A Beethoven Subtlety
Posted: 11 Apr 2023, 14:45
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.)
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.)
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.)
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.)