W. Kirkendale

The "Great Fugue" Op.133: Beethoven's "Art of Fugue"Author(s): Warren KirkendaleReviewed work(s):Source: Acta Musicologica, Vol. 35, Fasc. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1963), pp. 14-24Published by: International Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/931606 .Accessed: 18/04/2012 14:15

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14 M. Schneider: Gestalttypologisches Verfahren in der Melodik F. Landinos

Der Zusammenhang des mediterranen Musizierens mit der indisch-persischen Praxis erweist sich weniger durch die fiir dieses weite Areal charakteristischen Ge- meinpl itze als durch das V e r f a h r e n, Gemeinplitze zur Grundlage der Komposition zu machen.

The "Great Fugue" Op.133: Beethoven's "Art of Fugue" WARREN KIRKENDALE (TORONTO)

More than any other work of Beethoven, the Great Fugue op. 133 has aroused only extreme opinions, favorable and unfavorable. The first criticism, in 1826, was rather drastic:

,Aber den Sinn des fugirten Finale" (op. 133 as the original finale of the quartet op. 130) ,,wagt Ref. nicht zu deuten: fiir ihn war es unverstdndlich, wie Chinesisch. Wenn die Instru- mente in den Regionen des Slid- und Nordpols mit ungeheuern Schwierigkeiten zu kimpfen haben, wenn jedes derselben anders figuriert und sie sich per transitumi irregularen unter einer Unzahl von Dissonanzen durchkreuzen, wenn die Spieler, gegen sich selbst miftrauisch, wohl auch nicht ganz rein greifen, freylich, dann ist die babylonische Verwirrung fertig; dann gibt es ein Concert, woran sich allenfalls die Marokkaner erg6tzen kinnen." 1

Schindler agreed:

,Diese Composition scheint ein Anachronismus zu seyn. Sie sollte jener grauen Vorzeit angeh6ren, in welcher die Tonverhiltnisse noch vermittelst mathematischer Berechnung be- stimmt wurden. Unbedenklich darf solche Combination als die h6chste Verwirrung des specu- lativen Verstandes betrachtet werden, deren Eindruck wohl in alle Zeiten einer babylonischen Verwirrung gleichen wird. Hierbei kann nicht mehr von Dunkel im Gegensatz zur Klarheit die Rede seyn." 2

T. Helm and J. de Marliave, in their books on Beethoven's string quartets, avoid the Great Fugue, W. Altmann and D. G. Mason pass negative judgements. The work was praised enthusiastically as early as 1826 by Anton Halm,3 in 1859 by Zellner4 and thereafter by Lenz ("der iber jede Beschreibung erhabene, namenlos geniale Riesen-Satz" 5), H. Scherchen,A S. Grew,' and E. Ratz.8 The most recent evaluation is from no less a pen than Igor Stravinsky's:

"Now, at so, I have found new joy in Beethoven. The Great Fugue, for example, now seems to me the most perfect miracle in music... It is also the most absolutely contemporary piece

1 Anonymous, in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, vol. 28 (Leipzig 1826) col. 310. 2 ANTON SCHINDLER, Ludwig van Beethoven (Miinster 1860), vol. 2, p. 115.

3 Cf. the letter printed in ALEXANDER WHEELOCK THAYER, Ludwig van Beethovens Leben (Leipzig 1908-1917) vol. 5, p. 298 f. 4 Quoted in WILHELM VON LENZ, Beethoven. Eine Kunst-Studie (Hamburg 1855-1860) vol. 5, pp. 290-293. 6 Ibid., p. 253. 6 HERMANN SCHERCHEN, Beethovens Grofle Fuge, in: Die Musik, vol. 20 (1928) pp. 401-420. SSYDNEY GREW, The Grosse Fuge, in: Music and Letters, vol. 12 (1931) pp. 140-147, 253-261.

8 ERWIN RATZ, Die Originalfassung des Streickquartettes Op. 130 von Beethoven, in: Osterreichische Musikzeitschrift, vol. 7 (1952) pp. 81-87.

