Beethoven
From MetaforasWiki
| Foundations | Structure | Metafora | Inflection | Return to Metaforas.org |
Beethoven's (German composer, 1770-1827) sketchbooks reveal a lot about his methods of work. The man who could improvise the most intricate fantasies on the spur of the moment took infinite pains in the shaping of a considered composition. In the sketchbooks, such famous melodies as the adagio of the Emperor Concerto or the andante of the Kreutzer Sonata can be seen emerging from trivial and characterless beginnings into their final form. It seems, too, that Beethoven worked on more than one composition at a time, and that he was rarely in a hurry to finish anything that he had on hand. Early sketches for the Fifth Symphony, for instance, date from 1804, although the finished work did not appear until 1808. Sometimes the sketches are accompanied by verbal comments, perhaps as a kind of aide-mémoire. Sometimes, as in the sketching of the Third (Eroica) Symphony, he would leave several bars blank, making it clear that the rhythmic scheme had preceded the melodic in his mind.
Some of the sketches consist merely of a melody line and a bass—enough, in fact, to establish continuity. But in many works, especially the later ones, the sketching process is very elaborate indeed, with revisions and alterations continuing up to the date of publication. If, in general, it is only the primitive sketches and jottings that have survived, it is because Beethoven kept them beside him as potential sources of material for later compositions. The working out of a musical composition in all its detail ceased to interest him once the piece had been completed.
The first movement of his Fifth Symphony, marked with allegro con brio, springs out of the rhythmic three shorts and a long (dot dot dot dash) that dominate the entire symphony. In the relaxation of the second theme, this rhythm does not slacken and is repeated. Beethoven achieves a contrast of colors in his changes in mood: The first movement is in a somber minor; the second, with its classic serenity, is in major; the third, save for a jovial trio, returns to the minor. And then the dark C minor is dispelled with the upsurge of the finale. The fourth movement expresses monumentality in its sonata form, to which Beethoven adds an ending that sustains the tension of what has gone before.
See Also
- Talking Heads
- Beethoven
- Louis Armstrong
