Beethoven's last Sonatas

THE PEN MIGHTIER THAN THE PIANO?

Pcter studies McCallum delves into some recent of the sketches for Bethoven's last three piano sonatas.

Of the many anccdotes of Beethoven's compositional method. two somewhat opposite

Images of his creative pracess recur.

The first that of Becthoven the spontancous and tempestuous improviser is aptly capturedin a now-famous anecdote about the finale of the Appassionata Sonata by Ferdinand Ries.

"Once we were taking a ... walk in which we went so lar astray that we did not get back to Dõbling. where Beethoven lived.until nearly 8 o'clock. He had been all the time humming and sometimes howling. always up and down. without singing any definite my question what notes. it was In answer he said: to °A theme for the last movement of the sonata has occurred to me' (in Op. 57). When we entered the F minor room he

ran his to hat. the pianoforte without taking I took a seat in the corner and off he soon forgot all about me. Now he stormed for at least an hour with the beautiful finale of the sonata. Finally he got up. was surprised still to see me and said: must 'T cannot give do some more you a work." lesson today, I

(Franz Wegeler and Biographische Notizen Ferdinand Ries, über Ludwig van Beethoven (Coblenz 1838) as translated in Thayer's Life of Beethoven, rev and ed. Elliot Forbes (Princeton, 1964). 356.)

Such images of Becthoven's improvisations give the impression of music welling up like a wave, starting with small ripples (in this case, in the

form of animal-like grunts), leading to torrents oÍ sound from the keyboard in the great finale itselí.

The second image - Beethoven the obsessive reviser arises not only from anecdotes, but also from the physical appearance of his sketchbooks and manuscripts. Here the piano is replaced by the pen (or, sometimes the blunt lead pencil) and the surge of creativity becomes a tussle with notes, drafts, second thoughts and crossings out. This description by the Czech Tomáaek, who visited Beethoven in composer, 1814, is far removed from evoked by Ries. the sweeping flood of creativity

The reception room in which he greetedme.. was as disordered as was his hair. Here keys I found an upright lay a lead-pencil, piano.. on with which the he sketched out his work: and beside it on a scribbled sheet of music-paper I found a

number of the most divergent ideas. jotted most down without any connection, the heterogeneous individual details elbowing each, just as they may have

come to his mind."

(cited in 0. G. Sonneck, Beethoven: Impressions by His Contemporaries (New York, 1926). p. 101.)

"When Beethoven was enjoying a be e might suddenly pull out his notebook and write something in it. Something just

occumed to me: he would say, sticking it back into his pocket. The ideas that he tossed off separately, with only a few lines and points and without barlines, are hicroglyphics that no one can decipher. Thus in these tiny notebooks he

concealed a treasure of ideas."

(Wilhelm von Lenz, Beethoven. Elne Kunststudie (Kassell, 1855)as translated in Douglas Johnson, Alan Tyson and Robert Winter, The Beethoven Sketchbooks (Oxford, 1985), 6.)

These twin images, the fiery improviser and the

tireless reviser. provide the hvo sides of the Janus head of the mythology of Beethoven's creative process. ACcording to one, the artwork springs to life. fully formed as the product of a restless creative mind in the artwork has carved out of the action. According to the other, a difficult birth, painstakingly stone, its every detail the result of masterly deliberation. Nowhere is this dichotomy better inscribed than in the last three piano sonatas, opus 109 in E major, opus 110 in A major and opus 111 in C minor. Beethoven had offered these three sonatas dated 30 April 1820 and worked to a on publisher them until

1822. They interrupted his work on the Missa Solemnis but also seemed to help precipitate the remarkable period of creativity of the last six years of his life after the energy-sapping custody battle for his nephew. In them, one finds the

spontaneous and the studied side by side the recitative and freely varied aria next to the austere fugue (in the finale of opus 110, for example). And even in places where the final product gives the impression of being freely improvised, examination of the composer's

sketches often reveals that what seems most spontaneous is the result of the most painstaking working over.

However, von Lenz is not quite right in saying that Beethoven's hieroglyphics cannot be deciphered. As work on Beethoven's sketches has gathered momentum years, urged on by the win method of the Austrian over the last thirty spurs of the analytic theorist, Heinrich Schenker, and recent advances in techniques of paper analysis, the last three piano sonatas

have done rather well. There are three separatestudies of the sketches for opus 109, one shorter study of opus 110 published in conjunction with a facsimile of the manuscript and one on opus 111. These five studies are over and above the pioneering work of Gustav Nottebohm last century, the first scholar to make a serious studyof Beethoven's sketches, and the analytical editions of the last five sonatas, based on study of manuscript and sketch sources by Schenker. The diverse issues addressed by cannot be adequately canvassed despite the obvious fascination of these here. being studies Indeed able to glimpse inside Beethoven's workshop, there been debate about what can reasonablyinferred from them. Nottebohm himself said, has be "without betraying the secret of genius, Beethoven's sketches provide some idecaof his method. ... The demon has dwelt in these sketchbooks. But the demon has vanished; .. They are superfluous to the understanding of a work of art, certainly,

but artist not " to the underslanding of the (Gustav Nottebohm, Ein Skizzenbuch wn Beethoven (Leipzig. 1865) as translated Douglas lohnson Beethoven Schola in Becthovcn Skelchcs, 19th Centun nd 2 (1978-9), 3-17.)

