DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

FORM FORM
ties in the affinities of the keys employed, which
makes tlie music that is heard in them produce
the most variedfeelingsintliemindof theauditor.
It is most important for a young student to avoid
the hasty conclusion from insulhcientobservation
that to modulate much is to be free and bold, for
it is nothing of the sort. Irregular purposeless
modulation is sheer weakness and vapidity.
Strength is shown in nothing more conspicuously
than in the capacity to continue long in one
key without ceasing to be interesting ;
that is etfeeted a bold stroke of well-defined
modulation comes with its proper force. For
when ke3^s are rapidly interlaced the force of
their mutual contrasts is weakened and even
destroyed ; their vital energy is frittered aw-ay to
and when
gi'atify an unwholesome taste for variety, and is
no longer of any use for steady action. In Beethoven
action is always steady, and the eli'ects of
the changing keys come ^vith their full force. A
new key is sought because it gives additional
vitality to a subject or episode, or throws a new
light upon an idea from a strange and unexpected
quarter, as in the w^onderful stroke of genius at
the outset of the ' Appassionata.' As other instances
may be quoted the first movement of the
Sonata in 0, op. 31, No. 1 ; Scherzo of Quartet
inF, op. 59, No. 1 ; first movement of Quartet in
r minor, op. 95.
The Episode which concludes the first part of
the movement is almost invariably of some importance
in Beethoven's works, ^'ery generally
he reproduces figures of his first subject, as in
the Prometheus and Leonora Overtures, the first
movements of the Quartets in F major (op. 59,
No. l)and E^ (op. 127), the Symphonies in D,
Eroica, C minor, and A, the Sonata in E (op.
14, No. 1), and tlielast movement of the Appassionata.
But more frequently he produces a
new subject, often of quite equal importance and
beauty to either the first or the second— to quote
but one instance out of many take the first
movementoftheSonatain G (op. 14, No. 2)—and
very often does so besides referring to his first
subject. The chief thing to notice from this is
that the Episode in question has gro-nm into important
dimensions in his hands, and is so clear,
and its distinction as a separate section from
what precedes it so marked, that it is not
uncommon to hear it sjioken of as the Coda of
the first p>art.
In the part de^'oted to the development of
the features of the subjects, which commonly
commences the second half of the movement,
Beethoven is especially gr-eat. No musician
ever had such a capacity for throwing an infinite
variety of lights upon one central idea ; it is no
' '
business or pedantry, but an extraordinary
genius for transforming rhythms and melodies
so that though they be recognised by the hearer
as the same which he has heard before, they
just as the
seem to tell a totally different story ;
same ideas working in the minds of men of dif-
ferent circumstances or habits of thought niay
give them the most opposite feelings. As was
pointed out with reference to Mozart, no system
is deducible from the order of this division of
the movement, than which none shows more in-
fallibly the calibre of the conq)Oser. As a rule
Beethoven avoids the complete statement of any
of his subjects, but breaks them up into their
constituent figures, and mixes them up in new-
situations, avoiding cadences and miiformity of
groups of bars and rhythms. As far as possible
the return to the original key is marked in
some more refined w^ay than the matter-of-fai't
plan of baldly passing to its Dominant, pausing,
and re-commencing opierations. The reprise of
the first subject is sufficient indication to the
hearer as to what part of the movement he has
arrived at, and the ajiproaches to it require to
be so fined off, that it may burst upon him
with the extra force of a surprise. Sometimes
a similar ettect is obtained by the totally opposite
course of raising expectation by hints of what
is to come, and then deferi'ing it in such a
manner that the suspended anticipation of the
mind may heighten the sense of pleasure in its
gi-atification, as in the last movement of the
Waldstein Sonata. Again the return is not unfrequently
made the climax of a grand culmination
of increasing force and fury, such as that
in the first movement of the Waldstein Sonata
(where the return is pp) and the Fourth and
Eighth Symphonies, a device which is as moving
to the hearer as either of the former ones, and
equally intense and original.
In the recapitulation of his subjects, as might
be anticipated from his intensity in all things,
there is a growing tendency to avoid the apparent
platitude of repeating them exactly as at
first. Sometimes they appear with new features,
or new orders of modulation, and sometimes
altogether as variations of the originals. As
instances of this may be taken the recapiitulation
of the first subjects in the first movements of the
Eroica Symphony, D minor Sonata (op. 31, No.
2), the Waldstein, the Appassionata, and the
B^ Sonata, op. 106, the first movement of the
Quartet in Et>, op. 127, and of the Kreutzer
Sonata, the slow movements of the Violin Sonata
in C minor, op. 30, No. 2, and of tlie great Bb
Sonata just named, all which present the various
features above enumerated in great perfection.
No system can be defined of the way in which
Beethoven connects his first and second subject
in this part of the movement, as he particularly
avoids sameness of procedure in such matters.
As a nde tlie second snbject is given more simply
than the fir.st ; no doubt because of its being
generally of less vital importance, and less
f>rominent in the mind of the hearer, and there-
fore requiring to be more easily recognisable.
With regard to the key in which it appears, he
occasionally varies, particularly wdieu it has not
appeared in the first part in the orthodox