A Beethoven Subtlety

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John Ruggero
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A Beethoven Subtlety

Post by John Ruggero »

The following unusual notational moment occurs in the ultra-famous (dare I say “iconic”) first movement of Beethoven’s piano sonata op. 27 no. 2, the Moonlight Sonata. The music is in a slow 2/2 with four eighth note triplets in every measure but the last two measures.

In m. 37 he suddenly writes a dotted quarter note as if he were in 12/8. (At the red arrows in his MS and the first edition below. Note the position of the dot approximately under the corresponding eighth note in both sources as if the dot were an actual tied eighth note. This is typical of the practice of that time.)
op 27 no 2.1 MS.png
op 27 no 2.1 MS.png (408.27 KiB) Viewed 793 times
op 27 no 2.1 1st ed.png
op 27 no 2.1 1st ed.png (405.92 KiB) Viewed 793 times
Why would he do such a thing?

Possible answers:

1. One of the Humankind's great genius’s was actually quite ignorant and knew less about musical notation than your average intermediate piano student. After all, we "all know" that Einstein couldn’t count either.

2. He was absent-minded and forgot for half a beat that he was in 2/2 time.

(Of course, if 1. or 2. were true, why didn’t the editor or engraver cover up the mistake by leaving out the dot?)

3. Beethoven was a truly complete musician who was unusually sensitive to the impact of musical notation and knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote down his music. And the editor and engraver caught on this time. (They didn’t always.)

In this case, Beethoven was concerned that the previous double stemmed “fictitious” quarter note D# which lasts for only 2/3 of a quarter note would cloud the issue of how long to hold the following “real” quarter note C#. And he was very concerned that that C# last for full value because it leads on to the B# in the next measure, the D#-C#-B# melodic progression being a pivotal moment in the piece. (Note the slur linking the D# and C#.) So he dotted the real quarter note to make that as clear as possible.

This shows that Beethoven was not just writing down his music “correctly”. Sometimes he went "above and beyond" and even considered possible misunderstanding of the notation and took precautions to prevent it.

The melodic progression is repeated twice more in the following 3 measures. Now there are no augmentation dots because there is no longer a need for them. (See second example above.)
Last edited by John Ruggero on 11 Apr 2023, 16:43, edited 2 times in total.
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Cor anglais 16
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Re: A Beethoven Subtlety

Post by Cor anglais 16 »

You’re going to put all this brilliance into a scholarly article or book, yes?
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John Ruggero
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Re: A Beethoven Subtlety

Post by John Ruggero »

Thank you very much, cor anglais. A brilliant deduction: contemplating a book. It would also include a longish section on Beethoven's keyboard style, a subject that needs more exploration. Brahms felt that Beethoven wrote the best of anyone for the piano, and anyone seems to have included Chopin.
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NeeraWM
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Re: A Beethoven Subtlety

Post by NeeraWM »

I agree with your deduction, John.
To stretch Beethoven's genius—but not too much—this could be an early example of implicit polymeter, 2/2 in one voice, 12/8 in another.
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John Ruggero
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Re: A Beethoven Subtlety

Post by John Ruggero »

Thank you, Neera.

Here is the way I think of the passage, perhaps it is close to what you were saying. The shape of the triplet pattern for this and several previous measures suggests 6/4 time instead of 2/2. Beethoven wanted to bring the D# in on the third quarter note of the measure as in the next two measures and continue on in 2/2, but the resulting collision of the two patterns and meters (shown boxed in the following example) was awkward and this caused him to simplify the passage by bringing the D# in on the second part of the triplet to allow the 6/4 pattern to continue on, the D# and F# thus replacing the F# and A that appear in the next two measures:
op 27 no 2.1.png
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NeeraWM
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Re: A Beethoven Subtlety

Post by NeeraWM »

Amazing at how Beethoven thoughtful notation is 20x more expressive than, let's call it, the most logical and/or correct notation!
Brilliant!

I had a similar "eureka" moment when, fresh of academic studies where 5/4 (or 5/8) is 3+2 or 2+3, I learnt how a 4+1 or 1+4 is a perfectly acceptable solution if the music asks for it! Like, know your rules so you can break them!
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