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W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge" 15

of music I know, and contemporary forever... Hardly birthmarked by its age, the Great Fugue is, in rhythm alone, more subtle than any music of my own century... I love it beyond everything."9

The unprecedented difficulty and recklessness of the work have made it a chal- lenge for commentators. Arnold Schering gave a poetic explanation as the Walpurgis Night, 9a highly imaginative but without convincing evidence. Those fond of meta- physical interpretations, so frequent in the literature on Beethoven, have inevitably regarded it as a transcendental struggle.10 Even more writers limit themselves to formalistic and aesthetic analysis, explaining the work out of itself." A favorite solution has been to press it into the form of the sonata-cycle or sonata-movement. The composer's point of departure and intention, the two most important aspects of any investigation, are to be found neither in abstract formal schemes, forced arbitrarily upon the work from outside, nor in vague philosophical speculation, but, as we shall demonstrate, in the nature of counterpoint, and the explanation is based on biograph- ical and philological facts. The present article attempts to show also, for the first time, to what extent the Great Fugue is rooted in historical tradition. 12

The discussion may be preceded by a brief outline of the formal structure: 1

OVERTURA (b. 1-30): quotes the four main forms of the first theme (x) in the reverse order of their appearance in the fugue (x4, x3, x2, x1). A-SECCTION (b. 31-158): double fugue on x1 and the dotted second theme (y). B-SECTION (b. 159-232): double fugato on x2 and a new countersubject (z), framed and interrupted by homophonic entries of the z-theme. C-SECTION (b. 233-272): march-like episode on x3 (diminution of x2), scarcely fugal. D-sECTION (b. 273-492): fugue on x4 (augmentation of x2); followed by a free phantasy on x and y (b. 414). B'-SECTION (b. 493-510): reprise of B; followed by a transitional section (b. 511). C'-SECTION (b. 533-564): reprise of C. CODA (b. 565-741): free homophonic section followed by the coda proper (b. 657) with reminiscences of everything which has preceded.

' My Reflections on Being Eighty, in: The Observer (London) June 17, 1962. 9a Beethoven und die Dichtung (Berlin 1930) p. 351ff. o10 ,,Und das ist die Bedeutung der ,Grossen Fuge': in ihr ist der Gegensatz, in dem das Idch zur Welt

zunichst steht, iiberwunden; das Idch erlebt nunmehr in sich das Walten jener geistig-g6ittlichen Krifte, die auch in der gesamten sichtbaren und unsichtbaren Welt wirksam sind. Aber diese Einheit muB immer neu errungen werden. Und Beethovens Leben ist ein immerwiihrendes Ringen..." - RATZ, op. cit., pp. 85-86. u SCHERCHEN and GREW have written the most extensive studies of this kind (op. cit.). 12 The article is extracted from W. KIRKENDALE, Fuge und Fugato in der Kammermusik des Rokoko und der Klassik. Eine historische, quellen- und stilkundliche Studie zum Repertoire in den Liindern der habsburgischen Krone (Diss. Wien 1961) pp. 302-315. (The page numbers quoted here refer to the manuscript in the Viennese libraries; the dissertation is to be published by Hans Schneider, Tutzing/ Miinchen). 13 A more detailed outline is given in my dissertation, pp. 306-308. Cf. also the versions of Scherchen and Grew. The analysis of V. D'INDY, followed by all French writers and D. G. MASON, is misleading, for it does not recognize the D-section (see below) as a fugue. D'INDY, E. RATZ and other modem musicians have attempted to restore the Great Fugue as finale of the quartet op. 130. I dealt with this question (op. cit., pp. 303-305) and came to the conclusion that the "restoration" is by no means justified.

16 W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge"

The arrangement Overtura-A-B-C-D-B'-C'-Coda may not, of course, be regarded as a succession of closed sections, for all components are developed from the same thematic material (x) and the seams are concealed. For example, x3 from the C-section is further employed in D, and the reprise of B (B') still belongs tonally to D (A-flat).

When Beethoven began work on the gigantic fugue of the Hammerklavier Sonata op. 106 and the Great Fugue op. 133, he had already written many short fugatos;14 but among his published works he could find no point of departure for an independent, large-scale fugal movement. Somehow he had to orient himself. Is it not likely that he referred to his contrapuntal studies 15 with Haydn and Albrechtsberger (1792-1795) and those prepared for his pupil Archduke Rudolph (c. 1809), to whom he dedicated op. 106 and 133?

Beethoven had worked a vast number of exercises in Fuxian species-counterpoint for Haydn. As late as 1823 he recommended the practice of species to the Archduke. 16

In search of a countersubject for the main theme (x) of op. 133 he tried out every conceivable species, with 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 notes respectively against one note of the theme. 17 The style of the fugal sections in the finished composition is still determined

by the species principle: the juxtaposition of various uniform ostinato rhythms, for example with one (b. 194, 493), three (b. 86, 139), four (b. 31, 167, 493) and six (b. 58) notes against one, as well as the fourth species (syncopation, b. 111, 139). The various voices maintain their own rhythm for many bars at a time:

quarter, eighth, sixteenth notes, dotted rhythm etc. This is what prompted the words

