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Tag: “Big Zoo / Triptych” August Macke
________
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
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
__________
if a sonata is a piece of music with
more than one segment, and a
suite is also a piece of music with
more than one segment, what’s
the difference, you’ll ask, not
unreasonably
a sonata speaks for itself, as itself,
is itself, whereas a suite, also in
several sections, describes
something else, something not
itself, but a place, or an action, it’s
a tale, not an autobiography
this has some implications, the
sonata will consequently be more
expansive, displaying not only
emotional impact, but also
technical wizardry, will beat its
chest, in other words, whether in
agony or in bombast, whereas a
suite, while not excluding
necessarily those aspects, will
usually be more demure, objective,
snap its suspenders less
a suite also has more movements
than the sonata’s usual three or
four, consider the difference
between, in art, a triptych, for
instance, and a collage, they’re
in either case artworks, but with
different intentions
does any of this matter, to the
aficionado it does, if you want to
buy a home, you could be looking
for a duplex instead of a condo, if
you’re listening to music, you
might prefer chamber pieces to
large orchestras, suites to sonatas
though not yet identified, in 1838,
as a suite, since the term hadn’t
been used that way yet, is
nevertheless not any different
in kind from Debussy’s later
that the label fits, however
retroactively
you could say the same of Beethoven’s
it’s also, however retroactively, a suite
Sonata, to compare with his
original subject, the difference
between a suite an a sonata
listen
R ! chard
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