Download Beethoven / Kant - Thomas Owen Mastroianni

Beethoven / Kant
Time and Space
By
Thomas Mastroianni
December 14, 2010
Innovation
In his music Beethoven introduced the listener to concepts of space
and time which were innovative and daring in his day. Before
Beethoven, musical space and time were predictably occupied and
propagated by harmonic, melodic or figural fluctuations that
flowed beautifully from phrase to phrase.1 (Examples A and B)
One phrase was added to another and the accumulation constituted
a formal section. This accumulation was not without logic and
harmonic cohesion. Contrasts of formal units were delineated by
modest changes in key, fresh melodic material or changes in
texture. Musical form largely resulted from the amalgamation of
this sensory content. And this was true of most art music from
earliest times. (See Example C for a sketch of the sections of
traditional Sonata Allegro Form). Let us explore how and in what
sense Beethoven’s music constitutes a departure from the
traditions, expectations and procedures of earlier music. In so
doing we will make distinctions between intuitive judgment and
sensory content. Keep in mind that music without sensory content
could not be earthly experience, and music without intuitive
judgment would not be art.
Enlightenment (a priori / a posteriori)
In Maynard Soloman’s book, Beethoven, attention is focused on
the strong influence of the Enlightenment on this famous musical
genius born in 1770. In Beethoven’s native city, Bonn, at this time,
the works of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Schiller and Goethe were
quite popular. Soloman points out that the Bonn… “regime of
Maximilian Franz … [reflected]… the attitudes and ideology of his
brother, the Habsburg emperor Joseph II, who was a follower of
Voltaire, Frederick the Great and the encyclopedists.”2 The
famous philosopher Immanuel Kant was well known in Bonn and
lectured there during Beethoven’s residence in Bonn. Solomon
continues: “Kant’s ideas had their impact on Beethoven…[albeit
in]… a popularized conception of Kant…[referring to] ‘the starry
sky above me and the moral law within me’.”3
It may be stretching a point to postulate Beethoven’s ideas of space
and time upon his understanding of Kant’s Critique of Pure
Reason in which Kant treats space and time as a priori
phenomena.4 There is, however, a compelling parallel between
Kant’s treatment of space and time and Beethoven’s treatment of
space and time. Whereas Haydn and other earlier composers
manipulated sensory content (a posteriori) into phrases which
grow into the sections5 which define the form, , Beethoven’s
genius lies in his uncanny manipulation of time and musical space
as intuitive form (a priori). For Beethoven form is fundamental
and primary, and at times the sensory content seems quite trivial
(often featuring simple figurations or repeated notes which seem
just to occupy space).
This assertion derives from an examination of the music itself.
The nature of Beethoven’s melody in Sonata, Op 53 is a good case
in point. The opening theme of this Sonata in C major (Waldstein)
is not an assembly of pleasant sounding intervals that attract the
ear and serve to arouse feelings such as Beethoven could do so
well in the slow movement of his Opus 13 Sonata. But in the
Waldstein how can one even call this opening a melody when the
same note is repeated 13 times before concluding in a cadential
ornament? It seems more appropriate to suggest that rather than
exposing sensory material (a melody), Beethoven is simply
defining musical space and time.6 (See Example D.) This is made
more evident as Beethoven sets the next phrase in adjacent space
in an unrelated key (B flat major). There is no pleasant sounding
modulation, no hint of causality or logic in the harmonic
environment – just parallel space with the same texture, the same
dynamics and the same repeated notes. These two parallel phrases
occupy 8 measures of space. The next 5 measures of transition
continue the ever present and almost metronomic bass motion
under a high register figuration resembling a finger exercise. This
short transition leads to a repetition of the opening two phrases of
parallel space with three alterations: 1. the range is one octave
higher, 2. the figurations flutter and 3. the sudden change of key is
upward instead of downward (C to D major instead of C to B flat
major). Precise harmonic symmetry is thus created. This
arrangement of spatial symmetry and harmonic symmetry in place
of functional or organic harmony and melody would almost never
have been found prior to Beethoven.
Let us listen to Emil Giles play the “first theme area” from this
Beethoven Sonata.
In Sonata Op 57 (The Appassionata), melody and harmony again
serve to fill space (4 measures). Here rather than the reiteration of
a single note, Beethoven spells out the tonic chord (the “home base
chord”) through two octaves for half of the 4 measure phrase
concluding on a cadential trill . This is certainly not a bel canto
melody. As in the “Waldstein”, an identical space is devoted to the
reiteration of the first theme. Here it occurs on the next higher
pitch (G flat). The next eight measures develop the cadential trill
part of the phrase and constitute a fragmentation of the space (2
bars + 2 bars + 2 bars) (plus a two measure cadenza), and the
following seven measures repeat the opening soft tonic chord
motive with three measures of very passionate exclamatory
insertions of primary chords. These very powerful chords invade
the space of the softer “home base” chords and create a
“passionate” effect.
Here again is Emil Giles playing the opening first theme area of
the Sonata Opus 57.