14 KIRKENDALE, Op. cit., p. 271 (chart) lists 52 fugatos, fugues and projected fugues in Beethoven's instrumental works. 15 A corrupted selection of Beethoven's exercises and studies was published by IGNAZ VON SEYFRIED, Ludwig van Beethovens Studien im Generalbasse, Contrapuncte und in der Compositions-Lehre (Wien, c. 1832); a critical selection by GUSTAV NOTTEBOHM, Beethovens Studien,

vol. 1: Beethovens Unter- richt bei J. Haydn, Albrechtsberger iund Salieri (Leipzig 1873). Although SEYFRIED'S inaccuracies and supposititious comments have long been exposed by NOTTrEBOHM (Beethoveniana. Leipzig 1872, pp. 154-203), they are still frequently quoted as authentic. The source used by SEYFRIED and NOTTE- BOHM is the Beethoven-Autograph 75 in the Archiv der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna. Further contrapuntal exercises and extracts from theoretical works are listed in my dissertation, pp. 252 (foot- note) and 256-259. See also ALFRED OREL, Ein "Dona nobis pacem" von der Hand Ludwig van

Beethovens in: Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer zum 60. Geburtstag (Regensburg 1962), p. 402 ff. On the basis of many newly identified autographs, references in the letters and conversation books, the inventory of books and music in Beethoven's estate, contemporary reports etc., I made catalogues of the theoretical works and of the baroque music and fugues which Beethoven definitely knew (op. cit., pp. 256-266). Among other autographs consulted, the following contain sketches for op. 133:

i) Universittitsbibliothek, Tiibingen (from the collection of the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin), Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven 11, book 2, fol. 26v-27r.

ii) Westdeutsche Bibliothek, Marburg (from the collection of the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin), Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven 9, books 1-3.

iii) CECILIO DE RODA, Un Quaderno di Autografi di Beethoven del 1825 (Torino 1907) pp. 79-82.

iv) Bodmer collection, Bonn, Mh 101, pp. 1-14. 18 Letter of July 1, 1823, to Rudolph - ALFR. CHR. KALISCHER, BeetlhoveMs siimtliche Briefe (Berlin, Leipzig 1906-1908) vol. 4, pp. 281-282.

17 Cf. the musical examples in RODA, op. cit., pp. 80-81. Beethoven also tried combining the joy-theme of the Ninth Symphony (in its 6/8-form) with the x-theme (RODA'S example no. 99).

W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge" 17

of the contemporary critic, quoted above: "wenn jedes derselben [= Instrumente] anders figuriert." The y-theme too, which was first sketched in uniform eighth notes,'18 belongs in its final form to a particular species, called "contrappunto puntato." "1 Although the rhythmic combinations change with each section (A, B, C etc.) and even with each entry of the theme, they affect the texture rather than the form.

For the whole conception of the work the following passage from Albrechts- berger's treatise on musical composition was of greatest significance:

,,Die Vergr5Berung (Augmentatio) Die Verkleinerung (Diminutio) Die Abkiirzung (Ab- breviatio) Die Zerschneidung (Syncope) Die Engfiihrung (Restrictio) des Fugenthemas sind die Hauptfiguren (Zierlichkeiten) und Kiinste in einer Fuge. Doch kann man selten alle zugleich in einer einzigen Fuge anbringen." 20

Beethoven was especially interested in this passage, for he copied in his sketches almost all of the musical examples which Albrechtsberger gives for the "Haupt- figuren." (These sketches, unknown to Nottebohm, were identified for the first time by the present author).21 In the last sentence Beethoven obviously found a chal- lenge: "to employ all of them at once in a single fugue." He made this his principle of composition, his means to build up a large-scale fugue. Mainly in this way is the unusual length of the work to be explained. All of the contrapuntal artifices listed by Albrechtsberger are employed here: augmentation (x4 or D), diminution (b. 139; x3 or C),•22 abbreviation (b. 308, 378 etc.), syncopation (b. 111, 139, 716) and stretto (b. 193 and many free or fragmentary strettos, including those with one part augmented or diminished). Of these artifices the syncopation is very rare in fugues for instrumental ensemble from the second half of the eighteenth century (we have examined over 400oo). Only Albrechtsberger himself seems to have followed the recommendation of Fux to employ the theme in syncopation towards the end of the fugue23 (e. g. in his quartets op. 2/3 and 52"). Beethoven employs it both in the normal values (b. 111; since xt is itself a form of syncopation, this is actually double syncopation) and in diminution (b. 139).

