I saw this picture while searching for the right Youtube of Beethoven's Piano Concerto #3 to use for today. It turned out the particular youtube that used it was borked, so we're going with a Bernstein recording. But I still like the picture, so I tracked it down with a reverse-image search.
Girl Left Behind by Eastman Johnson. Perfect for Beethoven.
(More Beethoven fun below...)
It struck me very keenly. The intensity on the girl's face is compelling. It reminds me of a photo we have of my mother (it's in the possession of my ex-sis-in-law, so unavailable), about 1944, standing atop the Empire State Building and staring into the distance, her hair blown by the wind. Her face is somewhat intense, which she explains to us as her being pissed off at her husband at the time.
Johnson is described as a late 19th century realist painter, but the painting seems deeply romantic. Beethoven stands at the cusp of romanticism and classicism, a subject we will explore next week. We will have to decide as a group whether to head north from the equator that is Beethoven into the romantic composers, or head southwards into the classical and baroque composers.
Beethoven's early music is very much like Mozart's, although he lacks that "sound of perfection" that nobody but Mozart ever achieved. For example, it's hard to find anything to distinguish the style of the slow movement from Beethoven's Symphony number 1 from a Mozart slow movement, say the slow movement from his 39th Symphony.
What distinguishes Beethoven, though, is a certain kind of passion in some of his works. In particular, Beethoven's good at sounding ANGRY. Mozart doesn't seem to have had a mean bone in his body. Whatever the source of pain and anguish is that Beethoven was able to call upon, we can hear it in works like his Piano Concerto #3. The opening minor key main theme doesn't sound anguished as much as angry and violent. The same can be said of Beethoven's famous C minor fifth symphony. Rather than hearing "Fate knocking at your door," as some people described the fifth, I hear Beethoven banging on my door to tell me he's going to kick my ass because my dog peed on his roses.
Arghh! There he is now!
Knock knock knock KNOOOOCK. "You son of my bitch! I go to broken your nose so bad your mama not know your face! You fuckwad dog pee pee on my roses! I go been making you die so bad!"
Seriously, if my Frisbee landed in his backyard, and that face answered the door, I'd just buy a new one.
In researching the Beethoven work we're going to listen to, I was struck how many times the word "masculine" was used to describe it. Masculine? I've heard the same word used to describe the first movement of his Fifth Symphony. In his Unanswered Question lecture series, Leonard Bernstein compared Beethoven's early drafts of the Fifth's first movement, including one that had piccolos, which he performed. Beethoven decided to remove the higher-voiced instruments, leaving the burden of the music on the shoulders of the deeper strings to create what Bernstein called "a deeply masculine utterance." That, too, is something peculiar to Beethoven's music. By comparison, Mozart and Schubert, who wedge him in on each shoulder, both seem effeminate in their appreciation of sensuous luxury.
Beethoven's music is probably the most thoroughly analyzed of all the composers. I can't back that up with numbers, because Amazon and Google both show more hits for Mozart, but having spent time in the library reading music books, and having read program notes, I can give my own weak voucher that Beethoven has a magnetic appeal to music geeks because there is so much beneath the surface to analyze. Beethoven wasn't just passionate. He was brilliant. His music is smart. His music is filled with architectural innovations and puzzles for the listener. You can listen to it a thousand times and notice new things that suddenly make something click.
Beethoven's music went through what musicologists like to describe as his three stages, Early, Middle, and Late. The dividing line for the beginning of his Middle period is the Symphony #3 in E-flat, "The Eroica," Beethoven's opus 55 work. The Late period begins after his 8th symphony. The work we are going to hear in a minute is opus 37 from his Early period. His early period is not as innovative in architecture, a bit clumsier at times than his later works, but also very passionate, like his Pathetique Sonata opus 13 or his Moonlight Sonata opus 27.
