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The Origins of Beethoven's D Minor Sonata Op. 31 No. 2Author(s):
Barry CooperSource: Music & Letters, Vol. 62, No. 3/4 (Jul. -
Oct., 1981), pp. 261-280Published by: Oxford University PressStable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/736619Accessed: 25/07/2010
23:40
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THE ORIGINS OF BEETHOVEN'S D MINOR SONATA Op. 31 No. 2
BY BARRY COOPER
No autograph score survives for Beethoven's only D minor sonata,
Op. 31 No. 2, and there is very little sketch material either.
Indeed Hans Schmidt's comprehensive index of Beethoven's sketches'
contains no references at all to sketches for the sonata. The one
sketch hitherto recognized, a plan for the first movement, found on
f. 65v of the 'Kessler' Sketchbook, was transcribed in full by
Gustav Nottebohm,2 since when it has been the subject of scrutiny
by several writers,3 but statements by Nottebohm and more recently
by Richard Kramer4 that no further sketches exist for the sonata
sound authoritative and conclusive. Nevertheless the 'Kessler'
Sketchbook actually contains a series of independent sketches that
show such coherence with each other and with the final version of
the piece that they are indisputably part of the sketch process for
this sonata, albeit at a very early stage; there are also some
sketches, originally intended for other pieces, which can be
related to the working-out of the sonata. Chief amongst these
sketches are the following:
(i) f. 3r, staves 5-16: ideas for three movements, two in A
minor and one in A major, probably intended for a sonata in A
minor;
(ii) f. 66r/3-14: a series of concept sketches for keyboard
movements in B flat major, D major and D minor;
(iii) f. 68r/3-4: an eight-bar fragment of a keyboard piece in E
flat that contains figuration resembling the finale of Op. 31 No.
2;--
(iv) f. 89'/9-16: some ideas perhaps intended for a sonata in C;
(v) f. 90"/3-12: a draft of a D minor sonata movement, followed
on staves 13-16 by a D minor passage in 6/8;
l 'Verzeichnis der Skizzen Beethovens' (hereafter 'SV'),
Beethoven-Jahrbuch, vi (1965-8), 7-128.
2 Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethoven, Leipzig, 1865 (trans. Jonathan
Katz in Two Beethoven Sketchbooks, London, 1979), pp. 27-28. The
'Kessler' Sketchbook (SV 263), preserved in Vienna, Gesellschaft
der Musikfreunde, A 34, is published in facsimile, with
introduction and index by Sieghard Brandenburg, in Publikationen
der Sammlungen der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, ii,
Munich & Salzburg, 1976.
' See especially Rudolph Reti, Thematic Patterns in Sonatas of
Beethoven, New York 1967, pp. 201-4, and Oswald Jonas, 'Beethoven
in der Interpretation', Der Dreiklang, vi (1937).
4 The Sketches for Beethoven's Violin Sonatas, Opus 30
(unpublished dissertation), Princeton University, 1974, p. 401.
This dissertation contains the best and most detailed study of the
'Kessler' Sketchbook to date.
'Transcribed Nottebohm, op. cit., p. 27.
261
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(vi) f. 91v/5-6: a four-bar fragment in 3/4 beginning in C
major; (vii) f. 95r/15-95v/13: an extended sketch for the
exposition of a
movement in A minor labelled 'Sonata 2da';' (viii) f. 96v/1-4: a
deleted sketch intended for part of the C major
slow movement of Op. 31 No. 1. Taken as a group along with the
final version of Op. 31 No. 2,
these sketches reveal several things about the sonata that have
previously passed unnoticed. The one well-known sketch for the
sonata-the one on f. 65' transcribed by Nottebohm-itself contains
several unexplained features. Why is it headed 'Sonata 2da' when no
sketches for the first sonata of Op. 31 were to appear until over
50 pages later on f1. 91'? Nottebohm's two theories- either that
the sonata was to be paired with the already completed Op. 28
sonata in D, or that the words 'Sonata 2da' were added to the
sketch some time later-are unconvincing and do not explain the
other puzzling features. Why did Beethoven suddenly sketch the
movement in the middle of work on Op. 30? Why did he not make any
further sketches for the sonata during the two or three months in
which the sketchbook probably remained in use? Why did he make
another extended sketch for a D minor movement on f. 90' before
returning to his initial ideas? Why, after work had begun on Op. 31
No. 1, did he make three further sketches-two in E flat major and
one in A minor (ff. 93', 95', 95')-each designated as a sonata No.
2, when he already has a much more promising second sonata outlined
on f. 65'?
There is a simple explanation that can account for all these
features-the sketch on f. 65" must have been entered only after the
rest of the book had been filled. Thus, while working on the C
minor violin sonata, Op. 30 No. 2, Beethoven filled the top two
staves of ff. 65' and 66' with unrelated material (a piano sketch
in D on f. 65' and some ideas for a replacement finale for Op. 30
No. 1 on f. 66r). At this point he had already finished sketching
the first three movements of Op. 30 No. 2 and was about to begin
detailed work on the finale, for which purpose he preferred to have
a completely fresh double-page spread on which to work. Thus he
turned over to f. 66`, the rest of ff. 65' and 66' remaining blank
until the sketchbook had been completed. Only then did he fill up
the two pages with the sketch for the D minor sonata on the left
and some other material which, as will be seen, is also related to
the sonata, on the right. Such back-tracking to empty spaces is
entirely consistent with what is known of Beethoven's normal
sketching habits, and it is well known that he tended to work on
double-page spreads rather than single leaves or sides. It was also
not unusual at this date for him to leave a whole page-opening
largely blank: a zood examDle occurs in the 'Kessler' Sketclibook
on ff. 42'-43'
6 Ibid., pp. 35-36.
262
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(immediately before the start of detailed work on Op. 30 No. 1),
where only the first three staves of the left-hand page and the
first four of the right contain any sketches. And if this
page-opening is still not quite as empty as the one on ff. 65\-66r
would have been, this merely explains why Beethoven chose the
latter for making his sketch for the D minor sonata.
