how to read music – Cello Sonata in D major, opus 102, no 2 – Beethoven
“Head in Black and Green“ (1913)
___________
the line of music, the essential melody,
is not resolved in Beethoven until several
bars from the beginning in his Fifth Cello
Sonata, one note follows another without
any specific reference to what preceded it
but the tempo, and the voice, which is to
say, its tonality
there is ever, however, though perhaps
sometimes eccentric, a harmony, a
convincing argument, we are speaking
the same language
as in reading, one follows the musical
line for those several bars, hanging
onto each note for meaning, spotting
even commas, semi-colons, periods,
however unconsciously, until one
reaches the end of the paragraph,
made evident by the recapitulation
therefore music
which doesn’t only, however,
recapitulate, here, but elaborates,
adding depth, dimension, local
colour, to the already intricate
story
Beethoven is challenging the very
idea of music in this composition,
much as later the Impressionists
did, for instance, when they
upended the entrenched idea of
merely representational art – a
process I saw reverberating in my
very own 1950’s, ’60’s, when even
Monet, people objected, could’ve
been managed by their children
Picasso, of course, was, at the time,
nothing less than a joke, not to
mention any of the Surrealists, or –
gasp – the Expressionists, see
above
I prefer the very early cello sonatas
of Beethoven, for their verve, their
energy, the second movement, the
“Adagio con molto sentimento
d’affetto” in this late one, overdoes
it, I think, a little, it’s like sitting with
someone you can’t leave, whose
sorrow is immense, and which you
can barely handle, but must, out of,
if nothing else, chivalry, or common,
and insuperable, one hopes, human
compassion, consider, and duly,
thus, proffer, ideally, grace
who hasn’t been there
R ! chard
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