The Beethoven Piano Concerto #3 in C minor was modeled after one of Mozart's concertos, the wonderful Piano Concerto #24 in C minor. I won't embed the video, but come back and click the link and listen to it for the similarities later. They are both dark. Mozart's is perhaps more subtle, while Beethoven's is more driven and insistent upon your full attention. For a deeper look at the similarities, also check out KeninNy's comparison of the two at the wonderful DownWithTyranny blog.
The similarities extend past just mood similarities to the architecture of the first movement. If you recall last week's Schumann concerto, the piano joined in and alternated with the orchestra from the very first bar. In both Mozart's and Beethoven's concertos, the piano is completely absent for several minutes until the second exposition begins. The pianist could play solitaire until then. The orchestra is given free rein to introduce all the themes of the movement in their pure form before the piano comes in, in the second exposition, to elaborate and give a different, more personalized and more ornamented interpretation of all the same material.
As a reminder, here is our outline of Sonata-Allegro form. I turned it into a spiffy little graphic because I got tired of trying to fight Dailykos's auto-formatting.
And now we begin. This performance is by the Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conductor, Krystian Zimerman piano. The audio is out of sync with the video, but the audio is good.
Beethoven Piano Concerto #3 in C minor, Opus 37, First Movement
-2. Exposition
-2a. First theme (0:00 to 1:44)
The movement begins immediately (no Introduction section) with the first theme in the home key of C minor. The very first seven notes of this melody will spawn most of the music in the rest of the movement. Now, in C minor, it is dark and ominous with an edge of danger to it. But the theme quickly begins its migration towards C minor's relative major key of E-flat major, changing form and mood. (Remember the "relative major" discussion from our OPUS 4 diary?) If you're watching the video, you see Zimerman sitting idle at the piano with nothing to do yet.
-2b. Second theme (1:44 to 2:33)
And here comes the second theme in E-flat, very different in tone, gentle and positive, in contrast to the first theme. The darker "masculine" first theme in C minor tries to butt its way back in at 2:33. The woodwinds break this up with a brief minor key melody of their own (at 2:53).
I suppose we could debate whether the codetta begins before or after the woodwinds melody. It's not Beethoven's duty to adhere to our little formal outline; he's the creative genius here.
-2c. Codetta (3:11 to 3:45)
The brief codetta is in C minor, which violates our little game plan graphic at the top, but it helps us to start the second exposition, where we finally get to hear the piano.
-3. Repeat of the Exposition (but now with the piano!) (3:45)
-3a. First theme again
Finally, we hear the piano! The piano gives us its own interpretation of the first theme, one which is far more ornamented. At 4:37, it begins to cross the bridge into E-flat major, establishing us solidly there before we hear...
-3b. Second theme again (5:22)
The piano introduces its interpretation of the second theme! Unlike 2b, we are not interrupted by the C minor main theme stomping through our little major key picnic, but we do get to hear that woodwind melody again; this time, it is changed from the sad minor key version we first heard at (2:35) to this happier major key version.
-3c. Codetta again (7:13)
The orchestra repeats the brief codetta of 2c, but this time it is solidly major key, E-flat Major. It is rather buoyant and content at this point, which sets us up for the coming development.
-4. The Development (7:25)
At 7:25, the mood darkens as the main theme returns, now in G minor.
It's time to switch to the second video to complete the first movement! This is the price we pay for using Youtube.
As we continue the development, the mood becomes suddenly hushed. In this hush, the piano introduces one of several small variations on the main theme. Throughout this part, the strings provide a staccato (short, choppy notes) repeating bass line which give us the sense of motion and expectation. We go from the G minor variation (0:15) to F minor (0:40) to D-flat major (0:58) to G major (1:17).
The development here (1:17) takes a different direction. The staccato strings drop out. The mood darkens. As the woodwinds play a series of forlorn chords, the piano accompanies them with a series of rapid, complicated scales in, slingshotting us quickly through G major (1:24), A-flat (1:28), F major (1:32), B-flat minor (1:36) C minor (1:43) (whew!). And as we find our bearings, we are back with a crescendo IN THE HOME KEY, confronted once more by the main theme.