The next sketch to be considered is the one for a D minor sonata
movement on f. 90' (Ex. 1 ) .7 Nottebohm passes over it without
comment, while Kramer suggests that staves 3-12 may have been
intended for Op. 31 No. 2, and Brandenburg's index also links it
with Op. 31." But no author has pointed out the close connections
between this sketch and the first movement of Op. 31 No. 2,
although the relationship is as close as, for example, the one in
the case of the 'Eroica' Symphony and its initial sketch plan on
pp. 44-45 of the 'Wielhorsky' Sketchbook (SV 343).
Ex.I [staves 3-41
rAs .~~
15-61
r . r r r
M.G.?] [7-81
erster Theil in B
2da parte colla repetizione [-] e la prinma parta [9-10]
[K _ _ _ __E 1 -- e - a -- e~~~~~~~~~~
7 Angle brackets indicate deleted material. ' Kramer, op. cit.,
p. 45; Brandenburg, op. cit., p. viii.
263
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_63 _ / _ i I rI I I
Like the sketch on f. 65', the one on f. 90 is of a type
encountered occasionally in the very early stages of Beethoven's
sketching of a movement. Recent literature has not yet produced a
standard term for this type of sketch, but phrases such as
'large-scale plan', 'telescoped draft' and 'tonal overview', all of
which have been used, are suitable enough; in such sketches
Beethoven drafts the main corner-stones of the movement- principal
themes, key centres and so on-but omits the transitional material.
The sketch here begins with a 'Mannheim rocket' motif accompanied
by a repeated dominant internal pedal; it continues
264
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with a descending quaver pattern leading on to a dominant chord,
and an answering phrase completes the theme. What Beethoven
intended next is uncertain, but a possible continuation would be
the opening figure transferred to the left hand. This possibility
must certainly have occurred to Beethoven at some stage, for in
this form the passage would be very similar to bars 21-22 of the
final version of Op. 31 No. 2: in these bars the six-note arpeggio
motif has simply been reduced to its four notes, and the repeated
dominant replaced by an oscillating triplet figure:
Ex.2
The next part of the movement to be sketched was the second
subject. Beethoven first decided the key, with the words 'erster
Theil in B' indicating that the exposition was to end in B flat;
then he squeezed in a theme in that key, labelled 'M.G.' (Mittel
Gedanke) or possibly 'M.T.' (Mittel Theil)-a term found elsewhere
in the sketchbook,9 always to denote the second subject. The idea
of taking the exposition to B flat is interesting in that this
would have been the earliest sonata exposition (apart from Op. 31
No. 1, which was still unsketched) in which Beethoven closed in a
key other than dominant or relative major. In the final version of
this sonata the second subject is in A minor, but the use of B flat
major was transferred to the slow movement. This is not the only
sonata where Beethoven was undecided at first whether to employ a
particular key for the second subject or for the slow movement: in
the 'Waldstein' Sonata there is an early sketch that shows the
second movement in E major, the key eventually used for the second
subject of the first movement; and amongst the early sketches for
Op. 31 No. 1 in the 'Kessler' Sketchbook (f. 92r/3-4) is a concept
sketch in B major (the key of the start of the second subject in
the final version), which clearly seems, from its style and its
position on the page, to be intended as an idea for the slow
movement of the sonata. Thus in Op. 31 No. 1 and the 'Waldstein'
Sonata a key-centre was transferred from slow movement to second
subject, whereas in Op. 31 No. 2 the position is reversed. As for
the idea of moving from D minor to B flat major within a
sonata-form movement, it was resurrected some twenty years later in
Beeth- oven's next big D minor sonata-form movement-the first
move-
9 See f. 3Y/15 and f. 747/1.
265
-
T^he exposition in the sketch on f. 90' ends with repeated B
flat chords, which are developed after the double bar into A minor,
another key whose position was to be shifted in the final version,
this time from development section to second subject. These
repeated-chord figures anticipate, and indeed help to explain, a
similar idea in the recapitulation of the final version (bars
159-68). In this final version the chords seem to have little
relevance to the rest of the movement (unless it be to the repeated
minims at the end of the exposition), but they can now be seen as a
borrowing from this sketch, where, as in the final version, they
lead into rapid arpeggios. An interesting feature of the left-hand
accompaniment to the arpeggios in the sketch is its anticipation of
a similar motif in the overture to Egmont.
The beginning of the development section is marked '2da parte
colla repetizione e la prima parta'. The term '2da parte' refers to
the development and recapitulation together (without the coda), and
the way the whole phrase is laid out suggests that Beethoven
decided straightaway that the second part should be repeated-a
relatively unusual occurrence in his sonata-form movements and one
not carried out in Op. 31 No. 2 and then almost as an afterthought
made a note that the first part should also be repeated as usual.
