CHAPTER V.
BEETHOVEN.
Beethoven as democrat — Rhythmic similarities — Beethoven’s first and last compositions — Musical humour — The distinction in Beethoven’s chamber music.
The genius of this remarkable man has left us a heritage of undying beauty in every department of the art, and especially in that of chamber music.
Beethoven as Democrat
“Beethoven[19] (1770-1827) was the first great democrat among musicians. He would have none of the shackles which his predecessors wore, and he compelled the aristocracy of birth to bow to the aristocracy of genius. But such was his reverence for the style of music which had grown up in the chambers of the great, that he devoted the last three years of his life almost exclusively to its composition; the peroration of his proclamation to mankind consists of his last Quartetts—the holiest of holy things to the chamber musicians of to-day.” With regard to these works it has been said with, at any rate a certain degree of truth, that the musical ideas contained in them are too large for the means of expression, just as we find some movements of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas to be orchestral in feeling, and beyond the powers of the piano adequately to express. Some critics have ventured to regard the later Quartetts as loose and rhapsodical in form. This is, however, merely the penalty which conventionality seeks to impose on creative genius, and may be passed by as harmless.
Rhythmic Similarities
Among the many notable features to be found in Beethoven’s compositions, it has, more than once, been pointed out that there is a curious rhythmic likeness in certain works written by him about same time, and this is confirmed (as to the time of composition) by the sketches to be found in his note-books. The opening of the well-known Fifth Symphony, op. 67, composed about 1804, for example:—
may be compared with the Piano Sonata, op. 57, in F minor, written about 1805, and the Piano Concerto, op. 58, written about 1806. Another noteworthy instance is found in the String Quartett, op. 74, written in 1809.[20] The third movement of which opens thus:—
And further on the following unison passage occurs, in which the resemblance to the Symphony just named, both rhythmic and as to the actual notes, is very striking:—
Yet here, as in the other instances, there is no mere repetition, for each case possesses a distinct and unmistakable individuality of its own.
The difficulty which presents itself in discussing Beethoven’s chamber music is that one is embarrassed by the wealth of material which presents itself on all hands, for although he wrote less in quantity than many of the classical masters, nearly every work is remarkable, and there is little or nothing that can come under the term “padding.” This is no doubt to be accounted for by the slow, yet sure, way in which he worked. His sketch-books show this clearly. Some melodies, which seem to us so entirely spontaneous, as, for example, the slow movement of the C minor Symphony, and the opening of the song “Adelaida,” are found in these sketch-books in many forms, and were many times altered before he was satisfied, and the final form decided on.
Beethoven’s First and Last Compositions
Save some piano pieces which he did not think important enough to deserve an opus number, his first published compositions were in chamber music form. They are the three well-known Trios, op. 1, for violin, ’cello, and piano, and the fine Trio, op. 3, in E♭, for violin, viola, and ’cello. His last compositions also were in this form—namely, the String Quartetts already mentioned, whose meaning is only now beginning to be comprehended by musicians generally. His actually final work was the movement which now concludes the Quartett in B♭, op. 130. This work originally finished with an elaborate fugue, but Beethoven was prevailed upon (it is said by Artaria, the publisher) to substitute for it the present allegro, a movement which in its sprightly and almost joyous character, and the clearness with which it is worked out, forms a remarkable contrast to the fugue. Yet he wrote it under the influence of very unpleasant domestic circumstances, and also what was always very trying to him, while confined to the house (his brother’s, at Gneixendorf) by rainy weather! Thus we see that he began and ended his career with chamber music.
Schumann, than whom it would be difficult to quote a higher authority, says of these last String Quartetts: “They appear to me to reach the extremest limits of human art and fancy yet attained.”
Of the earlier String Quartetts it is hardly necessary to speak at any length, as they are as familiar as household words to all who take their music seriously. To the four published as op. 18, this remark specially applies. But while this is so, no familiarity can alter the fact that they are among the most charming and technically perfect things which music has produced. That in F major, op. 59, too, is among the well-known ones, for who does not love its dainty allegretto (quoted below), one of the most remarkable of Beethoven’s scherzando movements?
Beethoven, Op. 59, No. 1.
Musical Humour
It is in music of this kind that he shows us the wide gap which separates the merely comic element from that philosophic humour which “sees the comedy of life through a mist of tears.” Specially notable is the conclusion of this movement, where, after a full cadence in B♭, four bars (pianissimo) are added, which give the momentary impression of a quite fresh tonality; these are followed by other four bars (double forte) of the common chord of the key-note, with which the movement ends.