The final, incontestable proof that Albrechtsberger's treatise was the point of departure for the Great Fugue, is given by the continuation of the passage quoted above:

18 G. NOTTEBOHM, Zweite Beethoveniana (Leipzig 1887) p. 6.

19 JOHANN ANTON ANDRt, Lehrbuch der Tonsetzkunst (Offenbach 1832-1843) vol. 2, p. 10. o20 JOHANN GEORG ALBRECHTSBERGER, Griandliche Anweisung zur Composition (Leipzig 1790) p. 189. 21 KIRKENDALE, op. cit., pp. 258, 261, 263. The sketches are in the Bodmer collection, Bonn, Mh 46, and a photocopy of unknown provenance in the Beethoven-Archiv, Bonn, An 251/2. They belong surely to the other extracts from theoretical works which Beethoven made for Archduke Rudolph.

-2 In the sketches Beethoven designated the x3-theme as "abbreviatur" (Marburg, Beethoven-Auto- graph 9, book 2, fol. 4r). 23 JOHANN JOSEPH Fux, Gradus ad Parnassum (Vienna 1725) p. 149. Cf. also Mozarts Fugato KV 387/IV (Coda). 24 Printed parts: Berlin, J. J. Hummel, c. 1781. Manuscript parts: Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, sm 4724 and sm 11600-11605 (1786). Printed score: Offenbach, Andre, c. 1830.

18 W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge"

,,Es giebt noch eine Zierlichkeit, wo man nimlich die Noten des Satzes [= des Themas] mit einem Suspir theilt, welche aber nicht so schdn und minnlich ist, als die fiinf vorher- gehenden. Sie konnte Interruptio, zu teutsch: Unterbrechung genannt werden. Man sehe ein Beyspiel:" 25

Ex. 1 Albrechtsberger: Griindlidce AnweisuwHg...,p.195. Satz [Themel

Unterbrechung [Interruption] etc.

Here we discover the source of the peculiar rhythmisation of Beethoven's xt- theme,26" one of the most puzzling aspects of the Great Fugue:

Ex.2 Beethoven: op.133, xl-theme (A-section)

ff ?f f f f

This "Zierlichkeit" is mentioned in no other treatise on counterpoint.27 It is signif- icant that Albrechtsberger must suggest the name himself ("kannte... genannt werden").28 The device is extremely rare in fugal repertoire. I know of only one example: Albrechtsberger's quartet-fugue op. 2/1. Albrechtsberger was no longer able to take his musical examples for "syncopation" and "interruption" from fugues of Bach and Handel, as he did for the other "Hauptfiguren", but had to draw upon his own works. His example of "syncopation" is taken from his quintet-fugue op. 3/6,29 that of "interruption" from op. 2/1. Beethoven was determined to leave none of the devices listed by Albrechtsberger unused, not even the most exceptional.

The word recherchlie in the heading of the first edition (Grande Fugue, tant6t libre, tant6t recherchlie30) has always been interpreted merely as strict as opposed to libre, at best with reference to the obvious derivation from the Italian ricercare. But in Beethoven's time the word had a special meaning. It no longer signified the historic organ ricercares of the seventeenth century, which had long since sunk into oblivion. As a vague reminiscence of a by-gone contrapuntal era, the term now

25 ALBRECHTSBERGER, op. cit., p. 194.

26 The x1-form of the theme is relatively infrequent in the sketches. It appears for the first time in the sketch-book Marburg Beethoven-Autograph 9, book 2, fol. 6r. 27 I examined c. 60 printed and manuscript theoretical treatises from the eighteenth and early nine- teenth centuries (listed op. cit., pp. 333-336). Only Andre gives a rhythmically similar example (but not as a device for altering a theme), calling it "contrappunto alla zoppa" or "hinkenden Kontrapunkt" (op. cit., p. 10). 28 The term is related to the "tmesis" of the "Figurenlehre" (Vogt, Spiess), which, however, designates only the general procedure of incision and not this special case. 29 Manuscript parts in the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, sm 4722, and the Archiv der Gesell- schaft der Musikfreunde, IX 29419 (as "op. 4") and IX 127. so Vienna, Artaria, 1827. The English translation as Great Fugue is inadequate, for, unlike the German Grofle Fuge, it conveys an idea of "greatness," very welcome to the admirers of the work, but not at all in keeping with the composer's meaning of "large."

W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge" 19

designated a fugue which makes excessive use of contrapuntal artifices. In a short treatise on fugue Johann Anton Andre recommends that before a fugue is begun the theme should be tested for its capacity to be used in contrapuntal artifices (augmentation, diminution, stretto etc.): "deren mehr oder weniger jede Fuge enthalten soil, und wenn sie a11e enth il t, [sie] eine Ricercata (Kunstfuge) genannt wird." 81 Heinrich Christoph Koch writes in 1802:

,,Wenn die strenge Fuge noch mit verschiedenen ungewbhnlichern und kiinstlichen Nach- ahmungen vermischt wird, so pflegt man sie alsdann eine Ricercata oder eine Kunstfuge zu nennen." 32

(J. S. Bach had hidden the word Ricercar in an acrostic33 used as a heading for his Musical Offering, a work extraordinarily rich in contrapuntal devices). The historical term has become a theoretical one. With the word recherchlie Beethoven underlined his intention "to employ all" the artifices "at once in a single fugue."

This plan resulted, as is evident from the analysis given above (p. 15), in a compound movement. While it is to be regarded as a single fugue, it actually consists of two fugues (A and D), a fugato (B) and several more or less homophonic sections. Altogether not more than 45 per cent is fugal. The freer sections, which we do not need to examine here, serve to relax tension and constitute perhaps part of the "poetic element" which Beethoven required of the fugue:

,,Eine Fuge zu machen ist keine Kunst, ich habe deren zu Dutzenden in meiner Studienzeit gemacht. Aber die Phantasie will auch ihr Recht behaupten, und heut' zu Tage muss in die alt hergebrachte Form ein anderes, ein wirklich poetisches Element kommen." 34

The divison of the work into several sections, each with its own tempo, time and key signature, is interpreted by Lenz as a particular innovation (when he quotes Zellner's analysis, adding his own commentary in parenthesis):

,,,In schulgerechtem Sinn keine Fuge, dem widerspricht die formelle Dehnung, die Gliede- rung in mehrere rhythmisch selbstlindige Abschnitte' (das ist eben die Beethovensche Neu- Fuge)." 35 But this division is by no means new, for the history of the fugue consists largely of the development from the many-sectioned ricercar, fantasia, canzone and capric- cio of the seventeenth century to the single-sectioned fugue. If, in the history of music, a parallel to the Great Fugue is to be found, it is in these works. One may

31 Vierstimmige Fuge nebst deren Entwurf, und den allgemeinen Regeln iiber die Fuge (Offenbach 18272) p. 9, spacing by the present author. The work was first published in 1799 as an answer to Karl Spazier's criticism of the fugato in Andre's symphony op. 4 - cf. KIRKENDALE, op. cit., pp. 233-235. 32 Musikalischdes Lexikon (Frankfurt am Main, 1802) col. 609. The Great Fugue corresponds also to Langlks definition of the "ricercatto": "Le ricercatto se compose de plusieurs sujets et contre-sujets ... Toutes les parties qui composent une Fugue y sont employees, comme sujet, contre-sujet, rtponse, renversement, imitation, stretto et pidale...; quant aux modulations elles sont arbitraires, on peut, si l'on veut, faire tous les tours d'harmonie, majeurs, mineurs, soit avec des didsis, soit avec des bkmols...; mais un ricercatto bien fait a toujours un motif principal..." (cf. Beethoven's x-theme) - Honork Frangois Marie LanglI, Traits de la Fugue (Paris 1805) p. 54. 93 "Regis lussu Cantio Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta". 94 LENZ, op. cit., vol. 5, p. 219. 35 Ibid., p. 290.

20 W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge"

compare, for example, the easily accessible fantasia of Sweelinck printed in Das Musikwerk, "36 with its gigantic length, the diminution, single and double augmen- tation of the theme, the continual succession of new counterpoints; or the canzone of Frescobaldi and the capriccio of Froberger in the same volume37 with their sections consisting of variations of the theme with different time signatures. If it were not so improbable that Beethoven knew this repertoire,38 one would be inclined to believe that he was indebted to the ancient variation-ricercare39 and that the word recherchlie in the heading had not only a theoretical, but also a historical meaning.

The extensive employment of variation and fugue has long been recognized as characteristic of Beethoven's late works. Common to both are the exploitation of a single theme or thematic complex, and the general lack of formal periodicity. The thematic economy and formal freedom of these two procedures explain Beethoven's preference for them in his most mature works. Of the latter, the Great Fugue is especially characteristic, for it combines both principles. Not only the variation of the themes themselves, but also the differentiation of the sections by means of new contrapuntal figures corresponds to the practice of variation.40

The contrapuntal and homophonic sections are also differentiated consistently in their dynamics. Here Beethoven adheres to a traditional fugal practice which we have observed in the rococo period.4' At that time dynamic indications were still generally limited to homophonic movements and, in fugues, to occasional homo- phonic episodes. Fugues seldom had more than a "f" at the beginning, for they required "Kraft und Nachdruck,"42 "einen festen, kriftigen Bogenstrich."43 Gentler dynamics were considered "gallant" and associated with homophonic episodes:

36 ADAM ADRIO, Die Fuge, Vol. 1 (Kbln 1960) no. 4.

s' Nos. 6 and 7.

s8 Improbable but not impossible. Beethoven himself possessed a fugue of his friend ANTON REICHA on a theme of FRESCOBALDI, divided by double bars into four sections --KIRKENDALE, Op. cit., pp. 239 (footnote), 241, 266.

