NOTATIO

I haven't read the Kinderman, David. From the online preview it looks well-researched and exhaustive and is probably valuable from the historical point of view.

You are very welcome, Anders. What I tried to illustrate is that this is a voice-leading phenomenon, not a a harmonic one. Just because something is in long notes doesn't mean that it is structurally significant or expresses harmonic root tones. Beethoven has taken what are usually short chromatic d...

As you said, Anders, Beethoven never stood still and continued to push the envelope to the very end of his life, anticipating the chromatic harmony of the following several generations. Here is the whole first part of the Variation: Diabelli no 20.jpg Most of the interesting harmonies in this variat...

The moments of parody certainly don't detract. In fact, the Diabelli Variations are largely high-spirited and often comic, as befits the theme. It's as if having passed through the death and transfiguration of op. 111, he can now kick up his heels.

Then I guess there is no excuse for me. I'm 74!

I wouldn't be offended either, just bemused, since op. 120 picks up where op. 111 ended, as Diabelli well knew, crafty guy. I have never understood "not liking" a particular work by a Beethoven, Mozart, or Bach. If I don't love something by a composer who has a great track record, I first ascribe it...

Hi David. i am glad that you share my feeling about the wonders of the Diabelli Variations. Once before we discussed "the greatest". I don't view appraising art as a childish competition, but as a way of gaining perspective and understanding my own relationship with it. In this case, when I consider...

That was an odd comment from your old teacher. (Of course, as teachers we know well how our comments can be misinterpreted.) I can't think of any major composer, including Mozart, who didn't have a good sense of humor and expressed it in their music. As for self-parody, which may be a rarer gift, Mo...

I think that is certainly a legitimate way to interpret it, Anders, and in line with the first editions. The sf in m. 95 apperas only in the first English edition by Clementi and may be an editorial intervention rather than a addition by Beethoven. Most editions, like Schenker's, have not accepted i...

Here is an example of the dotted rhythm by J. S. Bach. Gigue from French Suite no. 1, the editor of the B&H Bach Gesellschaft shows how it is to be played, saying that it is the "old way" of writing this rhythm. Schumann and Brahms loved the "old ways" of the Baroque, particularly J. S. Bach's old w...