-5. Recapitulation (1:48)
-5a. First theme
Yes, the main them is back, in C minor, and as pissed-off sounding as ever! At 1:48, the full orchestra announces its return. (Or is it WE, who have returned to IT? Metaphysical...)
What's different from the exposition in the recap for this concerto? At 2:02, the orchestra volume softens. (You can see Bernstein gesturing with his baton to keep things down.) The piano tries to enter (2:07) back into the main theme, but it is somewhat hesitant, just a few notes at first, almost unsure of itself, but it regains its confidence and voice at 2:20 to resume the recap of the first theme.
-5b. Recap of second theme. (2:45)
The piano introduces and then shares the second theme, now in C major, with the orchestra. The woodwinds theme from 2a returns in its major key form (3:25).
-6. Coda (with cadenza!) (3:49)
The piano gives us a major key version of the codetta from 2c. The orchestra restates the main theme and comes to a loud grinding halt, in preparation for the cadenza solo.
The cadenza (starting at 5:07) of the Beethoven Piano Concerto #3 is more complicated than the one in last week's Schumann concerto and it contains the most electrifying music of the movement and has a form all of its own. The gentle second theme makes a brief return appearance at 6:38, soft and gentle at first, but then subjected to violence.
At 8:00, the cadenza fades away in soft C minor trills. The orchestra recovers its voice and rejoins, equally softly at first, before the loud C minor conclusion.
Beethoven Piano Concerto #3 C minor SECOND MOVEMENT
I'm running short of time, so I'll try to do as much of the second movement as I can. It would be more elegant to skip it, but how can I? It's sublime. It's better and more memorable than the first movement. The form is similar to one of Mozart's concerto slow movements, a kind of fantasy, but the first melody is outstanding and very complex. In preparing this diary, I tried to play along with it on my guitar to figure out the chords. It's definitely not a Three Chord Wonder type of melody.
The piano enters the second movement alone, the orchestra silent. From the first chord, the mood is sober. The home key of this movement, E major, is somewhat distant from the previous movement's C minor, which gives us the sense that we are in new turf. The melody itself is hardly even a melody, but more just a long series of piano chords. For my own use, I listed them:
(Piano solo from 0:00 to 1:42)
E major. G-flat. A-flat. D-flat minor. B major. G major. E minor. C major. B major. E major.
I probably don't have to tell you, as you listen to it, that some of these chord choices are unusual. You can hear that. The effect is remarkable and sobering. It feels both strong and introspective.
At 1:42, the full orchestra joins in with a soothing melody that creates an interlude or chorus. The interlude is based on the first three chords of the first melody, although it doesn't take that weird twist through D minor. The interlude ends at 2:12 with chords in the cellos and basses, going from E major, through the relative minor of D-flat minor, to a dominant seventh and then E again.
The movement continues, but I'm running out of time so I'll stop analyzing here. I'll just point out that as sacred as the second movement is, the final movement might be described as profane.
All done for now. But you may wonder...
I suspect some may be wondering why I burden you with the names of the keys that we wander through in our musical journey. You can't possibly be able to tell the difference between C major and D major without a tuning fork or without the talent of perfect pitch ( which all babies are born with but very few adults have ). Really, it's not necessary to know what particular key any part of the music is, but it is useful to note that the key is changing, something anybody can identify, even if they can't tell you what the name of the key they are moving from or going to.
In classical music, movement between keys is what punctuates the language of the music and creates tension for the longer dramatic narrative that the music carries. Sonata-allegro form is in a way a template not just for classical music but for dramatic narrative itself. If you take a creative writing class, you will learn about the uses of exposition and development and denouement (akin to our coda) in basic story-telling. As classical music evolved in complexity and form, the Sonata-allegro form became a form of narrative story-telling, and the modulations between keys serve as part of the drama of that story. Beethoven excelled over Mozart particularly in this, the use of music as narrative; that trend would continue even further with the romantics, as music became less about abstractions of form and more about drama and story.