Some Slurs in the “Appassionata”

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John Ruggero
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Some Slurs in the “Appassionata”

Post by John Ruggero »

After many years of misinterpreting a passage in the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata op. 57, suddenly “the scales fell from my eyes”… or rather the scale has moved down into the bass part where it belongs.

Let me explain. While proofreading against Beethoven’s manuscript, I noticed the interesting position of four left hand slurs in the closing section of the exposition and wondered why he wrote them exclusively under the staff so that some are on the stem side of the notes. (I am also supplying the 1st edition for clarity, although they placed the final slur on the note head side.)
Beethoven op 57.1 MS.jpeg
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Beethoven op 57.1 1st ed.jpeg
Beethoven op 57.1 1st ed.jpeg (79.88 KiB) Viewed 2650 times
Beethoven seems to have preferred to place slurs on the note head side, particularly for melodies, even when there are multiple voices in one staff. But he certainly didn’t do it all the time. There are many examples where he places slurs both above and below the two staves independent of stem direction. Yet this passage intrigued me because there is such a strong tendency to bring out the upper notes of the left hand in this passage. Wouldn’t it have caused him him to place the slurs above the notes?

And when the passage recurs in the recapitulation, it is the same: the slurs are all below the lower staff.

It got me thinking.

I have always found the sfp markings in this passage to be peculiar and unconvincing. They coincide with where he suddenly adds a third voice to produce an ugly dissonance. And the added note makes it harder to bring out the tenor melody. Is this sfp a shocking syncopation that should affect all the voices, or does it apply to one?

Then the light dawned. Perhaps the bass is the principal voice, not the tenor. and everything else is accompaniment. The added E flat is the root of the chord needed for the three full cadences. What an interesting texture, with all of the accompaniment above the main melody. Were this orchestrated, the horns would probably reinforce the V-I cadences with some “horn fifths” to produce an emphasis, and there would be a real bass voice below the melody as it descends through three octaves. The sfp may have been intended to convey a pianistic equivalent of such an orchestration.
Beethoven op 57.1 Schenker.jpeg
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I listened to quite a few performances by well-known pianists. Arrau, Barenboim, Richter, Perahia, etc. All of them did what I have always done, bring out the tenor voice and place a meaningless and ugly accent on the sfp chord. And all because of the modernization of these slurs as seen in the Schenker edition above. Then I played the passage bringing out the bass voice strongly against the rest and placing a mild emphasis on the B flat over the V chord. How could it be otherwise!
Last edited by John Ruggero on 24 Oct 2021, 22:31, edited 1 time in total.
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Anders Hedelin
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Re: Some Slurs in the “Appassionata”

Post by Anders Hedelin »

Thanks for a very interesting analysis, John! My reflections are these: After the insistent Fb-Eb motives preceding your example, it might feel as a relief to descend further down the scale to the temporary tonic of Ab, bringing out the bass voice, as you say. On the other hand the Fb-Eb motives, still present in your example, could be perceived as a haunting, but receding, echo of what has gone before. As to what to emphasize in the descending left-hand motives - perhaps a little of both? With a mild accent on the Eb, the obviously added "horn" part?
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John Ruggero
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Re: Some Slurs in the “Appassionata”

Post by John Ruggero »

Anders, thanks for filling in what I left out about the F-flat--E-flat motive that looms so large in the exposition. This motive is what makes it is so tempting to bring out the upper left hand voice at the expense of the bass part along with the purely physical inclination that pianists have to bring out middle voices with the thumb. But, for me, that puts everything out of balance.

I think that doing imaginative things with the other voices, such as what you describe, would add much to the passage. It all hinges on recognition of the importance of the bass part. The final F-flat E-flat D-flat tenor line never resolves to C-flat in the correct register, which may well indicate a fading away or echo as the passage proceeds.

Placing the sf on the E-flat can be effective, especially if one leads it to the A-flat: V-I. But unfortunately, in my experience, pianists don't voice this chord or passage as carefully as it needs to be and simply place a big accent on the "whole chord".
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Re: Some Slurs in the “Appassionata”

Post by John Ruggero »

Today when playing the Appassionata, I suddenly realized what I think is the true significance of the sfp. It applies only to the E-flat for a simple reason. The E-flat is the root of the V7, which normally would be placed in the lowest part in a such an ending cadence. Since in this case Beethoven wants the E-flat to descend to the following A flat in contrary motion with the soprano G--A-flat this would lead to the following pianistically awkward result:
op 57.1 sf.png
op 57.1 sf.png (89.76 KiB) Viewed 1051 times
So Beethoven puts the true bass part in the middle of the texture, which requires that it be brought out from the scalewise left hand melodies in a special way. The sfp accomplishes this:
op 57.1 sf 2.png
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ttw
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Re: Some Slurs in the “Appassionata”

Post by ttw »

I think that the lowest notes being the melody seems to be the correct interpretation. It fits the harmony. It's a rather interesting voice exchange procedure.
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John Ruggero
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Re: Some Slurs in the “Appassionata”

Post by John Ruggero »

Excellent point. In other words, another reason that Beethoven puts the root of the V7 in the middle is to keep the main melody, the lowest notes D :f C :f B :f A :f , exposed and easily brought out and heard as the main melody.

So Beethoven has created a unique texture here: the accompaniment is on top, the main melody is on the bottom and the bass is in the middle.
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Anders Hedelin
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Re: Some Slurs in the “Appassionata”

Post by Anders Hedelin »

The voice-exchange idea certainly is one way of looking at it. There's also another aspect to add to this - the emancipation of harmony. The dominant note (the root of V) in its cadential role, may have originated as a bass note, but is later on found in other voices as well, as a kind of 'dominant signal'. Emancipated from the contrapuntal rules from when it first emanated. I would think that Beethoven is somewhat before his time here! (Not unusual.)
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John Ruggero
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Re: Some Slurs in the “Appassionata”

Post by John Ruggero »

Absolutely, Anders. And also, he may be thinking orchestrally here as if the E-flat were to sound "lower" than it really is because of its timbre, which may be why I mentioned thinking of it as a horn note in the original posts. So the sfp is designed give it a special low or supportive timbre.

Another case of a displaced bass in the second movement of Beethoven's piano sonata op. 111. the boxed areas are the true bass part in a "different orchestration" and continue from the bass part in the previous measure:
op 111.2.png
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This passage may have influenced the following in Schumann's Abegg Variations. In this case, there in an exact repetition of the first 8 measures with the bass part now superimposed above the other voices. In both cases, these are not inversions of the parts as in a Bach composition, since the the lowest notes in the right hand are not functioning as a true bass voice. The bass part remains the area in red no matter where it is located:
Schumann op 1.png
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