beethoven's op. 110, the mistery of the missing cats

8/2/2019 Beethoven's Op. 110, The Mistery of the Missing Cats

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No. 3006

WILLEM IBES

Beeovens Piano SonaaOpus 11 in A-fla Major:

Te Mysery of e Missing Cas

A analizing enigma presened iself in e course of analyzing e secondmovemen of Beeovens Opus 11, leading me o e enaive conclusion a ameasure may be missing in all prined ediions of is work. I seems possible abeween measures 1 and 2 of is second movemen, one wole measure as beeninadverenly lef ou as e resul of an orograpic ambiguiy in e auograp(e original score in e composers own andwriing). I was a paricular meod ofanalysis developed over e course of many years a led me o is ypoesis.

Tis meodology consiss of ree main essenial elemens a differeniae i

from oer generally acceped analyical procedures: (1) a maemaical-proporionalundersanding of e moif, (2) e proper idenificaion of e moif, and (3) eassociaion of e moif wi a ex and a meaning.

Firs, I use a maemaical manner of analysis wic concenraes primarily on eproporional-merical aspecs of e music, e leng of e moif and is placemenwiin e measure, a is, weer i sars on a srong(er) or weak(er) bea. Teleng of e moif can, of course, be alered by e devices of diminuion andaugmenaion, and i comes as no surprise a Beeovens lae sonaas wi eir

weal of counerpoin exibi ese rais in abundance.Second, I believe a e generally acceped undersanding of wa consiues a

moif as been e cause of misundersanding e musical discourse of especially eeigeen and early nineeen cenuries.

Abou weny-five years ago, afer aving become acquained wi e Ur-ex(unedied) ediions of e Scarlai, Beeoven, and Mozar sonaas and e largerworks of Bac, I began o wonder abou e easier composiions by ese masersa I aug o my early and inermediae piano sudens. For example, all e

familiar ediions of e famous Bac Minue in G major (wic pianis as noplayed i?) inser a slur saring from e firs measure ino e firs bea of e


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second measure (see Example 1). Tis always seemed o make perfec sense bu wabegan o boer me was a e nex wo quarer noes in e second measure, erepeaed Gs, didn seem o ave any of wa only muc laer I would begin o inkof as meaning. Over e course of many years I became more and more disurbed

by ese wo cliff-angers, as well as by e prasing of e lef-and figures in,for insance, mm 13 roug 1, wic were also always slurred acrosse bar line(see Example 2):

H e a d w a e r s A CSB/SJUFacul ty Journa l 3

I fel e same uneasiness wen eacing e equally famous Beeoven Sonainain G Major (see Example 3). Te prasing of e firs measure ino e firs bea ofe second seemed sensible, bu e las ree beas of e measure, oug soundingpleasan enoug, lef me anging in e air, exacly as e wo Gs ad in Bacs

Minue.


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No. 3006

Afer deliberaing inernally over many years, I sared o correc my sudenscopies. I ad come o undersand a, almos wiou excepion (and always clearlymarked), e moifs and moif-syllables do no cross e bar line bu are conainedwiin i. Of course, I sould ave cecked ediions like Henles of e Beeoven

Klavierstckefor ese sorer works, bu I simply sayed wi wa I myself ad beenaug and aug in urn for fory years. One mig ink a finally aving Bacsand Beeovens Ur-ex ediions in and would ave made me see e lig, bu evirus a infecs e work of us all unforunaely remained undeeced.

So, wa is is virus a as sealily burrowed is way ino our inerpreaionsof Baroque, Classical, and a good number of laer composers? I is simply e almosirresisible urge o fall ino e cadence, o always play across e bar line or ino esronger bea of e measure (in a / measure ino e ird bea, in a / measure

ino e four bea).Te moif of Bacs Minue in G Major (see Example ) consiss of wo syllables,

a and b, wo perfecly symmerical measures: in e firs measure (leaving oue passing noes) ree quarer noes, D G B; in e second measure, D G G. Terelaion beween ese wo syllables, wic ogeer consiue e complee moif,is one of esis and arsis, of down-bea and up-bea.

I is essenial a ese wo pars be properly idenified in order o avoid emeaningless cliff-angers. Te srucure of e firs alf of e musical senence(aneceden) us becomes clear: a+b; a+b; a; a; a+b (see Example ).