*9 The term employed by WILHELM FISCHER in: GuIDo ADLER, Handbuchd der Musikgeschichte (Frank- furt 1924) p. 483. This variation technique is, of course, by no means restricted to pieces entitled "ricercare," as the above-mentioned works of Frescobaldi and Froberger show. 40 Yet one may not go so far as to divide the whole work into numbered variations, as D'INDY does. Beethoven himself declared that the fugato in his Eroica-Variations op. 35 "keine Variation genannt werden kann" (letter of April 8, 1803, to Breitkopf & Hirtel - KALISCHER, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 112). 41 KIRKENDALE, Op. cit., p. 99. 42 CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH DANIEL SCHUBART, Ideen zu einer Alsthetik der Tonkunst (Wien 1806, written 1784-1785) p. 59. 4* Anonymous criticism of MONN'S and GASSMANN'S fugal quartets in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, vol. 10 (Leipzig 1808) col. 439. Even at the beginning of the nineteenth century, dynamic variety was not expected in a fugue. In 1811 G. J. Vogler claims the alteration of "p" and "f," "was in den Fugen nicht gew6hnlich ist," as his innovation (GEORG JOSEPH VOGLER, System far den Fugen- bau, Offenbach c. 1817, preface dated s1811). During the composition of the fugue in the ('cello) sonata op. 102/2 (1815) Beethoven still found it necessary to note an explicit reminder in the sketches: "Bei allen Fugen piano u. forte" (NOTTEBOHM, Zweite Beethoveniana, p. 319). Beethoven's friend Reicha, advocating the employement of dynamic nuances in fugues, deplored the traditional manner of performance: "La maniere dont on ex&ute vulgairement les fugues.. . est une espice de barbarie: c'est A qui criera ou jouera plus fort!" - ANTON REICHA, TraitC de haute composition musicale (Paris 1824-1826); p. 1097 in the edition of Carl Czerny (Wien c. 1832).

W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge" 21

,,Wenn man aber die Zwischenstitze mit zirtlichen und schmeichelhaften Gedanken, welche auch ein Piano leiden, 44 oder mit Liufern und Triolen, oder mit Gedanken des Theater- und Kammerstyls, welche in vielen Terzen oder Sexten einhergehen, verfertigt: so wird die Fuge eine Galanterie-Fuge genannt." 45

Beethoven accordingly provides the contrapuntal parts of his work, the two fugues (sections A and D), with an unyielding "ff" throughout their entirety (128 and 141 bars respectively!). The homophonic sections, on the other hand, are predominately "p". The "gallantry-fugato" in the first B-section, with its ac- companiment of repeated sixteenth notes and "tender and blandishing ideas which tolerate a piano," is played "pp"; but its reprise (B') is forte, for here the homo- phonic accompaniment is omitted and the texture is radically thickened by the com- bination of the x2-theme with its inversion, in double counterpoint. In a sketch of this section (B') Beethoven noted: "in... [here he quotes the beginning of x2 and z] forte kleiner contrepoint." 46

It is well known that Beethoven wrote the main theme of op. 133 for the first time among sketches for the opening bars of the quartet op. 132,47 before he had arrived at the final version of the latter.48 The obvious thematic relationship between op. 132 (first movement, bars 1, 75), op. 133 (x-theme) and op. 131 (first movement; seventh movement, bars 1, 22) has been unduly stressed by com- mentators. After all, thematic community per se does not make a work better, for it can be mere technical manipulation. Much more important is to recognize, as Erich Schenk has done, that Beethoven returns here to the baroque art of varying theme- types. It has long been generally acknowledged that in the baroque period thematic conception is "vielfach nichts anderes als variative Ausgestaltung der Universal- Thementypen."49 One of the most widespread of these universal types is that which Schenk designates as "Hymnentyp."50 This motive-type or theme-type consists of the first and fifth scale degrees in minor, framed by the diminished seventh of the sixth and seventh degree, in any melodic succession (the most com- mon are 5~ 1-6-7 anrid 5-6-7-1) or rhythmical variation. In vocal music it is inseparable from words expressing sorrow, affliction, and grief. A vast number of examples could be given. It is especially common as a fugue theme.51 Beethoven employs it in the Great Fugue in an entirely new manner. For the first time in its

