Our study of the Path?ique Sonata has shown how closely Beethoven followed the models of Haydn and Mozart, at the same time infusing into them a new spirit. The first movement of that sonata does not differ materially in form from the first movement of Mozart's G-minor Symphony, discussed in Chapter IX, yet Beethoven takes us into a new world, far removed from that world of pure impersonal beauty in which Mozart dwelt. Beethoven is the man struggling, fighting, working out his own individuality, learning through bitter experience; Mozart is the artist not so much turning his own experience into music, as creating outside himself imperishable works of an almost superhuman beauty. In many of Beethoven's works there is this same regularity of form coupled with freedom of expression. The brusqueness of his style led his contemporaries to think him an iconoclast; and it was not till many years after works like the Fifth Symphony were produced that the public began to understand how orthodox they are.
This free individual expression, now a characteristic of art generally and evident enough in all phases of human life—this assertion of the personal point of view—beganwith Beethoven and has been increasing ever since his day, until we now have music in which certain phrases or themes no longer please us as beautiful sounds, but exist for some ulterior and individual purpose.
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FIGURE L.
This change was perhaps only a part of that more general transformation of society by which the composer, who had previously been subject to the favor of princely patrons, became an independent individual, living in direct contact with the public at large. Music, thus freed and given anindependent existence, became an expressive art and took deeper root in human experience. It lost, in this process, something of that calm, ethereal beauty it had possessed, but it gained greatly in expressiveness. In Beethoven's hands it became plastic; he enlarged the range of harmonic combinations far beyond that of Mozart, and created themes that were of wider application to human feeling. In illustration of this there will be found in Figure L, (a) a quotation from the slow movement of Beethoven's piano sonata, op. 2, no. 2, and in (b) a quotation from the slow movement of his sonata, op. 10, no. 3. These should be compared with the theme from Mozart's piano sonata in Figure XLI. The difference between the themes of Beethoven and that of Mozart is in their content rather than in their form.
The purpose of Mozart's theme is beauty; the purpose of Beethoven's themes is expressiveness, the conveyance of deep emotion. They are lacking in one essential quality of melodic beauty, namely, outline, or curve.[39]These two quotations are not representative of Beethoven's lyric genius, for he has left us many fine melodies, but they reveal a general tendency of his to seek in music an outlet for his deepest thoughts and feelings, and to sacrifice, if necessary, that beauty of outline that characterizes Mozart's finest tunes.
One peculiarity of Beethoven's music, due to his constant search after expressiveness rather than mere formalsymmetry, is a unity and conciseness of style notably superior to that of Mozart. Many of his themes lack the perfect balance of phrases, in exact thesis and antithesis, found in Mozart's, their structure resulting rather from a logical development of the leading motive, which, by a favorite device of his, presses on, in constant repetition and with increasing vigor, to an emotional climax. The contrast between this method of treating a theme and the method of Mozart may be seen in Figure LI.
(a) From Mozart's G-minor Symphony.
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(b) From Beethoven's first piano Sonata.
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(c) From Beethoven's String Quartet, op. 59, No. 1.
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FIGURE LI.
In the quotation from Mozart's symphony it will be observed that the two-measure phrases exactly balance each other, but that the second phrase is melodically unrelated to the first, and is, furthermore, a somewhat trivial figure. One feels in listening to the whole theme that the real significance of it lies in the opening phrase, and this conclusion is justified by reference to the development section of the movement, where the composer altogether discards the second phrase. The style of this theme is, therefore, largely dictated by the convention of perfect phrase balance. The style of the two Beethoven themes, on the contrary, is vigorous and terse. The outward symmetry is dictated by the inner sense.
In the sonata theme Beethoven presses home his idea with greater and greater intensity until the climax is reached, after which the tension is gradually abated; in the theme from the string quartet an almost identical method is pursued. For a further illustration of the terseness of Beethoven's style reference may be made to the development sections of this sonata and string quartet, where most interesting use is made of the short motives from which these themes are derived. These methods of writing give evidence of the fine economy Beethoven continually displays. There is, in his music, nothing redundant—no unnecessary word—and it is this quality of style that produces such an effect of life and vigor.
Beethoven carries out these methods in whole movements, and even in complete symphonies. We have already seen how, in the Path?ique Sonata, a theme inthe finale is derived from one in the first movement, but a much more interesting example of the process[40]may be found in the Fifth Symphony.
Beethoven: The Fifth Symphony.[41]First movement.
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(d) From the Scherzo.
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FIGURE LII.
In Figure LII will be found quotations from the three themes of the first movement of the Fifth Symphony, and from the secondary theme of the scherzo.
It will be observed that the first motive in theme I—consisting of three short notes followed by a long one—is the germ from which both the conclusion theme and scherzo theme spring, and that the same motive serves as the bass to the second theme. This motive, in fact, dominates the entire first movement, the extraordinary vitality of which is largely due to the incisive quality of the motive itself and to the occasional thunderous proclamations of it by the entire orchestra. Here we have the virility of Beethoven's style admirably illustrated; no time is given to platitudes, no single measure wanders away from the chief issues. At times this first motive is extended into a succession of loud chords from the full orchestra; again the prevailing two-measure rhythm is interrupted by a measure of silence that shifts the accents dramatically from one place to another, dislocating the whole passage.[42]This intensity of utterance—each phrase hammered home—gives to the whole work a quite unique place among symphonies.
The complete movement may be tabulated as follows: