MUSIC FOR THE PIANO Session Two: Lecture

The above illustration for our second session is a photograph of Beethoven’s own Érard fortepiano, built in 1803 in Paris. This is the instrument for which the Waldstein sonata and most of Beethoven’s most famous piano sonatas, chamber works, and piano concertos were written. It was an advanced instrument for the time, which incorporated many recent improvements in the piano’s action. It served Beethoven well for many years, until it was replaced by him in 1825 with a larger, more powerful Broadwood fortepiano built for him in London.

SESSION TWO: FROM FORTEPIANO TO PIANOFORTE, 1800-1830 By the year 1800 the fortepiano had become the most popular and the most versatile of keyboard instruments. The creaky, hard to tune, feeble-sounding instrument of the eighteenth century was quickly becoming a larger, bolder more durable-sounding instrument, easier to keep in tune and far more suitable to the larger concert venues that were springing up in European cities., even more important, the fortepiano’s ability to play both soft and loud music with ease, and even to combine the two at the same time, made it an ideal instrument for the more dramatic, more dynamic music being written by composers of the time.

• Why change an almost new instrument?

• What was the piano like by 1830?

• What kinds of piano music were created between 1800 and 1830?

• What does it sound like?

*PREVIEW: BEETHOVEN, SONATA IN C MAJOR (“WALDSTEIN”), 1804 As an introduction to development of the piano and piano music during this period, let’s listen to an 1804 piece by Beethoven, his Piano Sonata in C Major, nicknamed the “Waldstein” after the benefactor to whom Beethoven dedicated it. You will find that this famous piece is in some ways similar to, and in other ways different from, piano music composed before 1800. Here is another wonderful performance by Ronald Brautigam, on an 1806 Erard fortepiano very similar to an instrument Beethoven owned and very much liked. (Editor’s note: Larry’s original link is invalid. This video incorporates an early fortepiano; music begins about 1 ½ minutes into the video)

Beethoven’s more dramatic, more expressive piano style in based on several innovations that set his piano works apart from those of earlier composers:

• Greater overall length - 27 minutes compared to 20 minutes for his earlier “Pathetique” sonata.

• A greater use of the medium range of the keyboard

• Greater extremes of mood feeling: not just sad but tragic; not just happy but joyous; not just fast but frenzied, etc.

• More contrast between themes - each theme has a distinctive rhythm and pattern of notes

• More contrast in dynamics – the loud parts are louder, the soft parts softer, the contrast between loud and soft is greater

• More contrast between slow and fast: the slow parts are slower, the fast part faster, the contrast between fast and slow is greater

• More contrast in range – the high notes are higher, the low notes lower, the contrast between high and low is greater

• More contrast in texture: the thin parts (one or a few notes sounding at a time) contrast with thick parts (many notes sounding at the same time).

COMPOSERS 1800-1830 Today’s session focuses on piano music written between 1800 and 1830. In 1800 the leading composers for the piano included:

• In the older generation, the Italian Muzio Clemente, famous for the piano manufacturing company that bore his name as well as for composing piano music and touring Europe as the first international piano virtuoso.

• In the middle generation, the German Ludwig van Beethoven, who by 1800 had published eleven large- scale piano sonatas and a score of smaller works, which carried the classical concept of contrast to new heights of intensity. By the same date his slightly younger Austrian contemporary, John Nepomuk Hummel, had written eleven sets of variations for piano as well as three sonatas.

• In the youngest generation, the Irishman John Field, who wrote short romantic-sounding pieces he called “Nocturnes,” which would soon be greatly admired, and wonderfully imitated by the teenaged Frederic Chopin.

By the end of this period, in 1830, a new generation of composers was creating a new kind of piano music, both more romantic in feeling and with a richer, more sustained sound. Chief among them were:

• the Austrian Franz Schubert, whose entire works for the fortepiano were written during this thirty-year period

• the precocious German Felix Mendelssohn, who by his 21st birthday in 1830 had written three piano sonatas, six Songs Without Words, and two piano concertos

• Frederic Chopin, a reclusive Polish refugee living in Paris, who by 1830 had already written a dozen or so Mazurkas, two waltzes, and his first piano concerto.