But the fact that he felt it necessary to add the words 'e la prima
parta' shows that he must have considered the possibility of
repeating just the second part; and this possibility, however
unconventional, was indeed put into effect in his next minor-key
sonata, the 'Appassionata', Op. 57, in the finale of which only the
second part is repeated.
The development section in the sketch leads to a half close in D
minor. Then comes a remarkably bold stroke, at the point in the
movement where Beethoven was customarily most daring- immediately
before the recapitulation. A slow section in 3/4 time and marked
'dolce', beginning in D major, is inserted before the resumption of
the allegro. The new theme is based on the motif immediately
preceding it, but it is unrelated to the rest of the movement; it
acts as a much-needed breathing space between the incessant forward
motion of the previous music and the return of the allegro tempo
(marked 'dopo l'allegro di nove'). This leads to the end of stave
12 on the page, and the remaining four staves are taken up with a
sketch in 6/8 time. Kramer regards this as independent of the
preceding sketch,"' but it is presumably intended for the coda of
the movement since it is a transformation of the opening theme-a
technique Beethoven employed in certain other codas (see, for
example, the finale of the Third Piano Concerto). This transformed
theme begins a 'closed' binary form that leans from D minor to F
major in the first part and then back
10 Op. cit., p. 24.
266
-
to D minor in the second; the presence of double bars implies
that both parts would be repeated, although repeats are not marked.
In the final version there is no such elaborate coda (the coda is
instead one of Beethoven's shortest); but the idea of a closed
binary form within a coda was later resurrected-once again in the
finale of Op. 57. The theme itself, meanwhile, is close to that of
the bagatelle Op. 119 No. 5, the only sketch for which appears
earlier in the 'Kessler' Sketchbook on f. 59.11
Taken as a whole, the sketch on f. 90' could be realized into a
most impressive movement, and with comparatively little effort
since so much detail is already present. It contains many novel
features, which clearly point the way towards Beethoven's 'second
period' and which in several cases were actually taken up in later
works such as the 'Appassionata' Sonata, Egmont and the Ninth
Symphony. Yet the movement contains inherent weaknesses that could
not easily be removed through Beethoven's ordinary sketching
methods: the opening 'Mannheim rocket' is far too conventional,
looking backwards to Op. 2 No. 1 and beyond, rather than forwards;
the second subject is rather lightweight and would have difficulty
sustaining melodic flow and rhythmic drive in the kind of movement
Beethoven obviously had in mind; and the slow interruption in D
major had to be made more relevant, somehow, to the rest of the
movement. The obvious solutions to these problems only throw up
further difficulties: if the slow section in the major is prepared
by adding a similar slow passage at the beginning the key structure
is upset-a fast movement in D minor cannot begin with a slow,
lyrical introduction in D major,'2 and anyway the slow passage
would still not relate to the fast sections; having a slow
introduction would also destroy the element of surprise-the
unexpected lyricism-that Beethoven desired at the start of the
recapitulation; and rejecting the 'Mannheim rocket' opening would
remove the whole starting-point of the movement he was trying to
create.
Beethoven was clearly immediately aware of the difficulties, for
he did not develop the movement through any further sketches on the
remaining six leaves of the sketchbook. Instead he began detailed
work on a different sonata-Op. 31 No. 1; and his ideas for
continuing what was to be the Op. 31 set with a second sonata in E
flat major or A minor show that he had at that stage abandoned the
D minor one, which could make procress only after a comDlete
" Beethoven probably did not often consult his early sketchbooks
in his later years, but he may have looked through the 'Kessler'
Sketchbook around 1821: as well as this bagatelle, the main theme
of the first movement of Op. 111 appears in it, as does a theme
resembling that of the second movement of the same sonata. Both of
the latter are quoted in Nottebohm, op. cit., pp. 19 & 36.
" The 'Kreutzer' Sonata, Op. 47, is the exception that proves
the rule: the slow introduction stays in the major for only four
bars before moving to the tonic minor, and it does not return at
the end of the development section.
267
-
reconsideration of its elements. Thus when he did return to it,
after completing the sketchbook and having to resort to the blank
space on f. 65v, it must have been after giving considerable
thought to the matter. The end result, though familiar enough
today, is in fact a model of how to solve several conflicting
compositional problems without compromising the essence of the
movement, and the main solutions are already present in the sketch
on f. 65v, after which it would be simply a matter of sketching in
the details. Hitherto, commentators have tended to regard this
sketch as a sudden inspiration-a kind of written-down improvization
that formed Beethoven's very first thought on the sonata;`s but it
can now be seen that, however primitive the sketch may seem when
compared with the final version, it represents a major advance on
the previous sketch on f. 90X, and from a comparison of the two
sketches Beethoven's probable train of thought can be deduced.
The compositional problems posed in the first sketch could be
solved as follows. The slow passage at the beginning of the
recapitulation in the first sketch could be anticipated, but still
remain unexpected, by introducing only a fragment of it at the
opening; the problem of
'key structure could be solved, while keeping the major-key
element, by using a dominant chord, A major, instead of the tonic;
and the slow sections could be related to the allegro by
transferring the 'Mannheim rocket' motif itself to the slow part.
This last change was surely Beethoven's master-stroke, for by it
the theme becomes completely transfigured, now veiled and
submerged, beginning deep in the bass clef. The answering phrase,
though showing the same descending contour as in the first sketch,
is now more animated, with an idea foreshadowed by an isolated
sketch on f. 89V/15 (Ex. 3) aind by a rejected idea from Op. 30 No.
2 (f. 557r9). Meanwhile the introduction of recitative into the
recapitulation was a way of prolonging the slow passage with a
logical continuation of the main four-note motif.
Ex.3
All these changes alter the dramatic balance of the movement,
and force other changes. There was by this time a series of
interruptions to the forward drive of the movement, and a lyrical,
relatively static second subject in B flat would have resulted in
too many such interruptions, as well as too many references to
major keys. Thus it was necessary to scrap the original second
subject, keenino the kev of B flat for the slow movement, and to
replace it
" See Kramer, op. cit., pp. 402 & 428, and Reti, op. cit.,
p. 204.
268
-
with a non-distinctive, rather unlyrical motif in A minor in the
same mood and character as the main part of the movement. In the
final version the second subject can hardly be called a theme at
all, and it is significant that Beethoven makes no attempt to
sketch a second subject on f. 65' of the sketchbook. He simply
notes 'A moll erster Theil', and he actually sketches a compressed
version of an entire recapitulation without any sign of a second
subject. The extended 6/8 coda, by now another unwanted
interruption to the rhythmic drive of the movement, has also
disappeared, replaced by just a few bars of the tonic chord.
Thus the sketch on f. 90' of the sketchbook can be seen as the
true origin of the D minor sonata, and the one on f. 65v as a
replacement for it, in which all the compositional problems posed
have been resolved. The basic character of the movement is still
the same, as is the shape of the first four notes of the main
theme; even the layout of the sketch, in the form of a telescoped
draft, is retained. But the details have been rearranged and the
interrup- tions to the moto perpetuo redistributed, so that the
revised version is almost unrecognizable as the same piece. In fact
the only passage that remained unchanged for the second sketch was
the end of the development with its repeated minim A's and its
implied I-V-I-V harmony (Ex. 4)-and even this appears altered and
at half speed in the final version (bars 134-7).
Ex.4
etc. I
As the sketchbook was virtually full by the time Beethoven
entered the sketch on f. 65', further sketching for the movement
would have had to be done on loose leaves, for the next sketchbook,
the 'Wielhorsky', was not brought into use immediately. There is
now no trace of any such sketches, but one can deduce the direction
in which Beethoven would have been working while making them. The
bass-line, which in the first sketch tended to fall chromatically,
tends to rise chromatically in the second sketch, in both develop-
ment and recapitulation: this idea would automatically be transfer-
red to the exposition too, as would the working-out of the initial
four-note motif. The size of the movement, which in both sketches
is quite short, would as usual be expanded considerably (although
it remained a fairly compressed movement), with the expansion
occurring chiefly in the A minor part of the exposition-the one
part of the movement left completely blank in the second sketch.
There was also a progressive reduction in the amount of music
in
269
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the major key. In the first sketch major keys are quite
prominent: B flat is used for the second subject, D for the 'dolce'
passage, and the first part of the coda goes to F. By the second
sketch, B flat major has transferred to the second movement, while
the slow passages, though making use of major chords, treat these
as dominants of minor keys, and there is no longer any big major
section in the entire movement; but bars 7-10 are still fairly
confidently in F major, and there is a tierce de Picardie at the
end of the movement. In the final version, however, this has been
removed, and even bars 7-10 never settle in F major: the
introduction of an a'I on the second quaver of bar 9 suggests F
minor instead, and although the 'b turns out to be a g'g, rising to
at, this has implications of A
minor rather than F major, with the F major chord acting as a
submediant. The final version of the movement is noteworthy for its
almost complete absence of established major tonality, just as the
second movement has an absence of established minor keys.
The next sketches to be considered are those on f. 66' (see
Plate I). As stated earlier, it can be surmised that staves 1-2,
containing the theme for the finale of Op. 30 No. 1, were filled up
when Beethoven was working on the Op. 30 sonatas, but that the rest
remained blank until after the insertion of the sketch for Op. 31
No. 2 on the opposite page. Previous writers have regarded these
sketches on f. 66' as just a miscellany of ideas for keyboard
pieces, connected with no particular work. But it must be
remembered that when Beethoven began sketching a multi-movement
work he would often, despite starting with the first movement, jot
down ideas for later movements at a relatively early stage. Thus
concept sketches for all the movements are frequently found before
the detailed work on the first movement; presumably he felt it
unwise to proceed too far with the opening movement until he had at
least some idea of what was to follow. This approach can be seen,
for example, in other parts of the 'Kessler' Sketchbook itself, in
Op. 30 No. 1 and Op. 31 No. 1.
When viewed in this light, the sketches on f. 66W make perfect
sense, for not only are they all in keys that might appear in later
movements of a D mninor sonata, i.e. B flat major, D major and D
minor itself, but they also show other features that suggest later
movements of this sonata. Tlrhe first sketch (Ex. 5), in 3/4 time
in B
Ex.5
.-Fr) r ___6
270
-
-e C C
C
Q
-e
-C
Q Q
0
t C C
C
N I
ji, .... - I C
-C C C-
271
-
4Al p_F I ' I T
flat, has been described as a minuet,'4 and indeed the words
'alla menuetto' do appear beside it. But this is surely no
minuet-least of all a fast Beethovenian one-for its opening theme,
bounding unevenly up the keyboard, would sound distinctly comical,
if not ludicrous, played in minuet time. The explanation for the
words 'alla menuetto' lies in the fact that they are situated at
the end of the line: the B flat sketch is for a slow movement,
which is to be immediately followed by a minuet. The connections
between the sketch and the slow movement of Op. 31 No. 2 are in
fact numerous and obvious: both begin with a B flat major arpeggio;
both consist of dialogue between low and high pitches; in both
cases the low pitches are essentially chordal while the high ones
use conjunct melodic motion; and both have alternating tonic and
dominant harmony. There can be no doubt that this sketch was
intended for Op. 31 No. 2. But it also shows a remarkably close
relationship to the first-movement sketch on f. 90v quoted in Ex.
