1st Movement: A Development with New Material

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Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Part 3

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Curtis Institute of Music

Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Part 3

41 ratings

Welcome to Part 3 of Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas! I'm delighted to launch another set of new lectures of this course as Part 3. As before, this class is meant for people of all levels of experience with Beethoven's music (including no experience at all!). Remember that you are able to watch the lectures as many times as you like, at whatever pace is comfortable for you. As I’ve done with the first two sets of Beethoven lectures, I look forward to meeting with students—online and in person, in various cities. The dates and locations will be posted in the Announcements and Events section, as part of the course content. So please remember to check back there for details. In these four new lectures, we will explore the following sonatas: • Sonata Op. 10, No. 1 • Sonata Op. 22 • Sonata Op. 31, No. 2 • Sonata Opp. 78, 79, 81a The Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation supports Curtis’s lifelong learning initiatives.

Na lição

Op. 10 No. 1

Opus 10 number 1: The "c minor Mood"6:06

Opus 10 number 1: Extremes of Tempo and Character1:49

1st Movement: Pulse as a Source of Character9:26

1st Movement: High Drama within the Conventions of the Time2:38

1st Movement: A Development with New Material4:28

1st Movement: Hammer Blows in c minor4:37

2nd Movement: An Adagio Oasis9:36

2nd Movement: A Coda that Expands the Movement’s Scope8:16

3rd Movement: Prestissimo!5:04

3rd Movement: Short-Short-Short-LONG3:16

3rd Movement: Beginning with Defiance; Ending with Mystery7:20

Conheça os instrutores

Jonathan Biss
Neubauer Family Chair in Piano Studies
Performance Faculty

On to the development.

I think this time, I’ll play first, then talk.

(MUSIC)

One of the reasons I decided to play the development in its entirely, which I usually

don’t, is that it’s so short – just about 60 measures in total.

Without getting ahead of myself, I will just say that this is a bit of a unifying thread

between all of the movements in this sonata.

But aside from that, this economical development very much belongs in this movement: at just

about every point, we are being pulled towards the next section, the next idea, without ever

stopping to smell the roses.

It’s interesting that in this very tightly focused, no-monkeying around development,

a lot of the material is actually new, rather than being rooted in the exposition.

This theme (MUSIC),

which then becomes the basis of this sequence (MUSIC),

is nowhere to be found in the exposition.

You could argue that it is loosely based on that bridge passage (MUSIC) – the curves

of the melodic line are similar – but really, this is a brand new theme.

It’s a good demonstration of just how much material –how many ideas – Beethoven manages

to pack into a movement without ever stopping to catch his breath.

So, we’re already more than halfway through this movement, and you may have noticed that

I’ve scarcely said a word about harmony, which I think may be a first!

But really, in this movement, rhythm, pulse and other questions of pacing are much more

the main sources of tension and drama.

There are quite a lot of diminished chords (MUSIC), which always bring sturm und drang,

but they are generally

approached in an orderly fashion – they may be intense, but they are not surprising.

Harmony is always important, but character in music is drawn from other elements as well.

But there is one moment in the development where suddenly the harmony is front and center.

The end of the development – the move towards the recapitulation –

features a long dominant pedal.

(MUSIC)

It’s just the way we expect the return of c minor and the opening to be approached.

Directly before this, though, there is a suspension which creates what is by far the most jarring

dissonance of the entire piece.

(MUSIC)

That chord (MUSIC) has four notes in it.

It’s a bit difficult to hear, as it’s in several different registers, but the four

notes of that chord are as follows:

(MUSIC)

It’s the harmonic version of teeth gnashing, and the fact that it comes in the midst of

a movement that is otherwise not really concerned with harmony as a source of drama,

that makes it more so.

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