Time Units and Formal Balance in Sonata Opus 109
Musical space is time. Etienne Gilson gives a good account of
parallel elements in the visual and performing arts7. It is more
convenient in discussing Beethoven to employ both terms (space
and time) since “time” in music is a term that also designates
rhythm or tempo. The manipulation, placement and dimensions of
spatial/time units defines the genius of Beethoven’s intuitive art.
Theoretical rules based on sensory experience might suffice for
many other composers.
In Opus 109 it becomes clear that a discussion of form carries a
spatial connotation. This work is about musical space. In Sonata
Opus 109 Beethoven’s a priori spatial intuitions address extreme
brevity in the first two movements and expansiveness in the final
movement.8
In this sonata the first theme of the first movement is simply one
phrase with antecedent and a consequent segments (scarcely 20
seconds of time based primarily on two intervals). And the second
theme of the exposition is even shorter (seven bars) and quite
improvisatory in nature. Let us listen to Mitsuko Uchida play the
opening two themes of Sonata Opus 109.
The second movement is an energetic sonata allegro form
(normally found as the first movement of a sonata). It occupies
about two minutes of musical space. The final movement is an
extended variation form based on the same two melodic intervals
as the first movement. This movement is nearly 3 times as long as
the first two movements combined. The variations in this
movement are almost entirely figural. Let us explore for a moment
what is the nature of figural music and how does it bear on the
issue of time and space?
.
Figuration
Figuration in music is the repetitious presentation of pitch and time
relationships occupying adjacent musical space.9 Beethoven
regularly fills space with musical figurations, just as a painter
might fill space with color often nuanced but often not
representational.
An analogy might be drawn using numbers to represent the seven
pitches of a major scale. A figuration might then be consist of the
application of a formula such as “minus 2, plus 4”
3 – 1- 5, 4- 2 - 6, 5 - 3 - 7, 6 – 4 - 1, 7 – 5 – 2 etc.
A numeric representation of the figural theme of the Tempest
Sonata, Opus 31 #2 would be:
(6,5, 5,4, 4,3, 3,2 :// 7,6, 6,5, 5,4, 4,3://
The Moonlight Sonata, Opus 27 # 2 uses a figuration as the
foundation for the entire first movement of the work, and a
transformation of this figuration is the theme in the third
movement of this work. It seems clear that the spatial character of
this sonata was largely designed before the first note was written
on paper.
Figuration as Harmony, Rhythm, Texture and Tempo
Not only melody, but also rhythm, texture and tempo are sensory
elements that can be sequenced to create musical figurations. The
use of figuration involves repetition and extends musical space.
Etienne Gilson reports that the painter Delacroix complained of
Beethoven’s repetitiveness.10 It is true that repetition of sensory
experience can become boring, but if the main issue is not sensory
experience, but time, space and form, then the a priori intuitive
judgment of the composer is all important.
Figuration often implies harmony, and the placement of the
harmonic sequences not only extends musical space, but harmonic
direction and musical gravitation (modulation). The density of
figurations can determine texture and even tempo.
Trills in Late Beethoven Sonatas
In many of his sonatas, Beethoven uses the trill to extend time and
space. In his music the trill is not just an ornament – as it is in
earlier music. The prolonged use of trills in Beethoven may be
compared to a ringing in the ear which obscures aural sensation
and distracts the mind from the sensory world of external
experience to something more introspective. Beethoven’s
progressive deafness may have led him to a more interior and lofty
experience. Particularly in the late sonatas do we encounter this
sensory detachment, and in these works trills abound. In a moment
we will conclude with some of the final movement of Beethoven’s
late piano sonata Opus 109.
Before playing this example, a concluding statement about the
sonic content which occupies musical space is in order.
Sonic Content Defined By Space and Time
In each of the examples above, it is important to observe that
intuitive judgments about musical space and time are determinants
of sonic content. Beethoven’s score which specifies the sonic
content, cannot be properly understood without confronting the
underlying intuitive judgments. That is to say that Beethoven
presents the listener with a posteriori sensory experience generated
to an extraordinary degree by intuitive (a priori) judgments of
time and space. Other composers may do so as well, but
Beethoven’s music does so to an extraordinary degree.
Let us conclude by listening to the final moment of Beethoven’s
Sonata Opus 109 in which the extended trills of the final variation
set up the mood for the lofty hymn-like conclusion.
End Notes
1
See Handout, Example A and B
Maynard Soloman, Beethoven, Schirmer Trade, Books, NY, 2001, p.48
3
Solomon, Op.cit, p.53
4
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Penguin Classics, Max Mueller translation 2007, p 63,
First published in Germany 1781.
5
See Handout, Example C.
6
See Handout, Example D
7
Regarding the relationship of time and space in painting and music see: Etienne Gilson,
Painting and Reality, Princeton University Press, 1968, p. 18n
8
See Handout, Example E
9
See Handout, Example F
10
Gilson, Op. cit., p.42n
2