Beethoven's dots after a barline
Posted: 02 Oct 2023, 16:17
Since augmentation dots were not placed close to the their notes during Beethoven's time, it was not a big stretch to place them after a bar line to avoid the use of tied notes. This was particularly useful in showing hemiola effects and/or to make imitative voices more closely resemble each other.
However, in the following example from the Diabelli Variation 19, Beethoven uses both tied notes and dots after the bar line. I think that this is yet another example of Beethoven playing with notational alternatives as an expressive device. The first example uses both hemiola and imitation, which might invite continuous use of dots after the bar lines. Instead, Beethoven only uses dots after the barlines to show the beginning of the second sub-phrase in the lower voice in each case, which might easily be unclear to the player:
In the corresponding place at the beginning of the second part of the variation, Beethoven inverts the material and starts the imitation in the lower voice, rather than the upper. Yet, he doesn't place the dots after the bar lines in the upper voice (at the question marks) as he did in the lower voice in the previous example:
In this case, the music is moving from low to high rather than high to low and achieves two climactic moments in the last three notes of the upper part of each phrase. The dots after barlines are now reserved to set off these three important notes:
I think that an expressive notational device was lost when dots after a bar line became obsolete in the later 19th century. (Brahms continued to use them, however).
A note on engraving dots after a bar line. I am finding it clearer to place the augmentation dots on the left side of note heads in an opposing voice, particularly where it might be confused for a staccato dot. I see this practice observed in the engraving of that time.
However, in the following example from the Diabelli Variation 19, Beethoven uses both tied notes and dots after the bar line. I think that this is yet another example of Beethoven playing with notational alternatives as an expressive device. The first example uses both hemiola and imitation, which might invite continuous use of dots after the bar lines. Instead, Beethoven only uses dots after the barlines to show the beginning of the second sub-phrase in the lower voice in each case, which might easily be unclear to the player:
In the corresponding place at the beginning of the second part of the variation, Beethoven inverts the material and starts the imitation in the lower voice, rather than the upper. Yet, he doesn't place the dots after the bar lines in the upper voice (at the question marks) as he did in the lower voice in the previous example:
In this case, the music is moving from low to high rather than high to low and achieves two climactic moments in the last three notes of the upper part of each phrase. The dots after barlines are now reserved to set off these three important notes:
I think that an expressive notational device was lost when dots after a bar line became obsolete in the later 19th century. (Brahms continued to use them, however).
A note on engraving dots after a bar line. I am finding it clearer to place the augmentation dots on the left side of note heads in an opposing voice, particularly where it might be confused for a staccato dot. I see this practice observed in the engraving of that time.