1: both sketches begin with a six-note arpeggio starting on the
tonic, followed by a descending phrase that ends with an
appoggiatura on to the leading note in bar 4 or 5, so that the
sketch on f. 66'- could be described as a major-key variant of the
other theme. The second phrase in Ex. 5 is also almost identical to
the beginning of the second subject (in the same key) of Ex. 1,
indicating that Beethoven intended to transfer not only the key but
some of the thematic material from the second subject to the slow
movement. Thus Beethoven planned from the outset to make the slow
movement very closely related to the first movement in its opening
melodic shape, and despite the changes later made to both, the
close relationship remained. Out of over a hundred piano sonata
movements, these are the only two that begin with an arpeggiando
chord, and another obvious relation between the opening themes is
the descent to an ornamented feminine cadence on the dominant (bars
6 or 8) at the end of their first sentence.
The remaining sketches on f. 66' seem from details of their
layout to have been written down in the order in which they appear
on the page, but they do not show the movements in the right order
and were probably not written at a single sitting, since they are
in varied styles of handwriting. Staves 6-7 represent the start of
the minuet announced on stave 3: staves 8-9 show another idea for
the
14 Brandenburg, op. cit., p. vii.
272
-
Ex.6
I r ~. i/ R ; etc.! Adagio; staves 10-11 contain two sketches in
D minor presumably intended for the finale; and staves 12-14
contain yet further ideas for the Adagio, this time somewhat more
developed than before.
The very short sketch on staves 8-9 is labelled 'adgo' and is in
3/4 time but otherwise shows no very close relationship to any
other sketch or to the final version; but the other Adagio sketch,
beginning on stave 12, is of much greater interest (Lx. 6). It is
still in slow triple time, and although now notated in 6/8, with
each bar corresponding to two of the final version, it shows
considerable progress over the first sketch. The first two bars are
already close to the first four of the final version, especially in
the high-pitched answering motifs, now rising instead of falling.
The second of these motifs uses the notes c"'-d"'-e"' (with a
deleted a" upbeat), as in bar 12 of the final version, rather than
a"-b"-c"' as in bar 4, so that bar 4 can be seen as a relatively
late alteration to the bar 12 version, rather than the latter being
a revision of the former. Indeed Beethoven may even have reached
the version in bar 4 by miscopying the number of leger lines and
then deliberately deciding to exploit his mistake. Bar 3 of the
sketch originally had a diagonal line between its first and second
notes. Such lines were sometimoteused in Beethoven sketches as
short-hand for a rapid scale, and this is no doubt what is intended
here, since the final version has just such a scale at the
corresponding place (bar 5). But the diagonal line is one of
several features in these bars that have been deleted in the
sketch.
In the final version of the Adagio the opening section consists
of two sentences: the first (bars 1-8) ends with a half close and
the second (bars 9-17), which is a variant of the first, with a
full close. In the sketch there is only one statement, with a full
close, but this sort of expansion between sketch and final version
is quite a common occurrence and was probably intended froe, the
start. The first cadence in the sketch therefore corresponds to
bars 15-17 of the final version, and is once again close to it,
though rather more plain. In bar 5 of the sketch the dotted (or
double-dotted) motif is transferred to the bass clef, as in bar 9
of the final version, but after
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this there is little relation between the two versions. The
sketch continues with parallel thirds in the bass clef, and
beneath these, on stave 13, is some sort of alternative, also in
the bass clef. At this point a trochaic rhythm begins, and is
continued at the beginning of stave 14. Harmonically, however,
stave 14 does not quite join on to the end of stave 12 or 13-at
least not in Beethoven's 1802 style-and so some transitional music
must have been omitted. Stave 14 probably represents the second
subject and is in G major. This is not as surprising as it might
seem at first sight. Beethoven had just rejected the idea of going
to the sub- mediant in the first movement and might well reconsider
it for the second; and his next piano sonata movement in B flat-the
first movement of the 'Hammerklavier', Op. 106-does go to G major
for the second subject, as does the first movement of the
'Archduke' Trio, Op. 97.
No more sketches for this Adagio survive, but there is in the
'Kessler' Sketchbook one idea, intended for another work, that
contains related material: this is the deleted sketch for part of
the slow movement of Op. 31 No. 1, found at the top of f. 96v (Ex.
7). The figuration of this is very reminiscent of that in bars
51-56 of the slow movement of Op. 31 No. 2, and it draws attention
to the similarity between these two adagio movements, both being in
a very slow triple time, with simple themes capable of much
ornamentation and starting with two bars of tonic harmony followed
by two bars of dominant. When Beethoven deleted the sketch on f.
96v he must have felt that there was nothing wrong with the
underlying idea but that it was just not appropriate to Op. 31 No.
1; it could still be used later, whereas if he had retained it in
this movement it is unlikely that he would have used such a similar
idea in Op. 31 No. 2 as well.
