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Horizons, v. 5, issue 3, whole no. 19, June 1944

Page 7

              Music for the Fan
  VII -- The Sonatas of Beethoven

   Strictly speaking, Beethoven wrote more than the thirty-two piano sonatas which now constitute the New Testament of the pianist's Bible -- the Well-Tempered Clavichord of Back comprising the Old Testament, or according to some authorities, being the pianist's Bible, beginning with Genesis in F minor, and ending with the Revalations in C minor. There are three very early piano sonatas which are among the first of Beethoven's compositions, written at the age of twelve if I remember my biographies, not included among the complete editions, and as far as I know, not published in this country. There is also a four-had sonata for one piano, and various other ana like the composition now published as a separate selection originally intended as the slow movement of the Waldstein sonata, and left out because the work was "too full of music".
   Even as they now are sold, these sonatas represent a stupendous feat of composition. In the Schirmer edition, which is most popular in the United States, they run to almost 700 pages of music , averaging six lines of music to the page--probably equal in sheer number of notes to the entire piano music of Chopin, for instance.
   Now in my estimation, these Beethoven piano sonatas are the greatest single group of compositions in all music. There is nothing like them among the works of the great composers for the way in which they show the gradual and sure development of the man's genius, and there is no mood or tone-sensation not somewhere in them. They are in every form-- while the first eleven conform to some extent to the Haydn late sonatas and to the Mozart sonatas, after that they may contain any number of movements, those movements arranged in any imaginable way, and the individual movements themselves in every form known in Beethoven's time--fugue, rondo, sonata, three-part, sonatina, theme variations, or the "fantasia" that consisted of any movement which didn't fit into an accepted form.
   Of course, as in all Beethoven's music, it can't be said that this or that work fits snugly into one of his accepted three periods of composition. In the slow movements of the fourth and seventh sonatas are second-period works, although the rest of those particular sonatas fall unquestionably into the first style. Similarly, here and there in the 32, a single sonata seems out of place, particularly nos. 19 and 20, which are quite obviously either early works Beethoven resurrected to meet a publisher's demands, or a deliberate reversion to his earliest style to please part of the musical publich. These two are, in fact, the only two sonatas that could without real harm be omitted from the 32, but they serve a purpose in being of an ease of performance and giving the learning piano-player a starting point, and access to the more difficult ones. This difficulty ranges all the way up to the famous and sometimes infamous Hammerklavier sonata, which some excellent musicians still call the most difficult of all piano works, but only a half-dozen of them are unplayable to the average pianist.
   Where should the listener start, then? Well, it depends on what he already knows of Beethoven's music, what he likes of it, and what he has access to through phonograph recordings. All the Beethoven sonatas are on wax, but some of them, I believe, only in the Schnabel set which is now unavailable.
   The "Moonlight" sonata is the most famous, of course, through its completely unsubstantiated lore and the manner in which the rather simple music has been ballyhooed into a tremendous technical feat by piano teachers who want to impress parents into thinking their young daughters have made a great strides. Actually, even the impressive-sounding final movement is very simple to perform.
   But to the fan who may enjoy some of the symphonies and overtures, I'd suggest he make his approach to the Beethoven piano sonatas through the aforementioned Waldstein, opus 53, which is easily available on records. It's perhaps the best single of Beethoven's second period of composition, with the quietly energetic opening movement the perverted French have called the "Sunrise" and made to sound like the Willam Tell overture; the wonderful two pages that Beethoven

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Music for the Fan VII -- The Sonatas of Beethoven Strictly speaking, Beethoven wrote more than the thirty-two piano sonatas which now constitute the New Testament of the pianist's Bible -- the Well-Tempered Clavichord of Back comprising the Old Testament, or according to some authorities, being the pianist's Bible, beginning with Genesis in F minor, and ending with the Revalations in C minor. There are three very early piano sonatas which are among the first of Beethoven's compositions, written at the age of twelve if I remember my biographies, not included among the complete editions, and as far as I know, not published in this country. There is also a four-had sonata for one piano, and various other ana like the composition now published as a separate selection originally intended as the slow movement of the Waldstein sonata, and left out because the work was "too full of music". Even as they now are sold, these sonatas represent a stupendous feat of composition. In the Schirmer edition, which is most popular in the United States, they run to almost 700 pages of music , averaging six lines of music to the page--probably equal in sheer number of notes to the entire piano music of Chopin, for instance. Now in my estimation, these Beethoven piano sonatas are the greatest single group of compositions in all music. There is nothing like them among the works of the great composers for the way in which they show the gradual and sure development of the man's genius, and there is no mood or tone-sensation not somewhere in them. They are in every form-- while the first eleven conform to some extent to the Haydn late sonatas and to the Mozart sonatas, after that they may contain any number of movements, those movements arranged in any imaginable way, and the individual movements themselves in every form known in Beethoven's time--fugue, rondo, sonata, three-part, sonatina, theme variations, or the "fantasia" that consisted of any movement which didn't fit into an accepted form. Of course, as in all Beethoven's music, it can't be said that this or that work fits snugly into one of his accepted three periods of composition. In the slow movements of the fourth and seventh sonatas are second-period works, although the rest of those particular sonatas fall unquestionably into the first style. Similarly, here and there in the 32, a single sonata seems out of place, particularly nos. 19 and 20, which are quite obviously either early works Beethoven resurrected to meet a publisher's demands, or a deliberate reversion to his earliest style to please part of the musical publich. These two are, in fact, the only two sonatas that could without real harm be omitted from the 32, but they serve a purpose in being of an ease of performance and giving the learning piano-player a starting point, and access to the more difficult ones. This difficulty ranges all the way up to the famous and sometimes infamous Hammerklavier sonata, which some excellent musicians still call the most difficult of all piano works, but only a half-dozen of them are unplayable to the average pianist. Where should the listener start, then? Well, it depends on what he already knows of Beethoven's music, what he likes of it, and what he has access to through phonograph recordings. All the Beethoven sonatas are on wax, but some of them, I believe, only in the Schnabel set which is now unavailable. The "Moonlight" sonata is the most famous, of course, through its completely unsubstantiated lore and the manner in which the rather simple music has been ballyhooed into a tremendous technical feat by piano teachers who want to impress parents into thinking their young daughters have made a great strides. Actually, even the impressive-sounding final movement is very simple to perform. But to the fan who may enjoy some of the symphonies and overtures, I'd suggest he make his approach to the Beethoven piano sonatas through the aforementioned Waldstein, opus 53, which is easily available on records. It's perhaps the best single of Beethoven's second period of composition, with the quietly energetic opening movement the perverted French have called the "Sunrise" and made to sound like the Willam Tell overture; the wonderful two pages that Beethoven