As sown in Example , is ariculaion of e moif and is syllables remainsconsisen rougou e piece:


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Beeoven does no differ from Bac in is respec. His early Sonaina in G Majoras a srucure a is idenical o e Bac Minue, a srucure a is difficul o pindown wiou a clear idenificaion of e moif. Te moif is composed again of wosymmerical syllables a and b. (Example gives e slurring e way Beeoven wroei, no e correced version of a presumpuous edior.)

H e a d w a e r s A CSB/SJUFacul ty Journa l


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Te complee firs (musical) senence, as in e Bac Minue, is: a+b (mm. 1,2);a+b (mm. 3,), a (m. ); a (m. ); a+b (mm. ,).

Wa is i, afer all, a makes music inelligible? In oer words, ow does musicexpress meaning? No very differen from e way language does. As a book consiss

of capers a consis of paragraps consruced ou of individual senences,emselves buil ou of words, syllables, and individual leers, so a sympony,sonaa, concero, or quare consiss of movemens a are divided ino secions, wic in urn consis of individual (musical) senences, emselves made up ouof moifs, moif-members (moif-syllables) and individual noes. Here, owever,e comparison sops. Wereas language needs many words o make a senence, inmusic, a single moif and is permuaions almos always suffice o make a (musical)senence, a movemen, and someimes as in e case of Opus 11 and 111 a

wole muli-movemen sonaa.An obvious requisie for meaning, or inelligibiliy, in language as well as music,

is a leers (noes), words (moifs), and senences (prases or musical senences)are grouped correcly. A word like min cemeatmakes no sense, wereas mincemeatis clear. Well, i is my conenion a for almos wo cenuries now we ave madeand coninue o make mincemea of Beeovens composiions, as well as ecomposiions of many oer composers.

If I were o wrie, Tesa Turd aynig s, Owa sbe enabi gsu cc es swi e

Eni. recomm uniy, for good measure adding in some sraegically misplaced capialleers, commas, and periods, no a soul would undersand a I was commeningon e success of e Saurday nig sow. All e rig leers are ere, bu wereis e meaning?

Ta is exacly Beeovens exasperaed cry o Karl Holz wen e wries in uerfrusraion (leer from Baden, daed Augus 12): Te noes are all rig onlyundersand my meaning rigly. In e same leer Beeoven coninues: Teslurs mus sand jus as ey are! I is no a maer of indifference weer you

play or . Mind you, is comes from an auoriy, so pay aenion.

I ave spen e enire morning and e wole of yeserday afernoon correcingese wo movemens, and am quie oarse wi cursing and samping. I am afraidpoor Beeoven would compleely lose is voice were e o reurn now, afer wocenuries, and ry o grasp ow we could possibly, and so uerly, ave deformed isoug and oblieraed e meaning of is music.


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On e mos elemenal level, meaningdepends, quie simply, on ow we groupe leers ino words, separae one word from anoer, were we sar and were weend a senence. If my name is Wim Ibes (pronounced E-bes) and I wrie Wimi Besor WimI Bes I ave canged only e grouping of e leers in ese wo words, bu,

as Beeoven so bierly complained, e meaning is gone.Wa en consiues e moif, e Gesal, e Eidos of a composiion, and

ow does a composer work wi a basic idea? Forunaely Beeoven, especiallylae-Beeoven, gives us some solid ins by generously supplying is scores wislurs. Tose slurs delineae e moif as well as e (musical) senence. We can argueendlessly abou one ousand deails, bu wen a basic undersanding of moif islacking, all e res becomes guesswork. Te rules of puncuaion apply o musicas muc as o language; commas, periods, colons, semi-colons, quesion marks,

and exclamaion marks are no a luxury bu a necessiy. In music, ese necessaryrules are expressed by silences of ariculaion, a erm explained in 1th and 1thcenury reaises and one a we would do well o re-inroduce ino our musicalvocabulary.4

To recapiulae our invesigaion us far we can say a e correc delineaion ofe moif, in conjuncion wi a maemaical-proporional approac, provides eblueprin of a composiion. Leaving ou (iniially) all e oer elemens of musicsuc as melody, armony, dynamics and even rym (bu mos definiely including

e placemen wiin e meer) i uncovers for us e fundamenal geneic maerial,e DNA of e work. In simple pieces like e Beeoven Sonaina is meodallows us o easily follow e musical discourse. In complex works, owever, we needmore precise labeling an is made possible by mere leers of e alpabe. Te irdof my ree main analyical devices is now called for.