Beethoven, Op. 59, No. 1.
In quite another mood, but written with the same artistic eccentricity of effect, is the passage near the end of the adagio of Quartett op. 74, in E♭, where the note F♭[21] is played by the viola in the fourth bar of the following quotation:—
Beethoven, Op. 74.
Among Beethoven’s earlier works the five Trios (one being a Serenade) for violin, viola, and ’cello, op. 3, op. 8, and op. 9, rank high, that in C minor, No. 3 of op. 9, being a specially fine work. The limited means (only three instruments) must be reckoned with in these works, yet without any excessive addition to the difficulty of performance, Beethoven produces continually the effect of a full quartett.
There is also another Trio, op. 25, for the unusual combination of violin, flute, and viola, in serenade form. The whole work is most interesting, especially as to the instruments for which it is written, and the fourth movement, which is an andante in G major with variations, performs with a surprising fulness of effect.
Another Trio is that for two oboes and English horn (or alto oboe), op. 87, a rather strongly flavoured mixture, which is apt to pall on the musical palate in actual performance.
It is in his trios for the piano combined with other instruments, but chiefly with the violin and ’cello, that Beethoven’s work strongly contrasts with both Haydn’s and Mozart’s. No doubt his three early works of this kind, published as op. 1, reflect the style and influence of these two masters; yet even in these (the finale of No. 3 in C minor, for example) there are unmistakable signs of the coming Beethoven. But in the later ones, and more particularly that in B♭, op. 97, his supremacy is powerfully manifested.
The Trio, op. 11, for clarinet, ’cello, and piano (a combination used in our time by Brahms in his op. 114), is a pleasant, if not profound work, with a most expressive and charmingly written adagio movement.
Of the Piano Quartetts, that in E♭, an arrangement of the piano and wind Quintett, op. 16, should be mentioned. The other Piano Quartetts are, comparatively, of little value. There are also the String Quintetts, of which that in C major, op. 29, is familiar as a splendid example of this master. The Sextett, op. 81B, for strings and two horns, with the delightful adagio, and that for two clarinets, two horns, and two bassoons, op. 71, may be named; also the well-known Septett in E♭, op. 20, for strings and wind, both in its original form and arranged by the composer for clarinet or violin, ’cello, and piano; and the Octett, op. 103, for wind instruments, based on the Quintett, op. 4, for strings.
Beethoven’s Sonatas for piano and violin are among the more familiar of his works. Of these there are ten in number, and for the same instruments, a rondo in G, and a set of Variations in F. For the piano and ’cello he wrote five Sonatas, all of which are of great interest, and three sets of Variations, one being that on the well-known Handelian air, “See the conquering hero comes.” A Sonata for piano and French horn, op. 17, and three duets for clarinet and bassoon, may also be referred to, although they are of no great importance.
The Distinction in Beethoven’s Chamber Music
The great distinction in Beethoven’s works, especially those of his later years, is their high emotional expression. This it is which mainly differentiates him from his predecessors, and which makes him a romantic as well as, what by common consent he also is, a classical composer. This was, no doubt, the thought in Richard Wagner’s mind when, in his report to King Ludwig II. upon the establishment of a German music school in Munich, he wrote: “Through these last, and to us still unknown works of our wondrous master [Beethoven’s posthumous quartetts], of all others, the powers of musical expression has taken a direction from which the music of earlier periods was often bound to hold deliberately aloof; I will here call that direction the tenderly and deliberately passionate, through whose expression music has first raised herself to an equal height with the poetry and painting of the greatest periods of the past. Whilst Dante, Shakespeare, Calderon, and Goethe, like the great masters of painting in Italy and the Netherlands, with this expression took fee of every portrayable object in the world and man; and whilst it was this that first enabled them to paint the world and man: in music there had ruled an axiom which openly degraded her as a branch of Art, an axiom borrowed from the purely physical pleasure, the purely sensuous entertainment to be found in her. To what a point this narrow view of music’s mission still wanders to this day, particularly under the terrifying impression of the un-understood last works of Beethoven, we may perceive from the flat assertions of modern æsthetes when setting up their theories of ‘the Beautiful in Music.’ Us it behoves, on the contrary, to first take true and full possession of the whole rich heritage bequeathed us by our great masters, and, through full knowledge of the powers developed by music hitherto, to procure ourselves due light on what development is still before her.”