The Short

192 ARTICULATION AND EXPRESSION
Ex. 5.24. Beethoven: (a) Missa solemnis, Dona nobis pacem; (b) Piano Sonata op. 111/i
to do in other instances in late ones? There are very good grounds for thinking that, in the works of this period, he
envisaged a specific type of performance when he either wrote ‘non ligato’ or (except where an earlier instruction was
obviously intended to continue) left the notes without markings. The first movement of the String Quartet op. 130 is
particularly revealing in this respect, for the semiquavers from bar 14 are marked ‘non ligato’ while those at bar 64
have staccato marks and the instruction pp ben marcato; and both passages return with the same markings later in the
movement (Ex. 5.25.) It is probable that Beethoven wanted a more connected bowstroke in the non ligato passage,
and this assumption may be strengthened if the known bowing style of the violinists, for instance Joseph Boehm, with
whom he worked at that time, is taken into account. 340 If this is so, it seems likely that when Beethoven used this
instruction in his piano music, or when he appears intentionally to have left the notes without articulation marks or
slurs (difficult though this sometimes is to identify), he meant the pianist to produce an effect similar to the broad
détaché of the string player, each note receiving the emphasis of a separate bowstroke but without being shortened.
It is less likely that Beethoven made any clear distinction of this kind in earlier
340 See Ch. 7.