Ex.7
:ft t .1 sttl*^ ^ | t: /~~~~~~~~~~~etcl = r =1S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=1-X b S
The remaining sketches on f. 66' reveal that Beethoven initially
envisaged Op. 31 No. 2 as a four-movement sonata, like the majority
of his earlier piano sonatas (nine out of fifteen before Op. 31).
In this four-movement plan, the key scheme was to be similar to the
recently completed C minor violin sonata, Op. 30 No. 2, with the
slow movement in the submediant and the minuet in the opposite mode
to the outer movements of the sonata. As in the first two
movements, Beethoven initially intended the minuet to mod- ulate to
an unexpected key-this time the mediant minor (Ex. 8).
The finale sketches on f. 66' are much less well defined. In the
first, Beethoven seems to be planning a fast 2/4 movement in a
similar mood and time to the finale of Op. 57; the actual
melodic
274
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material is similar too, and so yet again the 'Appassionata' was
to provide the realization of an idea originating in sketches for
Op. 31 No. 2. The second sketch on f. 66/I 1 is even more
undistinguished; it seems to be intended for the same movement but
in 2/2, with note values doubled and with the main motif of the
other sketch in a kind of varied inversion.
Ex.8
IF~ -2JJ If IN 1 I 2
- I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I
t$; [S] ' J J J
2_ ! !2_ ' I
Clearly Beethoven had at this stage no fixed idea of what sort
of finale the D minor sonata was to have. Eventually, however, he
was to build on an idea that had occurred to him sporadically
throughout the 'Kessler' Sketchbook. The idea appears in the
sketchbook in various keys and guises, and its essence is a theme
beginning with a series of repeated notes (usually the tonic) on
strong beats, each preceded by some kind of anacrusis, and usually
with some arpeggiated accompaniment; but the details vary with each
appearance. The first appearance in the sketchbook is on f. 3 ,
where Beethoven already seems to have the idea of writing a piano
sonata in a minor key-here A minor. There is a sixteen-bar sketch
(staves 5-8) for a 2/4 Presto, an idea in A major (staves 13-14)
probably intended as a slow movement, and between these two (staves
9-12) an Allegro in A minor that foreshadows the finale of Op. 31
No. 2 (Ex. 9). The next similar idea (f. 68'/3-4) is a curious
eight-bar theme in E flat, complete with pedal markings, repeats
and even some fingering; the metre is now 3/4 and the shape of the
anacrusis is identical to that in the D minor sonata. The sketch is
quoted in full by Nottebohm and is described by Tovey as 'an
275
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Ex.9 a moll
f' Ii IN LjI
allegrl: etc.2 $
absurd danza tedesca'.'5 A third related idea is a four-bar
fragment beginning in C major (f. 91v/5-6): this retains the 3/4
metre but alters the shape of the anacrusis; it does, however, use
an accompaniment figure almost identical to that in the finale of
Op. 31 No. 2. The fourth idea (f. 95r/15-16), also quoted by
Nottebohm,'6 was specifically intended for the second sonata of the
set, but this is here in A minor and in 6/8 time; the same shape of
anacrusis is present, but there is an additional appoggiatura on
the strong beat. Some elements from these four sketches are also
found in the D major minuet sketch cited earlier, indicating that
Beethoven still intended to use the idea in the second sonata of
the set, even if in D major rather than A minor and in the minuet
instead of the first movement.
The final solution saw a sixth version of the idea, now in D
minor for the first time, in a movement that superseded both minuet
and finale. The decision to abandon the minuet must have come by
the time that Beethoven fixed on the new opening for the finale,
for it would have been unthinkable to have a finale so similar
rhythmically to the minuet. There was also the precedent of Op. 14
No. 2: this was his only previous sonata with a 3/8 finale, and it
too, lacks a minuet, the finale itself being the 'scherzo' instead.
As for the main theme of the finale of Op. 31 No. 2, there is a
tradition going back to Czerny that the theme occurred to Beethoven
when he saw someone riding past his window at Heiligenstadt.'7 Such
anecdotes are notoriously unreliable, and the accuracy of this one
is certainly called into question by the evidence of the sketches.
Did the rider pass by before any of the relevant sketches, in which
case it was almost certainly before Beethoven moved to
Heiligenstadt? Or were there six riders, one for each variant of
the theme? Or did the rider just happen to go past as Beethoven
decided to use the theme for the finale of the sonata? At all
events it is clear that the movement should not be regarded as a
musical representation of a man on horseback.
Sketch study can throw light not only on quaint anecdotes but on
analytical and interpretative matters too. It has been apparent
'3 Nottebohm, op. cit., p. 27; D. F. Tovey, notes to Beethoven
Sonatas for Pianoforte, ed. Harold Craxton, London, 1931,
ii.125.
16 op. cit., p. 35.
17 Ibid., p. 42.
276
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ever since Tovey published his performance instructions for
Beethoven's sonatas that sketch study can affect modes of
performance:'8 although all performers add to the music their own
expression, based on their conscious or subconscious understand-
ing of the function of individual notes or groups of notes, sketch
study often reveals something about Beethoven's understanding of
the music, and a performance based on this is likely to communi-
cate more of the composer's intentions than one which is not. One
place in Op. 31 No. 2 where the sketches hint at Beethoven's
understanding of the music is the very first chord, which is not
just a chord played arpeggiando but a transfigured arpeggio theme:
consequently it should surely be played sufficiently slowly to be
heard as such, with extra weight (i.e. prolongation) given to the
first note of the arpeggio just as it was in the initial sketch for
the start of the movement. The same applies to the start of the
second movement, which was also originally a six-note arpeggio
theme with a relatively long first note, and which should in
performance be made to match the start of the first movement.
