Beethoven’s Logic 9
Posted: 28 Apr 2025, 16:04
The following passage occurs in the second (and last) movement of his piano sonata op. 78. The section under consideration starts at 1 in the example and consists of 2 measures that are repeated (at A) with all but one interval inverted (2 + 2 measures). Then at 2 it all happens again but the repetition continues on freely for 4 measures toward a kind of explosion (2 + 4 measures).
But the bass note at A has puzzled editors. Shouldn’t it be an octave lower as at B?
The arguments for this can seem compelling. The lower D# at A would be better voice-leading and more pianistic coming from the previous A# and would better support the forte dynamic. And the symmetry of the phrasing would be improved. Maybe Beethoven wrote out the bass line of the first two measures and then abbreviated the following with two-measure repeat signs, while forgetting to change the octave position of the first bass note?
The later repetition of the passage does anything but shed light:
The situation has reversed! The big jump comes second.
So which one of the two phrases are correct? Or do both have errors? Some editions have attempted corrections:
Appearances can be deceiving, however, and I believe that the passage is correct as it stands.
1. Beethoven wrote out every repetition of the bass progression in full in the manuscript. No abbreviations were used.
2. The first three pairs of measures constitute i-V-i-V7 chord progressions, each ending with a half cadence on V7. Since the final V7 does not resolve to the following i, there is no voice leading issue with the big jumps from A# to D# (or C# to F#). This is borne out by the slurring, which breaks after every V7. (The first edition made one slurring error in the second example.) And from the pianistic viewpoint, the big jumps are helpful by enforcing breaks to show the phrasing.
3. While it is correct that the lower D# at A would better support the forte dynamic, the higher D# is low enough on the keyboard to do the job. Beethoven is saving that low D# for where it really counts: the final four measures leading to the ending explosion. And an exact repetition of the first four measures is exactly what he wants to avoid, given the repetitious nature of the whole passage.
But doesn’t the second example contradict this? The lower bass note comes first, not second.
4. Beethoven cannot use the lower F# at D, as much as he might have wished to, because the ending note at E is only a third lower, not a large enough interval to create the sense of a precipitous drop to the final chord. The higher F# creates the much more dramatic interval of a 10th. (See arrows in the first two examples.)
5. Thus Beethoven must now use the lower F# at C to prevent monotonous repetition with the higher F# at D. A side benefit is that the bass note better supports the forte since the music is now a third higher. However, the F# must not be connected to the previous C# despite the error seen in the first edition.
Fortunately, the Schenker edition and more recent Urtext editions present the passage according to the manuscript. More personal 20th century editions like Schnabel and Craxton/Tovey have falsified the slurring to include the first bass notes. This links the pairs of measures together in a way that I think is not at all Beethoven's intention, since Beethoven frequently runs slurs over bar lines to single down beat notes when required.
Here is one particularly interesting example from the first movement of the "Waldstein" sonata op 53. While the slurs for the previous repetitions of this ending figure stopped at the bar lines, this one pointedly continues on to create maximum effect from the deceptive cadence:
- Beethoven op 78.2A.png (765.27 KiB) Viewed 615 times
The arguments for this can seem compelling. The lower D# at A would be better voice-leading and more pianistic coming from the previous A# and would better support the forte dynamic. And the symmetry of the phrasing would be improved. Maybe Beethoven wrote out the bass line of the first two measures and then abbreviated the following with two-measure repeat signs, while forgetting to change the octave position of the first bass note?
The later repetition of the passage does anything but shed light:
- Beethoven op 78.2B.png (664.39 KiB) Viewed 615 times
So which one of the two phrases are correct? Or do both have errors? Some editions have attempted corrections:
- op 78.2 Peters.png (375.72 KiB) Viewed 615 times
1. Beethoven wrote out every repetition of the bass progression in full in the manuscript. No abbreviations were used.
- op 78.2 MS.png (1.17 MiB) Viewed 615 times
3. While it is correct that the lower D# at A would better support the forte dynamic, the higher D# is low enough on the keyboard to do the job. Beethoven is saving that low D# for where it really counts: the final four measures leading to the ending explosion. And an exact repetition of the first four measures is exactly what he wants to avoid, given the repetitious nature of the whole passage.
But doesn’t the second example contradict this? The lower bass note comes first, not second.
4. Beethoven cannot use the lower F# at D, as much as he might have wished to, because the ending note at E is only a third lower, not a large enough interval to create the sense of a precipitous drop to the final chord. The higher F# creates the much more dramatic interval of a 10th. (See arrows in the first two examples.)
5. Thus Beethoven must now use the lower F# at C to prevent monotonous repetition with the higher F# at D. A side benefit is that the bass note better supports the forte since the music is now a third higher. However, the F# must not be connected to the previous C# despite the error seen in the first edition.
Fortunately, the Schenker edition and more recent Urtext editions present the passage according to the manuscript. More personal 20th century editions like Schnabel and Craxton/Tovey have falsified the slurring to include the first bass notes. This links the pairs of measures together in a way that I think is not at all Beethoven's intention, since Beethoven frequently runs slurs over bar lines to single down beat notes when required.
Here is one particularly interesting example from the first movement of the "Waldstein" sonata op 53. While the slurs for the previous repetitions of this ending figure stopped at the bar lines, this one pointedly continues on to create maximum effect from the deceptive cadence:
- op 53.1 slur.png (365.82 KiB) Viewed 576 times