On questions of motivic thorough-composition in … · On questions of motivic thorough-composition ... motivic thor- ough-composition is ... icent effect of the Credo fugue in Bee-

EIR September 4, 1998 Special Report 77

In his late works, Ludwig van Beethoven(1770-1827) developed the “science ofcomposition”—the mastery of which

Josef Haydn once spoke in lauding tones, inreference to Wolfgang Mozart1—to atheretofore unattained degree.

In Beethoven’s late works, motivicthorough-composition, as a unity creatingthe idea of the development of the whole,has opened up utterly new horizons ofthinking, not only as a musical metaphor,but as a compositional method.2 In thewords of Prof. Norbert Brainin, who dedi-cated 40 years with his colleagues of theAmadeus Quartet, struggling to achieve anadequate performance of the late quartets,Beethoven is here very advanced, not onlyas a composer, but as an artistic personali-ty: “Beethoven’s late quartets are some-thing very special. They are the fruit of thedevelopment which Beethoven underwent,in the last ten years of his life and creativeactivity. During those last years, Beethovenwent through a development—I can onlytreat it as a spiritual development—whichfrom that time on, placed him above allother artists. Up until that time, there weremany artists of his rank, Mozart and Bach,of course, Handel, Shakespeare, Dante,Goethe, and Schiller. . . . I believe, fromthat point on, he is alone, all, all alone. Andit was in this spiritual condition, that hecreated the last quartets, the Missa Solem-nis, the Ninth Symphony, and some of thepiano sonatas, such as Op. 109 and 111. Inthese works, Beethoven is unequalled as anartist, as a mind.”3

What should be considered as lateworks, are particularly the works begin-ning with Op. 102, the Sonatas for Vio-loncello and Piano, that is, works that werecomposed sometime after 1815 accordingto a “new manner.” To this group of

works, belong the great piano sonatas Op.106, 109, 110, and 111. Among themshould also be counted the great choralworks, the Missa Solemnis Op. 123, aswell as the Ninth Symphony Op. 125, andthe late quartets, Op. 127, 132, 130, 133,131, and 135.

In his late works, Beethoven struggledincreasingly intensively with theFreiheit/Freude (freedom/joy) paradox, asan impulse to new musical works. In theNinth Symphony, Beethoven elaboratedhis more than twenty-year involvementwith Schiller’s work, “the great song ofjoy,” which was to become the kernel of anew “double fugal” mode of composition

in the fourth movement. Here, the concept“tantôt libre, tantôt recherchée,” “as free,as it is strict,” which Beethoven wrote onthe piece originally composed as the lastmovement of the Op. 130 string quartet,the “Große Fuge,” is a key to understand-ing how Beethoven, in a creative way, somagnificently further developed the dis-coveries made by Bach, Haydn, andMozart.

As one can perceive from Beethoven’ssketches and other evidence of his workmethods, in each new great work, the artistengaged himself intensively, in thedetailed solutions of his esteemed musicalpredecessors, especially Bach and Mozart;

Chapter 7

On questions of motivic thorough-composition in Beethoven’s late worksby Anno Hellenbroich and Bruce Director

(61)

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FIGURE 7.2

From Beethoven’s sketchbooks: two passages from Fugue IV of J.S. Bach’s The Art of the Fugue

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FIGURE 7.1

From Beethoven’s sketchbooks: two passages from the Bb minor fugue in Part I of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 77

http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1998/eirv25n35-19980904/index.html

78 Special Report EIR September 4, 1998

at times, he copied out in his own hand,decisive passages of surprising progres-sions. Thus, in the Poldrini sketchbook(dating around 1824/25, with 128 pages),next to notes on the first movement of theNinth Symphony and on the “Ham-merklavier” Sonata Op. 106 in B˛ major,containing a great fugue, there are two pas-sages copied from the fugue in B˛ minorfrom Book I of J.S. Bach’s Well-TemperedClavier (Figure 7.1), two passages copiedout of Bach’s The Art of the Fugue (FugueIV, which shows the elaboration of thetheme in reverse) (Figure 7.2), as well as apassage copied from a treatise on the fugueby F.W. Marpurg. There are also sketchesfor the unfinished string quintet fugue Op.137 (D major).

Here, the modal possibilities, for exam-ple in the C major/C minor relationship, andsomewhat special singularity passages forcreating new “development paths,” alwaysprovided Beethoven the incentive for newexperiments. A typical example is Bee-thoven’s intensive involvement with andsearch for new “combinations,” during hiswork on the Fifth Symphony in C minor,when he copied a passage from Mozart’sgreat G minor Symphony K. 550, from thelast “Allegro assai” movement, measures146-174; here, in his motivic thorough-composition of the theme through bold pro-gressions, Mozart also plumbs precisely theuse of the particular possibilities of Lydianintervals (Figure 7.3).

In Beethoven’s late works, motivic thor-ough-composition is constantly workedthrough rigorously to the “form stretching,”boundary-crossing “extreme.”4

Thereby, the musical process itselfbecomes a complete expression; it is notmerely an “elaboration” of the “particlethemes,” but is rather actually transforma-tion and creation of higher orders of themusical metaphor, a very special challengeto performers.5

How else could one explain the magnif-icent effect of the “Credo” fugue in Bee-thoven’s Missa Solemnis, in which heseems on the one hand to work rigorouslywith the techniques which Bach created inhis fugal works—the reversal, backwardreading of the theme, the shortening of thenote values—and yet so reshaped, thatsomething new and profound about thenature of man is created, which is really“moving,” in Schiller’s sense?

Here, a tremendous struggle with themusical substance, that is, the generativeinterval structures, is involved. [text con-tinues on page 80]

continued on following page

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From Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony sketches: part of the final movement of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 78


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EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 79


Sketches, for instance on the reworkingof the “joy” theme of the Ninth Symphony(Figures 7.4) or the double-fugal subject ofthe “et vitam venturi” fugue, document this(Figures 7.5 and 7.6). Here the double-fugal principle at the center of the composi-tion, is increasingly developed into theactual heart of the transformation. Thus, forexample, in the final movement of theNinth Symphony, from measure 655-729,where Beethoven develops “Freude, schön-er Götterfunken” and “Seid umschlungen,Millionen” in double-fugal fashion (Figure7.7). Most extraordinary, the polyphonical-ly interlinked musical manifolds are rigor-ously worked through in the “Große Fuge.”[text continues on page 84]

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FIGURE 7.4

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‘Et vitam venturi’ double fugue from ‘Credo’ of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 80


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FIGURE 7.5

Beethoven’s ‘experimental’ sketches for the ‘et vitam venturi’ section of the ‘Credo’ in his Missa Solemnis

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 81



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Double fugue in final choral movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 82


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EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 83


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Opening of Beethoven’s Op. 133 ‘Große Fuge’

Two examples from the late quartetsOp. 132 and 130 may be able to openaccess to Beethoven’s thinking, to Bee-thoven’s motivic thorough-composition.These belong to the three quartets whichBeethoven dedicated to the St. PetersburgPrince Galitzin: Op. 127, Op. 132, andOp. 130, completed in this order. The Op.127 E˛ major quartet was composed mainlyin the period between 1822 and 1825, andbelongs therefore to the composition phaseof the Missa Solemnis (between 1819 and1823) as well as the Ninth Symphony(begun 1822-1824); the Op. 132 A minorquartet was completed between 1824 and1825, and performed in September 1825;and Op. 130, with the concluding “GroßeFuge” movement, composed between Mayand December of the same year. Beethovenlater published the powerful concludingfugue separately as Op. 133, and com-posed a new finale to Op. 130 (sometimein October-November 1826, one yearbefore his death). This extremely intensecreative process, often involving severalworks simultaneously, poses a challenge topeople today, to comprehend the spiritualstruggle with the “musical thought-object”in its diversity and method.6

The late quartets, above all Op. 127,130, 132, and 133, but also in anotherform, Op. 131 and 135, show in increas-ingly strong measure that an overlappingmusical idea-substance binds them togeth-er; not in the reduced sense of “the samefour-note chromatic motif involving asixth,” but rather as a discussion process, afly-wheel of new musical thinking inexpanding the heretofore explored well-tempered “space” of the 24-key domain.Such are the sketchbook entries, whichwere apparently noted down three-fourthsof a year apart, for example, in a Berlinsketchbook (aut11/2), in the sketches forOp. 127, for a planned overture on thetheme B-A-C-H (B˛-A-C-B˝), as well assketches for Op. 132 and 133. Here Bee-thoven transposed a fugal theme not usedin Op. 127 into B˛ major, and conductedsome work with it and a countersubject(Figures 7.8 and 7.9).

Beethoven’s mode of composition

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Beethoven sketch forOp. 133 ‘Große Fuge’

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which breaks through form, is already rec-ognizable alone in the expansion of thegeneral four-movement form of the quar-tet, handed down by Haydn and Mozart.Thus, Op. 127 does have four movements;however, Beethoven introduces the firstmovement with a “Maestoso” (slow), apath which he also treads as introduction toOp. 130, Op. 132, and then as an inde-pendent movement in Op. 131. The move-ment structure itself must bend to the suc-cession of ideas. Thus, Beethoven writessix movements in Op. 130: first move-ment: “Adagio, ma non troppo—Allegro”in B˛ major; second movement: “Presto—L’istesso tempo” in B˛ minor; third move-ment: “Andante con moto, ma non troppo”in D˛ major; fourth movement: “Alladanza tedesca. Allegro molto espressivo”in G major; fifth movement: “Cavatina.Adagio molto espressivo” in E˛ major;sixth movement: “Finale” in B˛ major,which Beethoven added later. Originally,Beethoven conceived for the Finale whatwas later published separately as the“Große Fuge” Op. 133, appearing in theoriginal manuscript under the title “Over-ture.” Beethoven developed this double-fugal movement, internally with multiplemovements, “Ouvertura. Allegro—Menomosso e moderato—Allegro; Fuga. (Alle-gro)—Meno mosso e moderato—Allegromolto e con brio,” into a major work ofover 740 measures, which remains unpar-alleled in Classical music creations.

There are conversations with Bee-thoven from around the time of the compo-sition of Op. 132 and 130, on musical gen-erative interval-groups. For example, thereis an entry by Karl Holz, a violinist friendof Beethoven’s, in a conversation bookfrom 1825, in which Holz talks about the“Kyrie-fugue theme” from Mozart’sRequiem (Figure 7.10). Holz says hethinks Haydn also worked on this as afugal theme in his quartet Op. 20, No. 5in F minor, and he cites this passage,which is very closely related to the Cminor theme from J.S. Bach’s A MusicalOffering. Figure 7.11 shows the Holzentry, showing some errors in his memoryof Haydn’s quartet.

Beethoven took great care in these latequartets to emphasize the cantabile (song-like) presentation, and thus names the sec-ond movement in quartet Op. 127 “Ada-gio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile”; inOp. 130, he characterizes the fifth move-ment as “Cavatina. Adagio molto espressi-vo,” and adds for each instrument “sottovoce”; and in the most moving part, Bee-

thoven writes “beklemmt” (tormented,constricted). Professor Brainin, whenasked about the presentation of this diffi-cult piece, makes clear why “knowledge”is not to be won from the musical textalone, but that one has to be in a position tobe able to “read between the notes” inorder to really grasp the composer’sexpression and then transmit it adequately:

“I have a special way of doing this[passage in Op. 130 where Beethoven haswritten “beklemmt”] . . . . Oppressed,really oppressed . . . constricted, that is,struggling for breath. . . . I play it like aponticello, that is, high up on the bridge.There is a little whistle in there, too. Acouple of people mocked the way I play it.There are always some, who are annoyedby one thing or another that I do, and don’tlike it. It is either too hard for them, toosoft, too sweet, or I don’t know what. Butthey have not the slightest idea what theyare talking about, because they do notunderstand anything about Beethoven. Iplay it as it really is; I do not improve any-thing and I do not worsen anything. If it ishard, then I play it hard, if it is not so hard,then I do not play it so hard. That is in factwhat is magnificent about Beethoven, thathe has this incredible tenderness in him-self and this incredible severity. This, Iwould almost say, Old Testament severity.It is like, when Moses is on Mount Sinaiand receives the tablets with the com-mandments from God. That is what it islike!”7

Beethoven’s Opus 132 String QuartetBeethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, Op.

132 in A minor, illustrates the essence ofthe higher development of musical compo-sition represented in his late works. Inthese compositions Beethoven expands, inan entirely new way, man’s conception ofthe well-tempered system of polyphony,

and in so doing extends what LaRouchehas identified as the m-fold manifold, to anm+1-fold manifold.

Beethoven’s advance was to reconcep-tualize the relationships of the well-tem-pered system into a new higher modality(the equivalent of what Georg Cantorwould define as a new transfinite order-ing), by locating the crucial singularities ofthe well-tempered system, particularly theLydian interval, and the principle of inver-sion, in a new domain. To communicatethis new idea, Beethoven took the ironicalstep of setting this quartet in the key of Aminor, while setting the third movement inthe Lydian mode. But, as a simple compar-ison of the first and third movement willshow, Op. 132 as a whole, or these twomovements individually, is not written ineither A minor, or the Lydian mode, but inthe new higher modality, which Beethovenhad discovered.

While a more detailed examination ofthis quartet can be found in other loca-tions,8 for pedagogical purposes here, weapply the principle, at work in all musicalcompositions, of the simultaneity of thewhole, and, juxtapose the first and thirdmovements as a “One”; first in broadoverview, then in more detail.

The first movement is set in the key ofA minor (no sharps or flats), the second inthe Lydian mode, also devoid of sharpsand flats. (The Lydian mode is an F major

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Holz’s entry in Beethoven’s conversation book, showing Haydn fugue theme

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scale with a B˝ instead of B˛.) By the ironi-cal combination of these two similar, yetdifferent, modalities, Beethoven provokesthe mind of the listener to re-discover forhimself this new, higher modality.

To grasp the conception of the newhigher modality of Beethoven’s late quar-tets, it is necessary to think of the entirewell-tempered system, and the character-istics of the bel canto human singingvoice, as a One. From this standpoint,think now of the various keys and modesas sub-divisions whose characteristics aremerely reflections of the ordering of theentire system.

As an example, look at the modes of thefirst and third movements of Op. 132 (Fig-ure 7.12). The key of A minor is distin-guished by the half-step intervals charac-teristic of the minor mode—between thesecond and third (B-C) and the fifth andsixth (E-F). In the Lydian mode, these twohalf-steps are displaced to occur betweenthe fourth and fifth intervals (B-C) and theseventh and eighth (E-F). This differenceshifts, and inverts, the Lydian intervalfrom second to sixth (B-F) in A minor, tothe tonic to the fourth (F-B) in the Lydianmode.

As previously discussed, this Lydianinterval is a crucial singularity in thedomain of well-tempered polyphony, evi-dencing the boundary between the neigh-boring keys that sub-divide the well-tem-pered system as a whole. This interval isembedded in minor keys, between the sec-ond and sixth, and, in major keys betweenthe fourth and seventh, but, it is “transcen-dental” with respect to the tonic in anygiven key. That is, the Lydian interval,formed by the tonic of any given key, isoutside that key, but lies on the boundarybetween that key and the neighboring one.Again, to grasp this point, the reader mustabandon the formal assumptions of gener-ally accepted musical theory, and recog-nize that the well-tempered system of belcanto polyphony is not built up from thekeys, but, instead the various keys, modes,and their inversions, are determined by theuniversal characteristics of the system as aOne.

The Lydian mode is therefore distin-guished by the positioning of the Lydianinterval on the tonic itself, giving thismode an unstable quality with respect tothe 48 well-tempered keys.

Yet, in Op. 132, it is the third move-ment, written in the Lydian mode, which“appears” stable, while the first movementin A minor seems highly turbulent. Bee-

thoven demands the listener forsake allprevious assumptions about what is possi-ble in musical composition, exciting in thelistener’s mind those very qualities of cre-ative discovery which most listeners maynot even know they had.

Both movements begin with the stringquartet playing a chorale, as if they were aquartet of human voices, calling to mindthe primacy of the human singing voice asthe basis of well-tempered polyphony.Both choral openings are formed as a Clas-sical canon with staggered voice entrancesthat imitate, invert, and project the inter-vals of the previous voices. Each openingchoral canon is based on the characteristicsingularities of the other, and each opening

states these singularities in a highlyambiguous way. Upon hearing the firstnotes, a quizzical thought is coaxed in thelistener’s mind, that something very new isabout to be stated.

The opening eight measures of the firstmovement (Figure 7.13) are composedalmost entirely of ascending and descend-ing half-steps, played canonically, asinversions and projections of each other.The listener hears each half-step note pairand the intervals between the intervals, ofthe half-step note pairs. For example, the’cello’s opening Gˇ-A, f-e. The listenerhears these intervals in sequence, whilealso hearing the intervals of the minorsixth, A-f and Gˇ-e, diminished seventh

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Modes of the first and third movements of Quartet Op. 132

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Opening of Quartet Op. 132 in A minor

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(major sixth) Gˇ-f, and fifth A-e. With theentrance of the viola’s descending a-gˇ inthe second measure, these fifth and sixthintervals are heard in sequence, and atonce, teasing us into the frame of mindfrom which we can see this newly discov-ered conception.

As the opening eight measures unfold,by a series of ascending and descendinghalf-steps, separated by the fifth-sixthrelationship articulated in the opening twomeasures, the string choir generates law-fully, by the principle of inversion, virtu-ally the entirety of all possible Lydianintervals. These Lydian intervals are notheard as dissonances, as transitions in thedevelopment from one mode to another,but, as, so to speak, development of devel-opment.

But this is not just an opening shot:Beethoven maintains this quality of devel-opment throughout this composition, andthroughout the late quartets as a whole.

Turn again to the opening of the thirdmovement (Figure 7.14). Beethoven titledthis movement, “A convalescent’s holysong of thanks to God, in the Lydianmode.” In contrast to the first movement,Beethoven unfolds the choral opening inthe Lydian mode, directly, without intro-ducing any sharps or flats. Here the canonproceeds by the characteristic intervals ofA minor, even though the movement fol-lows strictly the ordering of a simple Lydi-an scale. Unlike the first movement, wherevirtually every Lydian interval is generat-ed, the only Lydian interval generated hereis the f′′-B on the last beat of measure 7.But, as in the first movement, this Lydianinterval is not heard as a dissonance, but asinternal to the modality of the composition.

After these choral introductory settings,both movements proceed in an entirelyunexpected way. In measure 11 of the firstmovement (Figure 7.15), the ’cello, whichstated the original opening half-step, nowstates, in its high register, a motivic idea(a′-b′-c′′-b′-a′-gˇ′) that embodies, transfi-nitely, the conception underlying the open-ing eight-measure chorale. This motivicidea is then developed, within this newmusical domain, with frequent reference tothe opening eight measures. See measures103-106 (Figure 7.16) and measures 193and 202 (Figure 7.17).

The third movement proceeds in a dif-ferent but complementary way. The open-ing choral canon is followed by a contrast-ing “Andante” labeled “Neue Kraftfühlend” (“Feeling new strength”). Thenew power is obviously a reference to the

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EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 87


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FIGURE 7.21

Eb minor is inversion of Bb major

higher powers of the human mind whichBeethoven has achieved by his new dis-covery, powers that transform the universeas a whole. The “Andante” is introducedwith the change from the Lydian mode tothe key of D major, formed by changing Fto Fˇ and C to Cˇ.

The opening chorale section returnstwice more, each time in a more condensedway; and, the third time, it is labelled, “Mitinnigster Empfindung” (“With utmost fer-vent sentiment”) (Figure 7.18).

Each time, the listener is brought tonew powers of cognition, as the potentialof a new, higher modality is unfolded. Thesummit is articulated in the most beautifulmanner in measures 191-192 (Figure7.19).

The contrasts between the opening ofthe two movements demonstrates, that thenew, higher modality of these late quartets,is not representable by some formal struc-ture, akin to a mathematical formula, but,as in all true human knowledge, lies out-side the confines of such formalism, and isexpressible only metaphorically, i.e.,through beauty.

Beethoven’s Opus 130 String QuartetIn one of the first mentions of this quar-

tet, Beethoven notes in May 1825, “letztesQuartett mit einer ernsthaften und schwer-gängigen Einleitung” (“last quartet with aserious and difficult introduction”).

It is noteworthy here, that the firstsketches indicate a C major setting, andonly later did Beethoven transpose the the-matic material one whole-step lower to B˛major.9 The first seven measures of theintroduction, the opening steps, will pro-vide multiple opportunities for develop-ment. Thus Beethoven, having establishedthe register with the choice of the key B˛major, introduces as a singularity the char-acteristic of the mezzosoprano voice, theregister shift on e˛′′-e˝′′. On the first beat ofmeasure 6 (Figure 7.20), the new registerof the voice carried by the first violin, isunderlined in its meaning also throughdynamics, as the move to e˝′′ is played witha crescendo moving to forte.

At the beginning of his “serious anddifficult” introduction, Beethoven has thestep-wise descending line played in uni-son, from B˛ down to G. The ’cello—anoctave lower—ends the first measureswith a descending fifth G-C, and leads inascending scale steps up to F, then—nowdisplaced an octave higher—to follow upthe next descending fifth f-B˛ with anupwards-striving scale in B˛ major (which

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FIGURE 7.17

Development of both themes of first movement of Op. 132

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FIGURE 7.18

Third chorale variation in third movement of Op. 132

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 88


are elements of the later development):this, though, as a countervoice to the firstviolin, which in measure 1 in the sameplace sings an ascending g-e˛′ sixth, andthe second violin, which sings an ascend-ing g-c′ fourth. In measures 2-4, Bee-thoven displaces the violin voice oneoctave, in order to let the registral possi-bilities of the opening unfold in as differ-entiated a way as possible, simultaneous-ly, in the few interval steps: the potentialof the falling fifth and the relative risingfourth, the alliteration or projection of therising sixth g-e˛′, and the implied descend-ing third g′-e˛′, simultaneously the shiftfrom e˛′′ to e˝′′.

Now, what should be recalled, is whichpeculiarities in B˛ major/B˛ minor, andreversals, Beethoven uses as the occasionfor bold expansions of the modality. (Forexample, the backward inversion of B˛major/E˛ minor, a combination in which, inthe famous “beklemmt” “Cavatina” pas-sage, E˛ minor should be heard in connec-tion with the first movement (Figure 7.21).One should note the determining role ofthe Lydian intervals in the major/minorpossibilities: B˛ major/B˛ minor-E˝, or Gminor/G major-D˛, or D˛ major/Cˇ minor-G˝, and so on. Already, in the “serious, dif-ficult” introduction, Beethoven uses theintroduction of the A˛, also in regard to B˛minor, when he later has the ’cello play A˛in measure 12.

In measure 7, Beethoven leads the’cello, playing piano in the tenor clef, intothe next singularity, the shift from f′-fˇ′-(g′), and develops the countervoice withthe second violin—now singing as a mez-zosoprano—which again the ’celloanswers, with reversals and expansions of

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FIGURE 7.19

High-point of Op. 132 third movement

Violin I

Violin II

Viola

Violoncello

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FIGURE 7.20

Opening of Beethoven String Quartet Op. 130

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 89


the first measures. Thus the “Allegro”“double-fugal head” (sixteenth notesdescending d′′-b˛′-g′-e˛′-c′-g), now playedforte, with the countervoice of the ascend-ing fourth b˛′-e˛′′ (measures 14-16), is pre-pared as the beginning of new develop-ment possibilities, such that Beethovennow introduces the sharp “Adagio/Allegro”contrast and the “fourth motif” with the“sixteenth-note counterpoint.”

In the later development phase, Bee-thoven works this quartet motif into ashortened, anapest-like motif (Figure 7.22,measures 118-122). The sixteenth-notemotif is also shortened to three sixteenthnotes, an incredible concentration of themusical elaboration process (measures 64-70 in Figure 7.23). These measures followan idea of the sixteenth-note motif trans-formed through D˛ (measures 53-63 inFigure 7.23). Here, the process of cominginto being of the change beginning theopening measures 4-6, lends itself wonder-fully to study. (Example: The first violinsummarizes measures 4-6 in one singlemeasure (49), introduced by a falling sixth,over two octaves, striving toward the vio-lin’s g′′ in measure 50, with the ’cellocounterpoint in measures 7-9 summarizedhere, and then, in unison, the chromaticascent from F-d˛, and so forth.) [text con-tinues on page 92]

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FIGURE 7.22

Anapest-like motif introduced in Op. 130 quartet

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 90


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FIGURE 7.23

Db section in Op. 130 first movement

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 91


To conclude the first movement, Bee-thoven presents once again the increasing-ly developed “face” of his idea discovery,so to speak, in retrospect, in a manner sim-ilar to that in the Ninth Symphony, suchthat the musical beauty becomes truly realonly now, as thought process and recollec-tion of the growing and developing process(Figure 7.24).10 [text continues on page94]


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Conclusion of first movement of Op. 130 quartet

EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 92


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EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 93


In his essays, Wilhelm Furtwängler, inreference to the work of HeinrichSchenker, spoke about the need to “listenfrom afar” in interpreting Classical works,and especially Beethoven’s. This listeningfrom afar, reflects Beethoven’s composi-tional method of motivic thorough-compo-sition, since even with several melodiclines that initially seem very different—when one listens to them over a longerperiod of time, repeatedly, particularlyover long stretches of the development—only then is the “origin,” the “historicalroot” unlocked. Only with this comprehen-sion, are the performer and the listener oftoday in a position to be able to comesomewhere close to grasping the whole. Inthe context of this chapter, it is impossibleto cite every single example, but it isimportant to challenge the reader to devel-op this “listening from afar” and “compar-ative listening” regarding Beethoven’s lateworks. Thus, one must compare the secondmovement of the Op. 130 (Figure 7.25),despite its “presto” (very quick) tempo,with the beginning of the first movement,not only because of the B˛ major/B˛ minorshift, but also to study the downward moveof the first and second violins and theirmotifs, f′-e˛′-d˛′-f′ (violin I) and d˛′-c′-b˛-a(violin II), and to try to understand thevariational motive as coming out of thebeginning of the first movement. The scaleprojections in measures 48-63 (Figure7.26), first from B˛, then C (minor), fol-lowed by chromatic descents from c′′, thenfrom e˛′′, and finally from g˛′′, leadingback to the original B˛ minor theme,demand special attention to Beethoven’smanner of “path-finding” to reach newmanifolds. For the “scherzo” character,one must focus on the target note g˛′′(enharmonically fˇ′′) in reference to the Cmajor/C minor domain, or also, of course,in reference to keys “related” to B˛ minor.Similarly, the relationship of the threequarter-note descending lines in the ’celloand viola (measures 17, 19, etc.) as well asthe second violin in its answer (measures19, 21, etc.) in the “trio” section of the sec-ond movement (Figure 7.27), must beheard in connection with the shortenedtheme of the three sixteenth notes from thedevelopment of the first movement (seemeasures 64ff., “ben marcato,” in Figure7.23). The opening of the third movement(especially measures 1-5) (Figure 7.28)must be compared with measures 53ff. andespecially 59ff. from the first movement(Figure 7.23), as well as the ’cello line inmeasure 106 (Figure 7.29).

Thus, the “legacy” of the double-fugal“head” of the “Große Fugue,” the cominginto being of the fugue theme in B˛ (b˛-b˛-b˝-a˛′-g′-b˝-c′-a′-b˛′-a′), as well as thecountersubject d′-f′′, will be more readilyunderstood (Figure 7.30). Even the open-ing of the Overture with the sixteenth-noteascent of over two octaves to g′′′ (Figure7.9, measure 1, Violin I) must be heardwith the “serious and difficult” beginningof the first movement (the first violin)(Figure 7.20, measures 1 and 6) (includingalso the octave transposition in measures2-4 of the first movement), where the rela-tions to the beginning of Op. 132 and also131 (Figure 7.31) are more obvious).

For Beethoven, the voice-leading of allcompositions, whether purely instrumentalor with choral voices, is truly “humansong” and—as the “Holy song of thanks toGod” marking prefixed to the third sectionof Op. 132 indicates—not merelymetaphor. Rather, Beethoven’s studieswere involved with the working-out ofideas into “developable material”—forexample, even in the small form ofsingable canons, precisely in the late phaseof his creative work, and not merelybecause he wanted to write somethingironic to a friend. For example, sketches

for the canon, “Schwenke dich ohneSchwänke” (woO 187) (a pun on the nameof an acquaintance, C.G. Schwenke withthe word “Schwänke,” meaning a cheapjoke), are found among Beethoven’ssketches for the Op. 127 and drafts for anoverture on the B-A-C-H theme fromabout 1824. Typical of Beethoven in hisworking phase, was the desire he oftenexpressed to interlocutors, to examinecompositions of Bach or Mozart. Thus, inhis 1824 letter to the poet Nageli, he askednot only for Nageli’s own lectures onmusic, but also for the score of Bach’sfive-voice mass in B˛ minor. Nageli hadalso sought out contributors in 1818 inorder to have the Bach mass printed, but atthe time it did not succeed for lack of sup-port, and the first part appeared only in1833.

