Beethoven in B♭♭: Op. 130 and the Hammerklavier

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sterling Lambert
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Piano Sonatas ◽  
Period Style ◽  
Significant Change ◽  
As If

Abstract Commentators have sometimes remarked on similarities between contemporaneous piano sonatas and quartets by Beethoven, as if the composer were developing ideas at the keyboard before transferring them to other genres. A particularly close connection can be seen, however, between two works in B♭♭ major that are separated by a greater distance in time: the Piano Sonata in B♭♭, op. 106 (Hammerklavier) and the String Quartet in B♭♭, op. 130. Correspondences between the respective first movements are particularly strong, and they suggest that the sonata may have served as something of model for the quartet. Yet the same elements that contribute to a highly integrated structure in the sonata seem to serve quite different purposes in a quartet characterized by a pointed disintegration of normative procedures. A comparison of the two works shows not only how Beethoven's style underwent significant change in the intervening time, but also how the quartet may serve as a critique of the sonata in an act of deliberate stylistic distancing. This brings into question the well established concept of a unified ““late”” or ““third-period”” style.

Gerry Knowles, A cultural history of the English language. London: Arnold, 1997. Pp. x, 180. Hb $59.95, pb $20.00.

2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-133
Author(s):  
Richard W. Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
English Language ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Language And Power ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
As If

In his preface, Knowles makes clear what his book is not. It is not a history of literary English, and it is not an account of changes in linguistic form; it is a “cultural history.” In the introductory chapter, he declares: “In view of the close connection between language and power, it is impossible to treat the history of the language without reference to politics” (9). Of course, books that purport to be histories of English have often “treated” the subject without apparent politics. Knowles is right in alleging that the politics of such books has often been implicit, since most of them provide information about the ascent of one variety of the language to the elevated status of a standard – as if that were an inevitable and desirable result of the spirit of goodness working itself out through speech.

The Troping of Topics in Mozart’s Instrumental Works

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Hatten
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
String Quartet ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
Piano Sonatas ◽  
Familiar Figure ◽  
Instrumental Works

An eighteenth-century musical topic is a familiar figure, texture, genre, or style that is imported into a new context, where it may interact with other topics and the prevailing discourse of a movement in ways that may spark creative meanings. These interactions are analogous to the processes that produce tropes in literary language. A merger of expressive meanings may produce an effect akin to metaphor, whereas resistance to merger may signal some form of irony. Degrees of compatibility, dominance, creativity, and productivity among topics and tropes are explored in Mozart’s instrumental works, with extended examples drawn from the first movements of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas in F major, K. 332, and D major, K. 576, and the second and fourth movements of his String Quartet in D minor, K. 421.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Nancy November
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
String Quartet ◽  
Piano Sonatas ◽  
Late Works

IN THE LIVES OF great artists, the late or last works are often considered to be the greatest, the flowering or crowning of all that came before. This phenomenon, the valuing of “late” creations, artistic creations in particular, is perhaps nowhere more obvious than in connection with Beethoven. The late works, especially the late quartets, late piano sonatas, and the last symphony (the Ninth), are much discussed, much performed, and highly prized. In the case of Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (1826), this canonization is everywhere apparent. The work is not only firmly a part of the scholarly canon, the performing canon, and the pedagogical canon, but also makes its presence felt in popular culture, notably in film (for example, ...

THE UNDISCOVERED FLIGHT PATHS OF THE ‘MUSICAL BEE’: NEW LIGHT ON HUMMEL’S MUSICAL QUOTATIONS

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROHAN STEWART-MACDONALD
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
String Quartets ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Performance Tradition ◽  
Explicit Reference ◽  
North Germany ◽  
Goldberg Variations ◽  
The Relationship