But there is one issue which is highly relevant the last threc p1ano sonatas, which i fascinating to pursue in the sketches. e evidence they yield turns out to be suggestive if the rather than conclusive: that is the he issuc of motivic unity the binding together of the separate sections of a piece by usin musical intervals and motivcs in a transforme way in the different movements. formed

In the Piano Sonata, opus first two notes of the irstmusical interval of a third. 109, for example,movement form the the

Beethoven, opus 109, tirst movement, bars 1-2.

Vivace

p dolce

This interval becomes a recurring feature in all the movements, coming back as a chord at theend of the first movement, in the second and at the beginning and end of the third movement. And perhaps most tantalisingly, the last two bars of the whole sonata reverse the first.

Beethoven, opus 109, second movement, bar 1-3

and third movement, closing bars.

Prestissimo

nen marcato

ritard.

But with only the completed work at ou

disposal, what are we to make of this? Is it co-

incidental, intuitive, a figment of the imagnaton Or a later writer, or a conscious tool used y

Beethoven in the construction of the piece tne most recent study of the sketches tor tnis Sonata, Nicholas Marston highlights som

Teatures of the work which throw an intrgug light on this issue.

independent piece. perhaps something of a Bagatclle. There is an entry in a conversation book (the small books in which the deaf composer askcd his visitors to write their comments) by Franz Oliva, one of Beethoven's many unpaid secretaries, suggesting that this "little new piece" be used lor the Sonata (Oliva clearly saw that Beethoven was once again in something of a mess with his publishing commitments). \Vhcther or not he was acting on this direct suggestion is impossible to say, but the next sketches tor opus 109 jump straight to the main theme of the third movement. Only

after settling on the theme in its final form (with the final two bars moving b a g#), did Beethoven return to the earlier material, write the second movement and then return to write variations of

the last movement.

Although conclusive this proof, does not give any it does suggest that it kind of was only

after he had seen the possibilities of a connection between the first that Beethoven started to and last movement see the "little new piece" as a "little new sonata". Marston also points out a mistake in all editions of the sonata (including Schenker's): the only double thick barline in the whole work (as opposed to the double thin barlines which Beethoven used to

indicate ends of sections or changes of key)

comes at the end of the last movement, suggesting that the unfinished "litle new piece" only comes to a sketch for the complete close at the end of the whole piece.

A similar issue can be found in the next sonata, the Piano Sonata in A major, opus 110. Many

players and writers have commented that the opening fugue of of the first movement the last movement by anticipates being based the on the same musical intervals.

Piano Sonata in A Major, opus 110. Opening of

first and last movement.

Dcon áma7lità ) sanfaL

FUGA

Allegro ma non troppo

Although the sketches again do not give conclusive evidence. it is again intriguing that

the first sketch for the fugue occurs side by side

with an early sketch for the first movement.

In the Piano case of Sonata the last of the three sonatas, in C minor, opus 111, it is the the musical interval of the fourth which dominales.

Again one can draw a parallel between the opening of the Allegro Con Brio and the very closing notes of the sonata, both outline the

Piano Sonata in C Minor, opus I|1. Opening of the Allegro Con Brio and close of the

sonata.

h

17

It has long been known (since it was pointed out by Nottebohm in 1865) that the first appearance

of the Allegro Con Brio goes back rwenty years to about 1802, when Beethoven considered it as a possible slow movement for the Violin Sonata

opus 30, no. 1.

Sketch in the Kessler Sketchbook. circa 1802.

Significantly this version knuckle-wrenching fourth lacks the characteristic, which is so prominent in the final version. Equally interesting is that this fourth is not prominently used in the early sketches for the sonata proper. William Drabkin, in his dissertation on the sketches for opus 111, points out that the final version, in which there is

a three-fold repetition of this interval of a fourth is found relatively late in the sketching process in a sketchbook which is now in the Bibliothaque Nationale in Paris. Is it merely a coincidence that this version of the theme which emphasises the rising fourth is found on a page which is

surrounded by some of the early sketches for the second movement, Arietta which also begins with the interval of a fourth? Possibly it is. But it is equally possible that the cumulative evidence of the sketches in these three sonatas demonstrates a feature of Beethoven's creative personality which one might not guess at from the evidence of the finished works alone: that these unitying links between the movements of works, particularly the outer movements, quickened his creative focus while composing. Such a conclusion is not exclusive to these last three sonatas, of course. It can be found from works as early as the Piano Concerto, No. 2 in B° (where Beethoven replaced the original finale,

possibly in order to enhance such a link) to his last full work, the String Quartet in F major. opus

135, taking in such works as the Symphony No. 3 in E' along the way. Did Becthoven discover these things at the piano or through his pen? That of course. we shall never know, but at least in the case of the sketches. we have more concrete material than Ries's eloquent testimony to help us in our investigations.

Some recent studies of the last three Piano Sonatas

Drabkin. Villiam, The Sketches for Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C minor. Opus 111. 2 vols. Ph.D. diss. (Princeton. NI. 1976) Forte, Allen. The Composilional Matrix (New

York 1974) Koma, Karl Michael, Die Klaviersonate As-Dur Opus 110 Von Ludwig Van Beethoven: Beiheft zur Faksimile-Ausgabe (Stuttgart. 1967) Marston, Nicholas, Beethoven's Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109 (Oxford, 1995) Meredith. William Rhea. The Sourees for Beethoven's Piano Sonata in E Major, Opus 109

Ph.D. diss. (University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill. 1985) Peter McCallum is Assistant Principal at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. University of Sydney, where he lectures in the Musicology Unit. and a crilic for the Sydney Morning Herald. His PhD was on Beethoven's sketches for the

String Quartet in F major, opus 135.