44 E. g. the lulling thirds, piano, in the B-flat quartet of G. M. MoNN (1717-1750), Albrechtsberger's teacher (Vienna, Bureau des Arts et d'Industrie, c. 1803). 45 ALBRECHTSBERGER, op. cit., p. 172. Spacing by the present author. 46 Marburg, Beethoven-Autograph 9, book 2, fol. 4r. 47 Tiibingen, Beethoven-Autograph 11, book 2, fol. 26v-27r. 48 Ibid., fol. 29r. '9 ERICH SCHENK, Ober Begriff und Wesen des musikalischen Barock, in: Zeitschrift fiur Musikwissen- schaft, vol. 17 (1935) p. 391. 50 Review of ROBERT HAAS, Die Musik des Barocks in: Zeitschrift fiir Musikwissenschaft, vol. 16 (1934) p. 559. - Barock bei Beethoven in: Schiedermair-Festschrift (Bonn 1937) p. 210ff. Both articles give a large number of examples of the type. 51 KIRKENDALE, op. cit., pp. 114 f and 132 f lists 26 examples from the second half of the eighteenth century in fugues for instrumental ensemble.

22 W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge"

long history, the type is used as the main theme of a work in a major key (Bb), being transferred to the supertonic (the fifth framed by the diminished seventh is c'-g'; see ex. 2). The framing seventh itself is framed by the octave (bi-b'i).52 It is peculiar to the theme that, from the third note onward, it contains in itself its inversion. (For this reason the version of the theme at b. 416ff can be considered either as the inversion or as the normal form).

The fact that Beethoven allows both of his themes (x and y) to appear simultane- ously in the first entry (b. 31) is not to be interpreted as "eine Steigerung gegeniiber den vorangegangenen Fugen,"53 an "intensification" in relationship to the fugues of the piano sonatas op. 106 and 110. It is simply determined by the instrumentation. Unlike keyboard fugues, which nearly always begin with a single theme, it had been customary in the Austrian quartet-fugues from Werner (1695-1766) to Albrechts- berger (1736-1809) to begin with two themes. (Haydn too adheres to this tradition of the multiple fugue in his quartet fugues op. 20 "con due," "tre" and "quattro soggetti").

In its indebtedness to Austrian fugal tradition andparticularly to Albrechtsberger's theory and practice the Great Fugue is, of course, not an isolated phenomenon among Beethoven's late works. To show it in this context we may indicate here other direct and indirect influences of the teacher. In the sketches for the fugue of the ('cello) sonata op. 102/2 Beethoven tried out strettos with entries of the thema at intervals of three, two and one bars respectively,54 for he had been taught by Albrechtsberger to write strettos with entries at increasingly shorter time intervals. 55 In the last section of the Heiliger Dankgesang in the lydian mode in the quartet op. 132 he returned to a special type of fugue which he had practised with him: the chorale fugue.56 For the use of an ecclesiastical mode and a chorale theme in a

fugue for string quartet he could have found precedents in the works of Albrechts- berger. (It is not generally known that by far the greater part of the instrumental music of Beethoven's teacher consisted of fugues: 99 for keyboard57 and about 150 for string instruments.) s58 Albrechtsberger composed a fugal quartet "modi phryggi"; his keyboard fugue op. 1/6 on the chorale "Christus ist erstanden" was arranged for string quartet; the string trio op. 8/4 has a fugue on "Herr, ich glaube." 59 In keeping with his teachings60 is the overlapping of the last and first notes of the thematic

52 RIEMANN'S "correction" (THAYER, op. cit., vol. 5, p. 296, footnote) of the variant readings of the theme in bars 28 and 33 is not justified; the notation of the autograph is unambiguous. 53 RATZ, op. cit., p. 84. 54 Designated "erste Enge", "2te Enge" and "3te Enge" (Miller sketch-book, Koch collection, p. 47). 55 Cf. SEYFRIED, op. cit., pp. 204-206 (the passage is authentic). 56 KIRKENDALE, op. cit., p. 300 f.- Cf. ALBRECHTSBERGER, op. cit., chapter 27: "Von der Fuge mit einem Chorale." Beethoven had written three such fugues on themes given to him by Albrechtsberger.

57 ALEXANDER SCHRAMECK-KIRCHNER, J. G. Albrechtsbergers Fugen fifr Tasteninstrumente, Diss. (Ms.) Wien 1954.

5s The sources are given in KIRKENDALE, op. cit., pp. 25-30.

"9 Ibid., pp. 30, 26, 297, 299.

60so The second voice "fingt also gleich fiber oder unter der letzten Note der vollendeten ersten Stimme an" (ALBRECHTSBERGER, op. cit., p. 183) in almost all of Albrechtsberger's fugues.