Another detail on which the sketches throw light is the problem
of what constitute the themes of the first movement of the sonata.
The second subject seems not to have been regarded by Beethoven as
very important, for it is completely ignored in the sketch on f.
65v; analysts who have denied that the movement has a proper second
subject are not far from the truth. The question of whether the
first subject occurs at bar 1 or bar 21 has also been much
discussed by analysts,'9 and the sketches provide an interesting
answer. Bar 21 contains the original first subject as found in the
first sketch (f. 90v), but this theme disappears in the second
sketch, supplanted by a ,new, albeit related, first subject.
Performers wishing to penetrate to the heart of the music by
revealing something of the creative process behind it would be
justified in emphasising bar 21 at its first hearing as being the
original first subject, but passing through it relatively lightly
and swiftly in the repeat of the exposition, treating this part of
the movement as a mere transitional passage as it is in the second
sketch. Such a seemingly eccentric interpretation would not only
enable the listener to approach the music from an angle similar to
that of the composer; it would also highlight the structural
ambiguity of bar 21. Indeed a few pianists already tend towards
such an interpreta- tion.
It is now possible to piece together the genesis of the Op. 31
set as a whole. When planning a set of three pieces, whether piano
sonatas, violin sonatas, trios or quartets, one of the first
things
18 See especially Tovey's notes, ed. cit., ii.51 & 125. 19
Most recently in Martin Wehnert, 'Zum positionellen Aspekt des
Thematischen bei
Beethoven', Bericht iuber den internationalen Beethoven-Kongress
Berlin 1977, Leipzig, 1978, pp. 335-41.
277
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Beethoven had to decide on was his choice of keys, and he seems
to have been guided by certain principles that would provide
maximum variety and contrast: no two pieces in the set should have
either the same key-note or the same key-signature; there should be
at least one flat key and at least one sharp key; and one of the
three should be a minor key. The latter condition is disregarded in
Op. 12, and two of the Op. 1 trios share the same key signature,
but otherwise these principles are followed consistently in Opp. 1,
2, 9, 10, 12, 30, 31 and 59; they also apply in the three sonatas
of Opp. 13-14, and in Op. 27 if it is grouped with either Op. 26 or
Op. 28. In the plans for Op. 31 the minor key was to be A minor
('Kessler' ff. 3' and 95') or D minor (ff. 90v and 65v). The first
ideas for a major-key sonata (f. 89v/9-16; f. 90r/14-15) indicate C
major, which would preclude the original plan for A minor for the
other sonata, and it is at this stage that the first big D minor
sketch (f. 90v) appears. Then on ff. 91v\-92r C major is replaced
by G major, using a motif originally sketched for string quartet
(f. 88r), but incorporating a rhythm and character somewhat similar
to those in the C major sketches. The G major ideas are immediately
subjected to detailed sketching such as is usually only found for
works that were later completed, and so it seems that Beethoven
decided straightaway that this was to be Sonata No. 1 of the set.
The adoption of G major released A minor once again as a
possibility, which is why a 'Sonata 2da' sketch appears in this key
on f. 95r before Beethoven returned to D minor. Meanwhile C major,
though temporarily abandoned, was to be taken up in the next big
piano sonata-the 'Waldstein', Op. 53.
The key of the third sonata, E flat major, was fixed even before
Beethoven had decided on the order of the three sonatas, as is
evidenced by the sketches in that key on ff. 93r and 95v: both show
affinities with Op. 31 No. 3, the former recalling a motif in the
second movement and the latter the metre and mood of the first, but
both are labelled 'Sonata 2'. Beethoven seems to have attached no
special significance to the order of the pieces in a set such as
this; and although there are exceptions (such as the Op. 18
quartets), the published order usually followed the order in which
the pieces were composed. This is certainly true of Op. 31; but it
is important to note that even though No. 3 of this set was not
published until about a year after Nos. 1 and 2, the set was
conceived from the start as a set of three.
Most of the conclusions presented here cannot be rigorously
proved, for there will always be an element of conjecture in this
type of study of Beethoven's sketches; but the sketches for Op. 31
No. 2, despite their very limited number, do suggest surprisingly
many new insights into the music. They show how the sonata
originated in a haze of different ideas which gradually came
278
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together in Beethoven's mind into a coherent whole; they also
show what features of the sonata were present from the beginning,
how these elements were in some cases radically transformed, and
what features were introduced only later; and they demonstrate how
the very early sketches for a work can be among the most
significant for the work as a whole, whereas later sketches would
tend to be more concerned with working out relatively minor
details. Another interesting feature to emerge is Beethoven's
method of transferring ideas, whether of melody, rhythm,
figuration, form or key-scheme, from rejected sketches for one work
to the finished product of another. This procedure still remains to
be explored in detail in the rest of Beethoven's output, but the D
minor sonata seems to be related in this way to about half a dozen
of Beethoven's works. A full survey of such cross-references would
no doubt bring together many more works and would help to highlight
those stylistic traits that persisted throughout his career,
despite apparent changes of style.
The sketches examined also indicate the need for a redefinition
of what precisely constitutes a sketch for a particular work.