Already in an earlier analysis of e piano sonaa Opus 11 I ad unwiinglya e ime followed Beeovens suggesion wen e advises one someimes opu (underlay) a fiing ex under a difficul-o-undersand passage and o sing i.[ rieth ferner bisweilen passende Worte einer streitigen Stelle unterzulegen und sie zusingen.]5 A ex or moo wic correcly imiaes e merical srucure of emoif (focusing mainly on is merical-maemaical properies) enables us o rackall e peregrinaions of a moif.


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No. 3006

Te second movemen of Opus 11 graciously supplies e implici ex, afolksong in Silesian dialec, Das liebe Kzcen (see Example ). Beeoven adsen i, ogeer wi anoer folksong, in is own andwriing (wic e rusede publiser would be able o deciper!) wi a somewa insipid armonizaion

o Simrock in Bonn, peraps as some kind of joke, peraps oping for some oerfavor.6

Here, in e second movemen of Opus 11 (see Example ), e uses e melodywi a subsanially revised accompanimen, wi ilarious resuls.

Translaed ino more or less sandard German, e second movemens Scerzogleefully relaes: Unser Katz hat Kt-zle ghabt, and ino Englis wi correc meer-accens: Ou-r (wo syllables) ca did kiens ave, and en e punc line: dreiund sechsi nai-ni![Tree and sixy did se ave!]

Te opening 1 measures (excluding e repea) exclaim:Ou-r ca did kiens a-ve; THREE AND SIXTY DID SHE HAVE! THREE

AND SIXTY! THREE AND SIXTY! THREE AND SIXTY DID SHE HAVE!(Te capialized words sou ou fore.)


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Te nex 2 measures (see Example 1) are based on anoer popular melodywi e following ex: Ich bin lderlich, du bist lderlich, wir sind alle lderlich [Iam lecerous, you are lecerous, all of us are lecerous].7

A raer bawdy diy, i is surprisingly sopisicaed: a sor break beween e firsand second quarer noes, like e iccups of a drunken sailor, a repeiion of efirs (wo-measure) moif, en e repeiion of jus e firs (one measure) moif-

syllable, followed by an augmenaion of e second measure a e end (see Example11). Everying is exploied in ypical fasion wi umor and verve.

Before proceeding I mus poin ou a, for a correc analysis, i doesn' makemuc difference weer or no Beeoven ad ese exs in mind wen e wroeis second movemen. I am using e ex simply as a device o undersand esrucure, following e advice of e Maser o findpassende Worte.

If readers prefer a ex like Jesu, meine Freude(afer a famous Bac Canaa) for

e firs four measures, and repeaing a fortissimo for e nex four, placet. Tey will reac subsanially e same conclusions since mine are based on e raerimmuable laws of maemaics.

I believe ere is no e sliges doub a Beeoven was familiar wi bomelodies and exs of ese folksongs. Weer ese exs acually also offer afurer, deeper level of meaning, in oer words weer ey express e ruecaracer of is movemen, is someing I will address in an as ye o be publisedanalysis of e Sonaa as a wole.

Te firs secion, a Scerzo in all aspecs, is followed by a middle secion, e Trio,afer wic e Scerzo is repeaed as is sandard for e form. If we accep for e


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sake of our analysis e ex of e Trio (as was e case wi e Scerzo secion, eex is no made explici in e score) as wa Beeoven ad in mind, en we finde composer reurning ere o is prolific ca, saring forissimo a measure andconinuing piano in eac of e ree wo-measure sequences unil e end (see e

Appendix B for a visualizaion of e srucure) as follows:

Mm /1THREE AND SIXTY!! Mm 2 roug ree imes: ou-r ca didkiens a-ve; eac wo measures in leng (equivalen o e firs measures of e Scerzo in diminuion)

Mm /THREE AND SIXTY!! Mm roug ree imes: ou-r ca did

kiens a-veMm /

THREE AND SIXTY!! Mm roug 3 ree imes: ou-r ca didkiens a-ve

Mm /THREE AND SIXTY!! Mm roug 1 ree imes: ou-r ca didkiens a-ve

Mm 2/3

THREE AND SIXTY!! Mm in mock surprise asking e reoricalquesion THREE AND?? is cu off in mid-senence wi an imperioussou:

Mm /THREE AND SIXTY!! Mm roug 2 ree imes: ou-r ca didkiens a-veTen, in piano dynamics (diminuendo):

Mm 3/Tree and sixy (no exclamaion mark!) Mm roug ree imes:ou-r ca did kiens a-veDropping o a pianissimo:

M 1A varian of e original wo quarer noes in m (and laer e.g., in m) embellised ino four eig noes Tree and ... Tree and wa?

