DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (August 24, 2020)
Beethoven's Op. 120, the “33 Variations on a Theme by Diabelli”, composed between 1819-23, is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding works we can think of. We will make every effort over the next few days to share its riches with our readers.
In 1819, the music publisher Anton Diabelli sent a short “waltz in C Major” of his own composition, to all of the well-known composers in the Austrian Empire (about 51 composers), asking them each to write a single variation on it. It was a patriotic effort. He planned to publish them in a single volume, whose sales would raise funds for those widowed and orphaned by the Napoleonic Wars. This simple waltz of 32 measures has an “A section” that repeats, and a “B section” that repeats. Here is Diabelli's original:
https://youtu.be/EFDJIcgEPsk?list=PL09CC7D15194A2CF3
Carl Czerny matched it with an even more pedestrian variation:
Schubert produced a beautiful score in C Minor:
Czerny's pupil, the 11 year-old Franz Liszt demonstrated that he was already on his way to becoming a dazzling showman:
Most of these settings followed the outline of the waltz. Beethoven at first declined to participate, and is reported to have labelled it, a "cobbler's patch." Later, he changed his mind, and decided to compose a monumental 33 variations on it, including a triple fugue. Many practical explanations have been made of why Beethoven changed his mind, one worse than the next. We think it is for a philosophical-scientific reason, rather than a practical one.
When scientists wish to test out a new invention, they will exhaust all possibilities, and push a new technology to its limits. That is where you find out its true mettle. When Pilot Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1, he did not know whether he or the plane would survive passing the "sound barrier." All the gauges went haywire as he approached the speed of sound. No readings were reliable. It might all fall apart. It did not, and the pilot and the plane entered a new world of supersonic flight.
Beethoven pushed Diabelli's waltz to the limits, and his last few variations do enter the musical equivalent of supersonic flight. Beethoven did not employ the usual term, "Variationen", but "Veränderungen"—which can also mean "transformations." In earlier works, Beethoven adhered to the outline of the theme, as in his Variations on "Nel Cor ni piu mi sento". But with the Diabelli, he did not! It is a new approach. They are transformations according to a different principle.
When Diabelli decided to publish Beethoven's work in 1823, he planned to make it volume 1, and the other variations by 50 other composers volume 2. He wrote about Beethoven having exhausted all possibilities, expressed surprise that his own theme could stand up to such a thorough test, and compared it to Bach's Goldberg Variations:
“We present here to the world Variations of no ordinary type, but a great and important masterpiece worthy to be ranked with the imperishable creations of the old Classics—such a work as only Beethoven, the greatest living representative of true art—only Beethoven, and no other, can produce. The most original structures and ideas, the boldest musical idioms and harmonies are here exhausted; every pianoforte effect based on a solid technique is employed, and this work is the more interesting from the fact that it is elicited from a theme which no one would otherwise have supposed capable of a working-out of that character in which our exalted Master stands alone among his contemporaries. The splendid Fugues, Nos. 24 and 32, will astonish all friends and connoisseurs of serious style, as will Nos. 2, 6, 16, 17, 23, &c. the brilliant pianists; indeed all these variations, through the novelty of their ideas, care in working-out, and beauty in the most artful of their transitions, will entitle the work to a place beside Sebastian Bach's famous masterpiece in the same form. We are proud to have given occasion for this composition, and have, moreover, taken all possible pains with regard to the printing to combine elegance with the utmost accuracy.”
What did Beethoven see in Diabelli's Waltz? Composers often based works on simple folk songs, because honest folk music incorporated lawful harmonic change, and motives capable of being developed, even if the folk artist was not aware of it. Here though, there may be an added element. Diabelli's theme does not really have a melody, except in a cross-voice between the soprano and the bass. That saves Beethoven from having to keep the melody intact!
Instead, Beethoven finds a harmonic foundation, based on the elementary C F and G (and D), which he at first adheres to, but gradually begins to lawfully alter. He also finds several motifs in the waltz. That allows for the variations to break out of the boundaries of melodic integrity, and allows for motivfuhrung, or motivic leading, to shape the development.
We provide two charts (see photos below), which we urge you to study before plunging into the Maelstrom!
1. The score of the Waltz, with leading motifs identified by different colors. If this proves a bit difficult, then we have:
2. A chart showing the main motivic ideas in the waltz. This is a virtuoso piece, but we urge all of you to try playing these simple motives, to help you dig for gold in the ensuing transformations. Please notice clef changes.
More to come tomorrow!