Famous Composers and Their Music, Vol. 3 (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from Famous Composers and Their Music, Vol. 3

He was the greatest master of the art of varying a theme, and his genius ennobled even pianoforte variations, which are too apt, as made by others, to show mere skill and learning, or excite by superficial brilliancy the vain display of the virtuoso who plays simply that he may dazzle. In this species of art is seen the wealth of his ideas as well as the con summate mastery in expression. In the second and the third period of his style there are shining ex amples of his power in this direction. One kind of variation is peculiarly his own, in which every thing is changed, the rhythm, the melody and the harmony, and yet the theme is clearly recognized. Then there are great variations without the name, as the slow movements in the sonata appassionata and the Trio in B-flat; the slow movements of the C minor and Ninth Symphonies; the finale of the Heroic.

Ehlert has spoken of the inexorable logic of Beethoven's music, the impossibility of rearranging the order of thought, of adding or taking away. In other words, the concentration of his musical thought is never too bold, his speech is never too laconic; nor is he tautological or diffuse. The intensely emotional and dramatic characteristics of his music impelled him to invent a great variety of dynamic changes, or rhythmical syncopations. When we compare him in this respect with his predecessors, we are struck by the great number of marks of expression. The care with which he indicated the nuances is seen in all his works, but he paid more and more attention to the matter as he neared the end of his career. The Cavatina in the Quartet in B-flat, for instance, is sixty-six measures long, and there are fifty-eight marks of expression. He wished by all possible means to produce what he himself called, in reference to the Heroic Symphony, the special and intended effect. Furthermore certain of the indications reflect his personality, as the famous directions in the Mass in D, and the beklemmt in the Cav atina before mentioned.

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