O dear, sixy cas are missing. Wa appened o em?


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If we look a e auograp, page 2 of e facsimile ediion, Icys Verlag,Sugar, we come upon e soluion. Te sixy cas a we find in e firs measureof e second sysem (a se of saves) in e auograp were misakenly consideredas aving been crossed ou by e composer! I is rue, e following bars ave a

generous orizonal X drawn roug em and e op leg of e X descendingfrom e lef exends a bi ino e erriory of e previous measure.

Bu, as sown in Example 12, e ascending leg of e X sars from e lowerlef, precisely a e bar line of measure 2!

In e auograp, measure 2 coninues e downward paern wi e expeced8F C E-fla D-fla in e lower regiser, wi e ig F in e reble on e secondbea.9

In oer words, if we realize a m 1 is a varian of e Scerzos measure , i isno difficul o realize a mm 1 and new 2 repea, pianissimo, mm and (or, 1; , ec.): drei und sechzig, embellising is ime no jus e dreibu also

e original wo quarer noes of e sechzigas four eig noes.Wa a relief! All drei und sechzigcas are ere.I is rue a, a e end of is Trio, e composer did no exend is prasing

slur over ino e second sysem o include e new m 2 (see Appendix A). Iis erefore possible a e prasing is correc and a e composer is askinganoer reorical quesion as in m is ime pianissimo ree and,giving e answer in e (old) 2, 3, , , e four imes repeaed ree-and-sixy menioned above. However, I believe ere is noing ere in is ebbing awaydiminuendo o sugges anying like e surprising jol in m o warransuc an inerpreaion.


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We sould also keep in mind a Beeoven slurs are no infrequenly ambiguous.Tere are many insances were ey do no exacly pinpoin e beginnings andendings of prases and, in fac someimes are erroneous.

Te pedal markings delineaing e ree and sixy moif are wrong in Henle

bu Scenker follows e auograp correcly. All ediions are rife wi edioriallegerdemains e plural is no exaggeraion since one lig and alone could nopossibly accoun for e massive and disasrous ediorial idiosyncrasies, especiallywen i comes o prasing slurs. Ignoring e laer makes Beeoven uninelligible,for e primary means of giving meaning o individual noes is ow ey are groupedo form moifs and prases. I is almos unimaginable, as George Bar as amplydemonsraed in is Te Pianis as Oraor, a e falsificaion of Beeovensoug and wriing sared even in e composers own lifeime and a e main

culpri was none oer an Carl Czerny of Euden fame, wo a one ime sudiedwi e Maser imself.0

I goes wiou saying a, as in all Beeovens works, a performer mus employproper breaing pauses beween e differen moifs and moif-syllables. In casu,ere mus be a brea beween mm /1 and m 2, wi smaller breas beweenmm 3 and , mm and and again a sligly larger one in mm and . Tiscan only be undersood in e lig of a correc analysis, e following of Beeovensadvice o underlay e noes wi an appropriae ex, and, in e presen case,

following e pedal markings as e composer wroe em.I mus admi, afer aving performed is Trio for e pas fify years or so wiouis missing measure, a adding i in does ake some geing used o. Bu i becomesmore and more graifying o ge e full-Mony cadence of e onic spread ou overwo bars, insead of e runcaed brus wi e onic a m 1 (or , , ec.)alone provides. Tis pair of measures finds, as we may wan o remind ourselves onceagain, eir origin in measures and of e Scerzo were ey solidly empasizee C major cord.

So, even oug my analysis is based solely on e maemaical-proporional

properies of e moif (muc more fundamenal an eier melody, armony oreven rym), aided of course by musical elemens suc as dynamics, pedal markingsand ariculaion, bo e armony and e melody ow saisfying a ig F! confirm is validiy. One also canno fail o sense once again, assuming a eex of e folksongs is wa Beeoven ad in mind ow muc more naurallye following measures (e new 3) confirm e previous full D-fla majorcadence, as ey coninue wispering in amazed diminuion ree and sixy, reeand sixy, ree and sixy, ree and sixy.

