Since November 2024, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about Otto Frank. As a kid, he played cello in an orchestra. He enlisted in the German army and fought for Germany during World War I, and after the war left the service with the rank of lieutenant.
Later on, he married Edith Holländer, and she bore him two daughters, Margot and Anne. Life was good in Frankfurt. But then, due to “economic anxiety,” dictator Adolf Hitler came to power. Otto Frank knew that Hitler would try to conquer all of Europe.
Otto Frank saw America as the last hope for the survival of his family. But with so many other Jews also trying to escape Hitler’s evil plans, immigration to the United States was difficult. The Franks at least got to Amsterdam, and they were safe, for a time.
Anne Frank in 1940
But, as Otto Frank foresaw, Hitler invaded the Netherlands, and the family’s hiding place was found. Whether they were betrayed or whether they simply slipped up under the stress of hiding remains a matter of intense speculation.
Otto Frank was a Jew, but he was also a veteran, and that counted for something. He was sent to a different concentration camp, and that made the difference of his survival. His wife and daughters, however, died in a horrific manner.
Otto went back to the hiding place, where he found his daughter Anne’s diary. He had it published, so that at least some trace of his daughter’s spirit could live on in libraries. We don’t know if he ever played the cello again.
We know that Anne liked music. On April 11, 1944, she enjoyed a concert over the radio featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Serenade in G major, K. 525, “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” (a little night music).
The key of G major was used a lot in Mozart’s time. Both a symphony by his own father Leopold (K. 45a) was attributed to him as well as a symphony by his spiritual uncle Michael Haydn (K. 444/425a) was also attributed to him. Both of those are in G major.
Beethoven also wrote music in G major, but notably never as the main key of a symphony. I’m not aware of any symphony in G major by someone else attributed to Beethoven. And only one string quartet of his is in G major, Opus 18, No. 2, even though G major is an eminently suitable key for strings. Beethoven actually seemed to prefer flat keys for his string quartets.
Ryan Abshier ranks Beethoven's first twenty piano sonatas with opus numbers by his estimation of their quality. At this point in his YouTube video, he still has twelve more sonatas to go through.
Beethoven did write quite a few piano sonatas in G major, and we’ve already come across most of them in this series of open threads. I’ve noted before YouTuber Ryan Abshier’s disdain for Beethoven’s G major sonatas. In the case of Opus 49, No. 2, I’m willing to cut him some slack on account of how they even came to be published in the first place.
When discussing the Opus 49 sonatas, we saw that in many ways they don’t really feel like middle period Beethoven. They feel more like early Beethoven and that’s because that’s what they are. Ludwig’s brother Kaspar Anton Karl is the one who decided those two sonatas should be published years after they were written, and I’m guessing he got a decent finder’s fee.
One might understandably assume something similar happened with Opus 79, but that’s not actually the case. It has a lot of interesting complexity beneath its simple surface. I believe I could actually learn this piece. It’s much easier than the sonata we looked at last week, that’s for sure.
But for this kid to play it so smoothly, it’s still an achievement that eludes older folks such as myself. A woman makes brief remarks in Russian before the little girl comes onstage.
She actually makes a mistake in the finale, but I was hesitant to point that out since I’d make plenty more mistakes than that.
This sonata certainly looks simple on paper compared to Beethoven’s last sonata… or even his first. A less imaginative composer might have written something like this:
How a less imaginative composer might have written Beethoven's Sonatina in G major, Opus 79.
That’s actually pretty good. If you heard that and you weren’t too familiar with what Beethoven wrote, you might even like it. But if you are familiar with what Beethoven wrote, then you know this could be much, much better.
I can use this to illustrate a simple 10-step process by which anyone with a rudimentary understanding of harmony and piano playing can write a pleasant little sonata, or “sonatina,” for piano.
Step 1. Come up with a nice melody for the right hand to play, preferably eight measures. Avoid accidentals, especially if the melody is in a major key.
Sketch for the melody of a piano piece similar to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 25 in G major, Opus 79.
Step 2. Fill in block chords for the left hand. Preferably just one chord per bar, and preferably one of I, V or V7. Avoid ledger lines. Try not to spend too much time on this step, don’t worry about things like parallel fifths or unintentional suspensions. If there are any such problems, they’ll probably get taken care of in the next step with no special effort.
Sketch for the melody of a piano piece similar to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 25 in G major, Opus 79 with block chords in the left hand.
I know this sounds too heavy. That’s perfectly fine at this point in the process.
Step 3. Replace the block chords in the left hand with Alberti bass. For this step you may deviate from a mechanical application of the Alberti bass technique in order to avoid unintended dissonance, parallel fifths and such. And that brings us up to the first musical example
As for the other seven steps, maybe I’ll publish them somewhere else.
I’m not saying this is how Beethoven went about writing this sonata. But I do hope it does get across the point that musical composition is a process. It’s not just waiting for inspiration and then taking dictation from your muse. A masterpiece doesn’t just emerge fully formed in one go.
This is how the sonata actually begins.
Can you spot six differences? The most obvious difference, at least to me, is the placement of the repeat sign. It’s a back repeat sign in the work of the hypothetically less imaginative composer, bracketing the first eight measures for immediate repeat, whereas Beethoven places a forward repeat sign bracketing the second measure on, so as to effect a smooth transition to the re-exposition.
In this sonata we come across an issue in an ambiguity in specifying dynamics for the piano. By convention, we place dynamics markings once, between the two staves, and we understand that it applies to both staves, and thus to both hands.
But we’re capable of playing one hand at a softer level than the other. Composers occasionally call for this, as Beethoven does in this sonata. In the first bar after the last trill of the first repeated section, Casella places a forte marking for the left hand and just a quarter note later a forte marking for the right hand. Feeling this is not sufficient, Casella adds a footnote specifying that the first note of the right hand in that measure should still be played piano.
Though not as many as the previous sonata, the one in F-sharp major, there are some challenges to the editor. In a long passage with a lot of hand crossings, I was so bothered by a G-sharp in treble clef for the left hand followed by a B-natural in bass clef for the left hand that I actually considered using cross-staff notation for that passage. What do you think of my solution?
That goes on for several more measures. I am less confident now I could learn to play this piece.
Just in case anyone thinks Beethoven is taking himself too seriously here, he adds some goofy grace notes to the theme.
The Andante reminds me a little bit of the Andante from the Pastorale Sonata, though without the nervous energy.
The concluding Vivace actually goes surprisingly long without accidentals.
Okay, I’m back to wanting to learn to play this piece.
Maybe Anna Sadovaya wanted to play that Vivace as fast as Valentina Lisitsa.
Daniel Barenboim gives a more forceful performance of the beginning Allegro and surprisingly goes very mellow for the concluding Vivace.
Eric Zivian seems to be the only one who has recorded this sonata on fortepiano.
Andras Schiff has noted an important similarity between this sonata and a later one.
Please remember this video for when we get around to No. 30.
What do you think of this sonata? Do you think the nickname cuckoo is appropriate?
