Beethoven's keyboard style

Discuss the rules of notation, standard notation practices, efficient notation practices and graphic design.
Post Reply
User avatar
John Ruggero
Posts: 2453
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 14:25
Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Beethoven's keyboard style

Post by John Ruggero »

I've read somewhere that Brahms once told a young composer that he, Brahms, was guilty of having "overwritten" for the piano in his early days and that he thought that Beethoven's keyboard style was a model for how to write for the piano. It's an interesting opinion and one worth considering.

Here is an example that I think illustrates one aspect of Beethoven's keyboard style: economy. It's from the first movement of his piano sonata op. 10 no. 3:
op 10 no 3.1A.png
op 10 no 3.1A.png (683.83 KiB) Viewed 59826 times
Where is the missing C# at the ?

It is required several times over:

1. Without it, the previous melody note, D, which is a passing note, makes no sense.
2. The melody repeats three times. Only this middle statement lacks the C#.
3. Of all the notes to omit in a melody, the last note would be the worst.

As if to prove that it should be there, the corresponding note F# is exactly where expected in the recapitulation:
op 10 no 3.1B.png
op 10 no 3.1B.png (666.77 KiB) Viewed 59826 times
Beethoven is caught in a bind. He wants a low A at the beginning of the phrase like 4 measures earlier and the C# must appear a tenth higher than the A to resolve from the D in the melody in the proper register. The resulting tenth would produce a heavy, murky and pianistically awkward effect in the middle of a light, fleet, idiomatic passage.

But there is a way out. Precisely because of 1.-3. above, the listener will hear the C# whether or not it is actually "there".

To break a tenth in that register is therefore needless and if required will cause the music feel and sound "overwritten" to the player and the listener.

Thus the best course is to omit this otherwise essential note.

Has anyone ever raised an objection, or even noticed? Four measures later, various editors have proposed changing the perfectly complete right hand to conform with the previous broken octave pattern, a change which takes the music too high for what follows. Yet none have proposed adding the clearly missing C#! Because they never noticed?

To my ears the passage sounds far better without the C#. But would any other composer do such a gutsy thing?
M1 Mac mini (OS 12.4), Dorico, Finale 25.5, GPO 4, Affinity Publisher 2, SmartScore 64 Pro, JW Plug-ins, TG Tools, Keyboard maestro

http://www.cantilenapress.com
Post Reply