DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (December 4, 2020)
Napoleon's army invaded Austria for the second time in 1809, and Beethoven's sponsor, friend, and piano student, the Archduke Rudolph, was forced to flee.
Beethoven dedicated this sonata, which will be showcased at the 24-hour Beethoven Celebration (https://youtu.be/iyjWFntIiiY), to Rudolf, and it specifically addresses his situation. The three movements were entitled by Beethoven Das Lebewohl (Farewell), Abweisenheit (Absence), and Das Weidersehen ( Return).
FIRST MOVEMENT: Lebewohl
The opening three notes of this movement are perfect example of “motivfuhrung”—or motivic leading. Beethoven wrote the word Lebewohl, or "Farewell" underneath those notes—G, F, Eb—in the key of Eb, so 3-2-1 in that key. That brings up an important aspect of music.
Vowels are shaped by what are known as formants—it has equivalent musical intervals between them. Every trained singer knows about the procession of going from "dark" to "bright" vowels. Try for yourself! Singing on one note, or even just pronouncing, the vowels "oo oh ah eh ee." You can hear how they progress from dark to bright, and you might even feel the focus moving from the soft palate at the back of the mouth, forward to the hard palate in the middle, to the teeth. Thus there is a physical reality to language that corresponds very much to music. (See example 1)
Now pronounce the word, "lay- buh- vole." This moves the other direction. You can almost hear the tone going down as you speak. 3 2 1 in a scale is the most natural setting of this word. It is counterpointed in the alto voice by a descending triad—Eb, Bb, G—which suggests distance and space. Finally the final tone in the bass, is not Eb, but C, what is known as a "deceptive cadence", giving it a sense of being unresolved, or incomplete.
Young composers can do well to learn something about the musical economy and efficiency of this! That motive shapes the movement.
SECOND MOVEMENT: Abweisenheit
Dissonant intervals such as the tritone, and diminished 7th chord (sometimes known as Lydian intervals) are ambiguous in nature, and thus serve well as agents of change and unexpected transitions. However, if you just "sit" on such dissonances, delaying change, they can produce great discomfort, as if something is missing. That is what Beethoven does here. (See example 2)
THIRD MOVEMENT: Das Weidersehen
An exhuberant expression of joy at the thught of Rudolf's return. (See example 3)
The timing of the movements are marked in this recording, performed by Alfred Brendel: