Page 98 - Glasbenopedagoški zbornik Akademije za glasbo v Ljubljani / The Journal of Music Education of the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, leto 13, zvezek 27 / Year 13, Issue 27, 2017
P. 98
SBENOPEDAGOŠKI ZBORNIK, 27. zvezek
II
There are, of course, other musical formats that have proven much more enduring than the
madrigal. The sonata form, for example, has been a dominant feature of music from the
1750’s even into high modernism (for example, in the piano works of Boulez). A less
formal but equally productive format (that often incorporates sonata structure) is that of
the concerto for instrument and orchestra. Let us consider, for example, the first
movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor. The work commences with
an orchestral exposition of the grave and resolute main theme, with the clarinet event
going on to introduce the second main subject in the minor key of e-flat major. The piano’s
entry is in the form of a dramatically rapid ascending scale in c minor, then repeated twice
– each time an octave higher, but with a pause between each repetition. The entry is, in
effect, both an announcement of arrival, and through the gaps between the scales, also an
inquiry.
At the end of the last repetition, the piano then picks up the initial orchestral subject, and in
the development, the themes introduced by orchestra and piano respectively are frequently
swapped between them, with key modulations at decisive moments. An emotional climax
to the movement is achieved when, in the cadenza, the piano repeats and develops the
main orchestral theme for the last time - embellishing it and probing it introspectively with
complex arpeggios. In the course of building towards a climax the main orchestral theme
appears unexpectedly as a bass line for the piano. The thematic development is then
completed in a modulated sequence of trills, and taken in descending arpeggios to a point
of apparent repose before the climax. The repose is emphasized – given, indeed, an
astonishing introspective stillness - by simple two note motifs – repeated and then made
more complex in successive three note and two note phrases - before a plunging descent of
arpeggios from which the original piano c-minor scale returns to close the movement.
Now, in all this exposition and development of themes across different keys and harmonic
structures, there is an overwhelming sense of narrative – of different voices or gestures, or
different personal situations constantly developing and responding to one another –
building into moments of confrontation, resolution, and fulfilment, sustained throughout
by moments of introspective insight. The cadenza, indeed, in its very pianistic gathering
up and developing of the earlier thematic and harmonic materials becomes itself,
emblematic of a subject reflecting upon and responding to its own recent history.
It is possibilities such as these which explain why the sonata form and other features of the
tonal system have established themselves as recurrently compelling. They set conventions
wherein the possibilities of emotional exchange between formal structures become
conventionalized. Indeed, the interest of the Beethoven example is the particular way in
which the structural interplay of major and minor keys is revealed as the basis of
emotional meaning in an especially clear way. For example, as noted earlier, the piano’s
entry involves simply the scale of c-minor played rapidly, three times with a pause
between the second and third statement. But the orchestral exposition has prepared us in
98
II
There are, of course, other musical formats that have proven much more enduring than the
madrigal. The sonata form, for example, has been a dominant feature of music from the
1750’s even into high modernism (for example, in the piano works of Boulez). A less
formal but equally productive format (that often incorporates sonata structure) is that of
the concerto for instrument and orchestra. Let us consider, for example, the first
movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor. The work commences with
an orchestral exposition of the grave and resolute main theme, with the clarinet event
going on to introduce the second main subject in the minor key of e-flat major. The piano’s
entry is in the form of a dramatically rapid ascending scale in c minor, then repeated twice
– each time an octave higher, but with a pause between each repetition. The entry is, in
effect, both an announcement of arrival, and through the gaps between the scales, also an
inquiry.
At the end of the last repetition, the piano then picks up the initial orchestral subject, and in
the development, the themes introduced by orchestra and piano respectively are frequently
swapped between them, with key modulations at decisive moments. An emotional climax
to the movement is achieved when, in the cadenza, the piano repeats and develops the
main orchestral theme for the last time - embellishing it and probing it introspectively with
complex arpeggios. In the course of building towards a climax the main orchestral theme
appears unexpectedly as a bass line for the piano. The thematic development is then
completed in a modulated sequence of trills, and taken in descending arpeggios to a point
of apparent repose before the climax. The repose is emphasized – given, indeed, an
astonishing introspective stillness - by simple two note motifs – repeated and then made
more complex in successive three note and two note phrases - before a plunging descent of
arpeggios from which the original piano c-minor scale returns to close the movement.
Now, in all this exposition and development of themes across different keys and harmonic
structures, there is an overwhelming sense of narrative – of different voices or gestures, or
different personal situations constantly developing and responding to one another –
building into moments of confrontation, resolution, and fulfilment, sustained throughout
by moments of introspective insight. The cadenza, indeed, in its very pianistic gathering
up and developing of the earlier thematic and harmonic materials becomes itself,
emblematic of a subject reflecting upon and responding to its own recent history.
It is possibilities such as these which explain why the sonata form and other features of the
tonal system have established themselves as recurrently compelling. They set conventions
wherein the possibilities of emotional exchange between formal structures become
conventionalized. Indeed, the interest of the Beethoven example is the particular way in
which the structural interplay of major and minor keys is revealed as the basis of
emotional meaning in an especially clear way. For example, as noted earlier, the piano’s
entry involves simply the scale of c-minor played rapidly, three times with a pause
between the second and third statement. But the orchestral exposition has prepared us in
98