SOCIAL AND TECHNICAL CHANGES, 1800-1830 Between 1800 and 1830 a new phenomenon called “subscription concerts” were becoming popular in the larger European cities. These were public concerts financed completely through ticket sales to the general public. In many cities, new, larger concert halls were built to accommodate audiences made up of the growing middle- class, who had both the means and the leisure to attend such events.

Responding to these trends and to the desire of composers for a larger, brighter piano sound, piano manufacturers further strengthened the wooden cases of their instruments and replaced the earlier wooden frames with iron frames capable of keeping piano strings in much greater tension. Both of these developments, together with the introduction of more brilliant-sounding strings, gave the pianos of the 1820s greater loudness and brilliance and a more uniform sound from the very top of the keyboard to the very bottom. Around 1815 an additional eight keys were added at the top end of the keyboard; these proved to be popular with composers interested in creating more dramatic, higher- contrast music.

TYPES OF FORTEPIANO MUSIC As noted last week, the versatility of the fortepiano made it useful as a solo instrument, as a chamber music instrument in combination with other instruments, and as a featured instrument in concerted music (concertos).

SOLO PIANO MUSIC, 1800-1830

GENRES OF SOLO FORTEPIANO MUSIC • Sonatas: Haydn 60, Mozart 28, Beethoven 32, Dussek, Others • Variations • Dances: Mazurkas, Waltzes, • Nocturnes

*FIELD: NOCTURNE IN E-FLAT MAJOR, 1812 (Editor’s note: This may not be Larry’s original link, but it features a 1812 Clementi fortepiano) The young Irish composer John Field was also a popular pianist, one of the first to give public piano recitals in European cities. In 1823 young Frederic Chopin heard Field play in Warsaw. He was impressed with Field’s own compositions, which he called “Nocturnes” because they were inspired by the mysterious and romantic impressions of the night time. A few months later Chopin tried his hand at writing a Nocturne, and this genre became one of his favorites throughout his lifetime.

Field’s nocturnes inaugurated a long tradition of 19th century compositions for the piano. These pieces, shorter than sonatas, are often called “character” pieces because they depict a specific emotional state, mood, or character. Beethoven wrote many such pieces, which he called Bagatelles. Schubert most often called his Impromptus. The piano music of Chopin, Schumann, and Mendelssohn consists mostly of such short, non-sonata pieces, under various names. In the 1890s, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, and Scriabin were still writing such pieces. Between 1920 and 1913 Claude Debussy published his famous Preludes, a further development of the 19th century character piece.

John Field’s Nocturne would have been unimaginable on earlier keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and harpsichord. It capitalizes on the fortepiano’s ability to produce loud tones (in the right hand part) and much softer tones (in the left-hand part) simultaneously.

*SCHUBERT: IMPROMPTU, OP. 90, NO.3, 1827 All of Schubert’s piano works – indeed his entire output of compositions – were written during the period under discussion today. Like Beethoven, Schubert wrote many sonatas, but he wrote an even larger number of character pieces, most of which he called “Impromptus.” Here is one of greatest of these, the Impromptu in G Flat Major.

CHAMBER MUSIC WITH FORTEPIANO, 1800- 1830

*MENDELSSOHN: PIANO QUARTET IN F MINOR, 1823 Mendelssohn was the first composer of the generation after Beethoven to master the composition of chamber music. Written when was only 14 years old but already a master, the F Minor Piano Quarter shows the softer, more romantic nature of Mendelssohn’s music, and the sparkling virtuosity of his writing for piano in combination with other instruments. Enjoy this excerpt.

CONCERTED MUSIC FOR FORTEPIANO, 1800- 1830

HUMMEL, CONCERTO IN A MINOR, 1816 Here is a big, full-sounding concerto that may remind you of Beethoven’s concertos. Hummel was Beethoven’s great friend and contemporary, and one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his day. The two studied with the same composition teacher. His music, primarily written for the piano, was highly respected during his lifetime but is less known today, perhaps because he did not write any symphonies.