Thus, not only for the performer, butalso for the educated, sensitive listener,Beethoven’s late works are a challenge, torecognize the often strongly paradoxicalideas as “the derivation of a musical cre-ative principle of a whole.” In this context,it is significant that, as emerges from hissketchbooks, precisely in the workinggroup of the late quartets, Beethoven alsoproposes score sketches, alongside single-

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EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 94


voice drafts; this signifies that the progressof all single voices and their cross voices,that is, the unity in multiplicity, becamemore and more strongly Beethoven’s chiefcompositional consideration.

Norbert Brainin also stresses this in arecent interview on the question of “Bee-thoven’s Art of Four-Voice Composition”:“In his late quartets, Beethoven writes akind of four-voice counterpoint, in whichthe four voices must be played or sungtogether, and yet each voice is treated veryindividually. All voices sing somethingvery important—and in fact everything isequally important. The balance is perfect;the voices need not bother to worry, how

loudly they are singing, or how softly,because everything is so perfectly com-posed. The most important element in thisis the motivic thorough-composition,because the motifs which Beethoven usesall come out of the piece itself, and areconnected. One finds this above all in thelate quartets, but naturally also, in part, inhis earlier works. The same applies hereand there to Mozart. In Mozart, too, thefour voices sing, and it is so perfectly com-posed, that one ought actually only to singit—but: It must be correctly sung, with theright voice, correctly produced, and it mustreally come out of the body. I am not asinger, but I assume that a bel canto-

trained singer would be able to do it rightaway.”11

Beethoven’s late work will only beunderstood, when one takes to heart theadvice given by Socrates to Protarchos, onthe One and the Many, in the dialoguePhilebus: “A gift of the gods to man, as Iconsider it, was once hurled down from thegods through some Prometheus togetherwith a fire of the most brilliant kind, andthe ancients, who were better than we andwere closer to the gods, handed it down asa legend, that everything which we say, is,consists of One and Many, which, howev-er, has limitation and unlimitedness grow-ing together within it. Let it be our affair,now, since this was once so ordered, toassume an idea and seek it out, in everysingle case in everything, and one will findone, since it is therein.”

1. “I say to you before God, as an honestman, your son is the greatest composer that Iknow by person or name: he has taste and abovethat the greatest science of composition.” State-ment by Josef Haydn, Feb. 12, 1785, after theperformance of six quartets dedicated to Haydn,which introduced the revolution in Classicalcomposition through motivic thorough-compo-sition. See videotape, “Motivführung bei JosefHaydn und Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,” withProfessor Norbert Brainin and the HenschelQuartet, February 1993, Dr. Böttiger Verlag,Wiesbaden, Germany.

2. See Lyndon H. LaRouche, “That WhichUnderlies Motivic Thorough-Composition,”EIR, Sept. 1, 1995 (Vol. 22, No. 35).

3. Norbert Brainin, video, op. cit.

4. On “form breaking”: Even the neo-Kantians stood up in their own defense againstthe Romantics very early, who wanted to char-acterize this characteristic of Beethoven as the“destruction of every musical form,” that is, theintercession of total arbitrariness. Thus, PaulNatorp wrote in his 1920 speech on “Beethovenand Us”: “It is fully erroneous, to consider thatthe decisive aspect of his last period of creativeactivity ought to be recognized in the destruc-tion of musical form. It has as little to do withdestruction, as so-called non-Euclidean geome-try had to do with overthrowing only one, sin-gle sentence or proof of Euclid. It is far more aquestion of going out beyond one or some of itsbinding assumptions, which had unexpectedand unintended results, not overthrowingEuclid, but rather—in one blow—letting notonly one or two, but an unforeseeable multiplic-ity of new geometries come into being, aboveEuclid’s; each, under its assumptions, with thesame, much higher certainty and strictness—because based on more general ground—as theold one. So is the relationship between Bee-

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EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 95


thoven’s expansion of form and what had beenconsidered theretofore as the only possiblemusical form.”

5. Cf. Professor Norbert Brainin: “In Bee-thoven, it started with Op. 59. Of course, he hadalways composed very well, but up to then hehad not applied motivic thorough-compositiondeliberately, only unconsciously. I believe thatit was first consciously applied in Op. 59. Per-haps it was similar in the case of Haydn, sincehis last quartet composition before Op. 33, wasOp. 20. And, if I did not know that these workshad been written before the development ofmotivic thorough-composition, I would merelysay, ‘There, perhaps, it is not so fully explicit.’The fact is, that he applied it first consciously inOp. 33. With Beethoven, it is similar. But hedid not only apply a method: He brought newelements in, but always used the old onesagain.”