W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge" 23

entries in Beethoven's op. 132 and 133 (A and D). In writing the fugue theme of the piano sonata op. 110 Beethoven may have recalled Albrechtsberger's quartet-fugue op. 2/4:

Ex.3 Albrechtsberger: op. 2/4 Vivace

V. 1

Ex.4 Beethoven: op. 110 Allegro ma non troppo

P

(The quartet-fugue in C-major,61 written by Beethoven for Albrechtsberger in 1795, had already used the theme of another fugue from the same collection):

Ex.5 Albrechtsberger: op. 2/3 Allegro Moderato

f

Ex.6 Beethoven: Fugue in C-major #' 1

-. , , •,, , k

Further thematic relationships to fugues of Albrechtsberger are found in the fugues of Beethoven's op. 102/2 (Albrechtsberger op. 19/5), op. 124 (Albrechtsberger op. 1/2, 8/1, 24/5) and op. 125 (Albrechtsberger op. 8/6). (In these cases there is no question of direct quotation or imitation, but merely similarity of theme-type). The heading "con alcune licenze" of the fugue in the Hammerklavier Sonata op. 106, synonymous with the "tant6t libre" in op. 133, is a reminiscence of Albrechtsberger's custom of writing the word "Licenz" (or "Lic.") over the permissible exceptions to the rules of strict counterpoint in the fugues of his pupil.62

In many respects, the fugue op. 106 is to be interpreted in the same way as op. 133. Peculiar to both is the unprecedented, almost exaggerated employment of contrapuntal artifices; this is a cause of the excessive length. (The fugue op. 106 even makes use of the extremely rare device of retrograde motion; Beethoven took this directly from Marpurg's treatise on fugue,63 as is proven by his copy of

61 Nagels Musik-Archiv, no. 186 (Kassel 1955). 62 Cf. NOTTERBOHM. BeethoveN's Studien. Albrechtsberger often uses the word in his Anweisung. 63

FRIEDRICH WILHELM MARPURG, Abhandlung von der Fuge (Berlin 1753/1754) vol. 2, tab. 16, fig. 1-6.

24 W. Kirkendale: Beethoven's "Art of Fuge"

Marpurg's examples of retrograde motion among the sketches for op. 10664). In this respect, both fugues have no connection with those of the Austrian chamber music from the second half of the eighteenth century, which make almost no employment of contrapuntal artifices.65

Without the suggestion of a great theoretical compendium the "giant movement," the Great Fugue would never have been written. As a practical composition it has roots in the tradition of the baroque Kunstbuch (skill-book) 6. Here its direct proto- type is J. S. Bach's Art of Fugue. We know that Beethoven was familiar with this work.67 The Great Fugue was his Art of Fugue, his summary of the various

fugal techniques-hence the subsequent dedication to his pupil in counterpoint Archduke Rudolph, for whom he had originally copied the passage from Albrechts- berger, the clue to our interpretation.

The differences between the two compositions separated by momentous changes in the world of thought are obvious: Bach's work relatively static and didactic, Beet- hoven's dynamic and emotional, etc. Beethoven wrote his version, the freest and most subjective of all Kunstbichler; "imagination" and the "real poetic element" have asserted their rights."68 The fact that he, unlike Bach, was obliged to take his point of departure (and no more) from theory, in no way prevented him, at the height of his powers, from writing an extraordinary and highly original work. Only before the background of tradition can its uniqueness and the personal accomplishment of the composer be determined.

64 Boldrini sketch-book, p. 8 (NOTTEBOHM, Zweite Beethoveniana, p. 351 f.). The fugue of the sonata op. 110 even employs double diminution. 65 KIRKENDALE, op. cit., p. 96. 66 Cf. ERICH SCHENK, "Das Musikaliscde Opfer" von Johann Sebastian Back in: Anzeiger der Oster-

reichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Jg. 90 (1953) p. 55. 67 He copied a few bars from contrapunctus 4 in a sketchbook for op. 106 and the Ninth Symphony, 1817 (NOTTEBOHM, Zweite Beethoveniana, p. 351). A manuscript copy and a printed edition (Ziirich, Nigeli 1802) were found in his library--A. W. THAYER, Chronologisdies Verzeicdnis der Werke

Ludwig van Beethovens (Berlin 1865), nos. 207 and 235 in the inventory of Beethoven's estate.

*s Cf. Beethoven's words quoted above, p. 19.

Spatial Perception and Physical Location as Factors in Music

EDWARD A. LIPPMAN (NEW YORK)

1. THE SPATIAL CAPABILITIES OF HEARING

It may not seem possible for spatial perception to play any role in an auditory art, but hearing is not the only sense involved in music, and-surprising as it may seem-even hearing is capable of providing considerable spatial information on its own account.