Beethoven's final sketches for a work often overlap with the
writing out of the autograph score, and Lewis Lockwood has drawn
attention to the difficulties of trying to draw a clear dividing
line between sketch and fair copy.20 There are similar difficulties
at the beginning of the sketching process too, so that it is
sometimes hard to determine whether certain sketches are intended
for a particular work or not. It would be possible to group
sketches into four different categories:
(i) sketches clearly related to only a single finished work;
(ii) sketches intended for one work but containing ideas
developed
in another; (iii) sketches intended for one work but not closely
related to its
final form; (iv) sketches apparently unrelated to any finished
work.
Hitherto, sketches have generally been regarded as belonging to
the first or last types, but there must be a considerable number of
sketches, including most of those discussed above, that really
belong to the other two. Even this suggested classification is
inadequate: further subdivision of these four types would be
possible, and no clear dividing-line can be drawn between the first
and third categories, since sketches exist over the entire range of
possibilities from those that are completely unrelated to any work,
through those that nre tn n cyrr-fiar e-r -rvtnt r1i-ntAi-ri
to-
2"'On Beethoven's Sketches and Autographs: some Problems of
Definition and Interpretation', Acta musicologica, xlii (1970),
32-47.
279
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up to those that coincide exactly with an autograph score. But
some such classification, which takes into account sketches only
distantly related to known works, is surely preferable to the
method of listing sketches simply by which work, if any, they
closely resemble.
Thus the sketches for Op. 31 No. 2, besides throwing light on
its origins and structure and suggesting certain modes of
interpreta- tion, can also tell us something about Beethoven's
sketches in general, how they should be approached and what
problems still have to be faced in their study. Moreover the sketch
leaves examined here constitute only a tiny fraction of the number
that survive altogether, and they appear in a sketchbook that is
comparatively well known and investigated. Much more must still
remain to be discovered about Beethoven's music from the numerous
lesser-known sketches that survive.
280
Article Contentsp. 261p. 262p. 263p. 264p. 265p. 266p. 267p.
268p. 269p. 270p. 271p. 272p. 273p. 274p. 275p. 276p. 277p. 278p.
279p. 280
Issue Table of ContentsMusic & Letters, Vol. 62, No. 3/4
(Jul. - Oct., 1981), pp. 249-484Front MatterThe New Grove [pp.
249-260]The Origins of Beethoven's D Minor Sonata Op. 31 No. 2 [pp.
261-280]The Sources of 'Cos fan tutte': A Reappraisal [pp.
281-294]The Origins of John Day's 'Certaine Notes' [pp.
295-299]Ivor Gurney's Mental Illness [pp. 300-309]Berlioz,
Cassandra, and the French Operatic Tradition [pp. 310-317]Prince
Henry as Absalom in David's Lamentations [pp. 318-330]Ariosti's
London Years, 1716-29 [pp. 331-351]Contemporary Opinions of Thomas
Weelkes [pp. 352-353]Reviews of BooksReview: untitled [pp.
354-355]Review: untitled [pp. 355-357]Review: untitled [pp.
357-361]Review: untitled [pp. 361-364]Review: untitled [pp.
364-366]Review: untitled [pp. 366-368]Review: untitled [pp.
368-370]Review: untitled [pp. 370-371]Review: untitled [pp.
371-374]Review: untitled [pp. 374-376]Review: untitled [pp.
377-378]Review: untitled [p. 378]Review: untitled [pp.
378-379]Review: untitled [pp. 380-382]Review: untitled [pp.
382-383]Review: untitled [pp. 384-385]Review: untitled [pp.
385-391]Review: untitled [pp. 391-393]Review: Opera Guides [pp.
393-395]Review: untitled [pp. 395-397]Review: untitled [pp.
397-400]Review: untitled [p. 400]Review: untitled [pp.
400-402]Review: untitled [pp. 402-403]Review: untitled [pp.
404-406]Review: untitled [pp. 406-409]Review: untitled [pp.
409-412]Review: untitled [pp. 412-414]Review: untitled [pp.
414-416]Review: untitled [pp. 416-417]Review: untitled [p.
417]Review: untitled [pp. 417-420]Review: untitled [pp.
420-423]Review: untitled [pp. 423-425]Review: untitled [pp.
425-428]Review: untitled [pp. 428-430]Review: untitled [pp.
430-432]Review: untitled [p. 432]Review: untitled [pp.
432-434]Review: untitled [pp. 434-436]Review: untitled [pp.
436-437]Review: untitled [pp. 437-440]Review: untitled [pp.
440-442]Review: untitled [pp. 442-443]
Reviews of MusicReview: untitled [pp. 444-445]Review: untitled
[pp. 445-446]Review: untitled [pp. 446-447]Review: untitled [p.
448]Review: untitled [pp. 448-450]Review: untitled [pp.
450-451]Review: untitled [pp. 451-452]Review: untitled [pp.
452-454]Review: untitled [pp. 454-455]Review: untitled [pp.
455-457]Review: English Songs [pp. 457-458]Review: French Chansons
[pp. 459-461]Review: untitled [pp. 461-466]Review: untitled [pp.
466-470]Review: untitled [pp. 470-471]Review: untitled [p.
472]Review: untitled [pp. 472-474]Review: untitled [pp.
474-475]Review: untitled [pp. 475-476]Review: untitled [pp.
476-477]Review: untitled [pp. 477-478]Review: Recent Polish Music
[pp. 478-481]
CorrespondenceFuenllana's 'Orphenica Lyra' [pp. 481-482]A Guide
to Electronic Music [p. 482]
Books Received [pp. 483-484]Back Matter