In response to the question of the “new”with reference to the great model, J.S. Bach,Professor Brainin said: “Freedom lies in expres-sion. It is a matter of other things, than withBach. In Bach, it is pure spirit, in Beethoven, itis interpretation. Beethoven even said, ‘It is notenough to write fugues.’ What does that mean?It means he did not want to write fugues in themanner of Bach; he had learned from him howone writes fugues. But the way in which hewrote fugues, is always directed at an aim.”Quoted from videotape interview, “Motiv-führung: Prof. Norbert Brainin, Primarius desAmadeus-Quartetts, erläutert und demonstriertdie Kompositionsmethode der späten QuartetteLudwig van Beethovens. Meisterklassen imSchloß Dolna Krupa, 20-22 Sept. 1995, mit demMoyzes Quartett (Bratislava) und dem AuerQuartett (Budapest),” available through theSchiller-Institut Vereinigung für Staatskunste.V., e-mail [email protected].

6. See Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., “Mozart’s1782-1786 Revolution in Music,” Fidelio, Win-ter 1992 (Vol. 1, No. 4): “In its most essentialfeatures, what we may say of thought-objects, asin scientific work, we may say also of musicalthought-objects. The J.S. Bach Musical Offeringunderscores the place of a major/minor-keycross-over dissonance—e.g., a formal disconti-nuity—in the process of composition. The sub-sumption of many resolved discontinuities underthe governance of a single, well-defined order-ing-principle for that succession as a whole, pre-sents us, in the instance of any single such com-position, with a process analogous to theidealized theorem-lattice, A, B, C, D, E, . . . .

“The definitional significance of such amusical thought-object as musical, rather thansimply a thought-object, is the following. First-ly, even the individual thought-objects, of aseries, within a succession, are provoked, in theindividual’s sovereign creative mental process-es, by the polyphonic lawfulness of the Classi-

cal, well-tempered musical medium. Secondly,the ordering of a series of such thought-objects,as a composition, or part of it, is a higher-orderthought-object, which latter is defined, generat-ed by a negative feature of a process of compo-sition. The natural rules of polyphony flowingfrom singing voices of the most natural training(i.e., bel canto) are the basis for defining ananomaly, and, thus, are the basis for the genera-tion of a musical thought-object. In other words,the thought-object is referenced in respect to itsplace in the development occurring in the musi-cal medium. Since only the Classical mode of

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EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 96


composition permits this determination, thosemusical thought-objects are defined in respect tothe Classical form of the medium.”

7. Norbert Brainin, interview, Ibykus, Vol.5, No. 15, 1986.

8. Bruce Director, “What Mathematics CanLearn from Classical Music,” Fidelio, Winter1995 (Vol. III, No. 4).

9. Jelena Wjaskowa, “Das Anfangsstadiumdes schöpferischen Prozesses bei Beethoven—Eine Untersuchung anhand der Skizzen zumersten Satz des Quartetts Op. 130,” in Bee-thoven, Aufsätze und Dokumente, Vol. III, ed. byHarry Goldschmidt (Berlin: 1988).

10. Cf. Lyndon H. LaRouche, “That WhichUnderlies Motivic Thorough-Composition,” op.cit., on the question of memory in musical per-formance: “. . . what we have just said, obligesus to examine this matter of memory on a time-scale. We discover, immediately, that there issomething essential in the influence of the musi-cal idea upon the performance, the which cannot be explained as an attributed epiphenome-non on the tone’s sensation. There is a contra-diction, a devastating paradox, which can be,and is heard as a musical idea, an idea which cannot be attributed to the senses as such.

“The devastating paradox is situated thus:See how the idea of the performance as anentirety, shapes the performance of the intervalsadressed within each moment of the perfor-mance. We are confronted immediately with theexistence of two musical ideas, both represent-ing the composition taken as an entirety.

“One of these two is efficiently superior tothe other. The first of these two, is the per-former’s earlier grasp of the perfected idea ofthe composition as a finished whole; that is theidea which should never change in the musi-cian’s mind during the execution of the perfor-mance. This idea, the musician brings to the per-formance from an earlier, relatively perfectedexperience of the composition’s completed per-formance.

“The second idea, also pertaining to thecomposition as an entirety, is the notion of theincompleted idea of the same whole, in processof emergence, not yet reperfected: at each pointmid-performance. The same principle governsnot only the performance, and the practice lead-ing to the performance of that composition; it isalso the experience of the hearer.

“The first must control the second. The ten-sion between these two, axiomatically distinctqualities of idea of the composition as a whole, isreadily recognized as the motivating ‘tension,’that sense of ‘suspension,’ which supplies a qual-ity of psychic intensity, which is to be perceivedas the ‘energy’ of the successful performance.”

11. Norbert Brainin, “ ‘As free, as it is rigor-ous’—Beethoven’s Art of Four-Voice Composi-tion,” Fidelio, Fall 1998 (Vol. VII, No. 3).

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EIR 35 music 8/30/98 6:40 AM Page 97

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