Assignment – Tuesday, Sept. 17

beau

Reading: pp. 585-594

Listening after the jump.

Below is a playlist of single movements from four of Beethoven’s “Late” works. Please choose one and listen to the full piece. In the comments, discuss briefly (2-3 sentences) something that stood out to you from the piece that you chose in terms of the relationship between movements.

Warning, some of these pieces are quite long (esp. the Mass), so if you don’t have a chance to sit down with the score for an hour and a half this weekend, that is okay.  Instead pick a time when you are going to be folding laundry or doing something else with your hands for an hour, and settle in to listen.

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8 thoughts on “Assignment – Tuesday, Sept. 17”

  1. Katherine Siochi

    In the Hammerklavier sonata, one of the main things that stands out to me is the disproportionate length of the 4 movements. While the first and fourth are fairly comparable, the second almost seems like a joke (in part due to its use of the 1st movement’s thematic material, with a wittier, far less serious tone), and the third is quite expansive and profound. This is characteristic of Beethoven’s propensity to use striking contrasts within a work.

    September 17, 2013 at 1:02 am
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  2. Michael Chiarello

    In the major sections of each of the movements it sounds like no matter how happy the character of the sonata gets, there is always a dissolve of that joyful character at some point. I don’t know if that may be pointing towards Beethoven state of anguish over his hearing at the time, or something else.

    September 17, 2013 at 1:47 am
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  3. Chase Baird

    After listening to “String Quartet No. 14 in C# Minor,” few notable elements seemed apparent to me. One would be the pervasive use of “swung” rhythms or 2-1 (quarter note followed by eighth note in 6/8) or 3-1 (dotted eighth followed by sixteenth in common time). Almost all counterpoint in the quartet occurred as 1:1 first species or 2:1 second species counterpoint. In the slower movements, Beethoven favored a dramatic and extensive usage of suspensions. In the quicker movements, emphasis was placed on the development of short melodic fragments, not necessarily related to one another on a large scale by developed extensively during the time of their appearance in the piece.

    September 17, 2013 at 2:05 am
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  4. Luke Celenza

    I listened to the String quartet: from the Adagio into the Allegro they become more and more spacious and notes are sustained until eventually all 4 end up on a unison note to the end of the movement. It stood out to me at the beginning of the next movement not that he carried over the unison idea, but that he moved it up a half step. It shocked my ears, I guess because I was expecting some characteristics to carry over from how the Adagio ended, into how the Allegro should start. And that’s exactly what he does, he writes unison and changes it slightly by moving up a half step (of course expanding outward from the unison in contrast with how the previous piece simplified into the unison) I was ready for him to do anything after the end of the first piece, and I was anxiously awaiting what he would do, and he did something so simple and strongly associated with what came before, that it had a greater and more profound impact than something more complicated or intricate could have done.

    September 17, 2013 at 2:41 am
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  5. Elizabeth White

    The four movements of the 9th symphony are all vastly different in mood and character, but are connected using motifs. One example of this is the repetition of the introduction of the 1st movement near the opening of the 4th movement.

    September 17, 2013 at 2:42 am
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  6. Ben Zannoni

    In the string quartet there always seems to be a sense of 2 sides; one still and uncertain, the other explosive and moving toward something that is never attained. Also along the same lines the movements tend to be extremely different from movement to movement, almost to express different aspects of life, where each movement is a caricature of an emotion or event.

    September 17, 2013 at 11:27 am
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  7. Robin Giesbrecht

    Besides the obvious things, such as the difficulty, structure and the fact that it is in 4 movements, which makes it his longest Sonata, the different rhythmic patterns stood out to me most after listening to Serkin’s recording on Youtube. He uses groundbreaking rhythms that are very new to the time and really show what Beethoven could have written if he’d have lived a few more years. Around minute 34(:18) he starts with the dotted notes to eventually evolve and burst out in typical Beethoven-fashion. The rhythm; however, kind of reminds of Pop music, similar to what he did in op. 111 with the second movement being Jazzy.

    September 17, 2013 at 1:52 pm
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  8. Danny Chang

    I listened to the string quartet and there were some interesting things that surprised me. Compare to most of those early quartets with slow beginning, there is nothing like the music in this op.131 with this deep sound. It sounds to me almost like searching the meanings of being alive, very deep, religious, meaningful. Without the resolution of those dissonant chords and the fugue form, it makes the longing feeling, defining the different level and aspect of life.

    September 17, 2013 at 2:25 pm
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