Hummel’s quoting of music by other composers has been mentioned briefly in a number of studies. While some of these quotations are explicit, others are a good deal more problematic. This article investigates explicit quotations that appear in two of Hummel’s string quartets dating from 1803–1804 and the finale of a piano sonata from 1807. The fourth movement of the String Quartet in G major, Op. 30 No. 2, twice quotes J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV988, the slow movement of Op. 30 No. 3 refers to Handel’s Messiah and the finale of the F minor piano sonata cultivates a complex relationship with the last movement of Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’ Symphony. My objective is to demonstrate the sophistication and subtlety with which Hummel manipulates the quoted material in these three cases.Hummel’s obvious quotation of Bach and Handel in particular is related to a multi-faceted preoccupation with archaic styles and earlier works that had taken root in the later eighteenth century and that continued to expand into the nineteenth and beyond. Although England was the first nation to develop a performance tradition around the ‘ancient’ musical repertory, it was the accumulation of a didactic tradition around the keyboard works of J. S. Bach in north Germany and its steady migration to centres like Vienna that is of more direct relevance here. And when one surveys the (supposed) quotations by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Clementi of works by Bach and Handel and compares them with Hummel’s, Hummel’s remain outstanding in their exactness and also in their frequent lightheartedness of tone. Whereas many straightforward quotations or instances of modelling appear reverential or seek to exalt the basic idiom, Hummel’s either are humorous or seem calculated to reduce the potency of the original in order to assimilate the earlier idiom into the later one. The three pieces considered here illustrate the spectrum of techniques used by Hummel to manipulate quoted material in his works. The quotations in the two quartets have drawn very little comment; the references to Mozart’s ’Jupiter’ Symphony in the finale of Op. 20 have been remarked on more frequently, but the relationship between the two finales is a good deal more intricate than has previously been shown. The ‘contrapuntal deconstruction’ that takes place late in the third movement of Hummel’s Op. 20, between the most explicit reference to the ‘Jupiter’ finale and the coda, is lighthearted in character – amusing, even – and is in some ways the most ingenious and vibrant episode in the movement.

Berthold Goldschmidt: String Quartet; Piano Sonata; Clarinet Quartet

1992 ◽  
Vol 133 (1797) ◽  
pp. 588
Author(s):  
Eric Roseberry ◽  
Mandelring Quartet ◽  
Ib Hausmann ◽  
Kolja Lessing
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Piano Sonata

THE ‘HAUNTED’ SHOSTAKOVICH AND THE CO-PRESENCE OF BACH

Tempo ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 63 (249) ◽  
pp. 41-50
Author(s):  
Lee Johnson
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Special Significance ◽  
Preludes And Fugues ◽  
As If

My theoretical purpose is to distinguish between musical allusions and musical co-presences. A musical allusion is usually a citation of a melody or phrase from a work by a predecessor. In Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony, for example, references to Rossini's William Tell and to Wagner's Ring have tantalized listeners and provoked speculation on what these allusions could mean. In general, Shostakovich's music is notable for containing numerous allusions, often ironic, to previous composers. By contrast, Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues and the Eighth String Quartet show more than mere allusions to Bach: the very methods and forms of the Baroque master are incorporated into the later composer's works, as if Bach were a co-creator with Shostakovich; and those methods and forms are not employed ironically. That is to say, the music of Bach has a special significance for Shostakovich, a presence that goes beyond any topical value.

Tradition and Innovation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olav Hammer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
Significant Change ◽  
Over Time

All religions change over time. Although tradition and innovation used to be seen as opposites, it is now generally recognized that there is a close connection between the two. Examples of how religious narratives and actions are transmitted over time illustrate some mechanisms by which a historical tradition arises. These include cultural transmission from one person to another or across generations through the particularities of human memory. A range of mechanisms introduce innovative practices into these traditions. For example, religions can have lifecycles of birth, maturity, stagnation, reform or schism, decay and stagnation, and death. There is also the work of religious entrepreneurs, e.g. prophets and leaders of new religious movements. In addition, religions adapt to changes in such structural factors as legislation and technology. Although innovation is ubiquitous, theological elites will often deny that any significant change has taken place, and accuse their ideological opponents of being excessively innovative.

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