I sould be noed a, besides e Auograp, ere exis a copy of e wole


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sonaa, e so-called Uberprfte Abschrift wrien in a differen and, bu wicopious annoaions in e composers own andwriing. Beeovens main concernin is Abscrif is wi empo, ariculaion, dynamics, fingerings, expressive andpedal markings, wi no apparen aenion being given o e ex iself, wic

aloug no wiou flaws (inaccurae slurring, missing slurs and pedal endings anda leas one exual oversig in measure 13 of e final movemen) is a modelof clariy and accuracy. In is very legible copy my measure 2 is omied. Againwe may wonder: Did e edior of e firs ediion and e copyis of e Abscrifmiss is paricular measure and did e composer fail o noice i? Or was iBeeovens inenion o leave a measure ou and, in doing so, leave us (if I may beallowed o mix meapors) wi a obbled orse? For Beeoven, musics arciecpar excellence, no o ave noiced is discrepancy wile composing e Trio and

allowing no fewer an cas o disappear ino in air seems igly unlikely. Ina case e quesion arises: Why?Wa was e composers reason for doing so andwa did e mean by is? Did e ave a differen ex in mind? No ex? Regardless,e enigma of a missing measure remains and e mysery coninues.

Te las word on is esis may ave o awai e conribuion of musicologissand I am eager o ear eir judgmen in e maer.

Even afer e repea of e Scerzo, Beeoven is no finised ye wi isremarkable ca. Te Coda sars wi a forceful augmenaion of e Scerzos

second eme, furer reinforced by pregnan ress, W I R S I N D A L L EL D E R L I C H. Our felines en come one las ime peeping around ecorner in a quick recapiulaion (in diminuion) of e opening eig measures of eScerzo: Un-sa kz d ka-zln gab, drai und sex si, nai ni. Incidenally, in eauograp ere is a pedal marking bu no (legao) slur under ese measures.

Te Coda offers anoer ineresing clue concerning e off-e-bea counerpoinin e Trios lef and; none oer an a iccuppy (inebriaed, I dare say): wir sind wir sind l der and en rusing a bea o end rig side up (i.e.,on e srong firs bea) lic. No surprisingly, e Maser does no leave e

smalles scrap of maerial unused.


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1 No. 3006

Notes

1. Inmusic,themotifiswhatconstitutesthebasicidea,theEidos,theGestaltofacomposition.The

four-notevictorymotifoftheopeningofBeethovensFifthSymphonyisafamousexample.Thewhole

firstmovementisderivedfromthatpregnantidea.

. Goldsmith,Harris.Beethoven: The Late Quartets.Booklet.BudapestStringQuartet.ColumbiaRecords,

16.BeethovenslettertoKarlHolzcanalsobefoundin The Letters of Beethoven,translatedandedited

byEmilyAnderson(NewYork:St.MartinsPress,161)Vol.III,pp.11.Thetranslationsvary.

3. Goldsmith,Booklet.AlsoseeAnderson,Vol.III,1.

. AwealthofinformationisgiveninGeorgeHoulesMeter in Music, 16001800: Performance, Perception,

and Notation(Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress,1).Perhapsthemostluciddescriptioncanbe

found inFatherEngramellesLa tonotechnie(1),withitsminuteandsuccinctdescriptionofthe

silencesofarticulation.Seeespeciallypages1103.

. Schindler, Anton. Biographie von Ludwig van Beethoven (Mnster: Aschendorff, 11), 36-3, my

translation.SchindlersbiographyhasbeentranslatedintoEnglish,Beethoven As I Knew Him(NewYork:

W.W.Norton,1).

6. Anderson,Emily.Letters,II,.

. MartinCooper,too,suggeststhatthesetwomelodieslieattherootofthescherzoinBeethoven: The

Last Decade 18171827(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,1),101.

. Cf.mm1,,,6,6,and(transposedinmm,6,and3).IhaveaddedAppendixAinan

attempttoclarifythis.

. Notetherighthandpartiswritteninthebassclef,thelefthandpartintrebleclef.

10. Barth,George.The Pianist as Orator: Beethoven and the Transformation of Keyboard Style(Cornell,NY:

CornellPress,1).Seeespecially110.

11. Cf.Houle,Meter,silencesofarticulation(1103).

Appendix A

TheendoftheTriowiththe"missingmeasure"inadottedline.


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Appendix B

StructuralAnalysisofBeethovenOpus110IITrio

beethoven's op. 110, the mistery of the missing cats

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