in beauty as a saving grace
this is what happened to me with
the “Hammerklavier”, this is what
always happens
may this happen to you
incidentally, this version is the first
one I ever heard of the piece, a
gift from, if I may be indiscreet,
an Austrian lover, for my birthday,
way back when, the early Seventies
it has served me well
R ! chard
November 16, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 16
“Big Zoo, Triptych“ (1913)
August Macke
________
the “Appassionata”, Beethoven’s Piano
Sonata no 23, sounds a lot like his
Piano Sonata no 21, the “Waldstein”,
both have three movements, fast, slow,
fast, Beethoven still doing Beethoven,
each only about a year apart, 1804,
1805, listen to them side by side, from
movement to movement, the moods
in either are much the same
I’ll point out, however, that the second
and third movements in the “Appassionata”
are linked, there is no pause between them,
Beethoven is making clear that the sonata
is an integral whole, not a collection of
disparate elements
what does that mean, it means that
Beethoven is creating a literature, not
only tunes, but a story, with beginning,
middle and end
compare in art with the triptych, see above,
with artists delivering more than individual
paintings, but a narration
both arts, music, painting, are meant to
transcend their original ends
enjoy
R ! chard
November 15, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 15
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