Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 9, Number 2-3, Summer-Fall 2000 On the Subject of COGNITION VS. INFORMATION Strategic Method Strategic Method IN MUSIC Beyond Bach: Beethoven’s Studies of Bach’s Works by Ortrun Cramer ll great Classical composers When Beethoven started his stud- after Bach studied his works ies with Haydn in Vienna—the Aand learned from them, but hoped-for studies with Mozart had no one succeeded, as Mozart and been rendered impossible by the lat- Beethoven did, in grasping and fur- ter’s early death—he was welcomed ther developing Bach’s science of and received by the admirers of composition in such a way, that Johann Sebastian Bach’s music in something entirely new emerged, Vienna. There was the well-known again pointing into the future. Baron Gottfried van Swieten, in Ludwig van Beethoven had been whose house the musical elite of familiar with Bach’s art of composi- Vienna would gather every Sunday, tion since his early youth. In 1783, an and where, according to Mozart, article appeared in Cramers Magazin “nothing was played but Handel and der Musik, which stated that young Bach,” and whose library Mozart Beethoven “could become a second described as “although in quality a Mozart.” The proof of his extraordi- very large store of good music, yet in Reproduced by permission of the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn nary talent was: “He plays most of Ludwig van Beethoven quantity a very small one.” And The Well-Tempered Clavier by Sebast- there were more admirers of Bach ian Bach, which Mr. Neefe has Leipzig-Vienna, Bonn, and Zurich. among the musicians, poets, publish- placed in his hands. Anyone who Beethoven’s teacher Christian Gott- ers, and personalities from the nobili- knows this collection of preludes and lob Neefe, who was in contact with ty and from economic life. fugues (which one could almost call Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel, In an essay recently published in the nec plus ultra) will know what served as a proofreader of the edition Fidelio magazine on “Moses that means . ..” of the Simrock publishing house in Mendelssohn and the Bach Tradi- In 1783, The Well-Tempered Bonn. From the essay in Cramers tion,” Steven Meyer points to the Clavier existed only in private or Magazin der Musik, one can conclude special role of the family of the Jew- commercial manuscripts; the first that the copies must have been circu- ish banker Daniel Itzig from Berlin.1 printed editions were published, first lated rather widely among music Frequent cultural gatherings at his in 1799 in England, and in 1800-01 in lovers. house were attended by (among oth- 78 © 2000 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. tions on a theme by Beethoven, which he dedicated to his teacher. He had an impressive library, which Beethoven could use, which con- tained a large number of works by J.S. Bach in print, hand-written copies, or manuscripts, as well as many theoretical works on music with further Bach pieces. In Rudolph’s library were: The Art of the Fugue, The Well-Tempered Clavier, all four parts of the Clavierübung, the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, the French and English Suites, Motets, Masses, the Four-Part Choral Songs, The Granger Collection and much more. Bettmann/CORBIS C.P.E. Bach For Beethoven, this library was Wilhelm Friedemann Bach ers) Moses Mendelssohn and Got- of great value; it enabled him to ment as Archbishop of Olmuez. thold Ephraim Lessing, and by the pick out what was “most appropri- In his correspondence with his brothers Wilhelm Friedemann and ate” for his studies, as he declared in publishers, too, Beethoven showed Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Itzig’s a letter to the Archduke. It is his constant concern with the work daughter, Sara Levy, had studied remarkable, that Beethoven dedi- of J.S. Bach: On the one hand, he piano with Wilhelm Friedemann; cated to the Archduke a whole constantly requested copies of newly she became a key figure in the net- series of his greatest compositions, published editions, for example, a works defending Bach’s music. Her which are most clearly influenced copy of the B-minor Mass, from the sister, Babette Salomon, was Felix by his Bach studies, among them publishers Breitkopf and Härtel in Mendelssohn’s grandmother; she the Piano Sonatas Op. 106 and 111, Leipzig, and Nägeli in Zürich. He gave him a copy of the full score of and the Grosse Fuge Op. 133. What thanked Breitkopf and Härtel for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Two oth- Beethoven considered his greatest sending him Bach compositions, er daughters of Itzig, Fanny von work, the Missa Solemnis, was origi- writing, “For the beautiful things of Arnstein and Cäcilie Eskeles, were nally intended to be performed on Sebastian Bach, I thank you very married in Vienna. Fanny von Arn- the occasion of Rudolph’s enthrone- much indeed, I shall preserve them stein was a co-founder of the and study them.” Beethoven wel- Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde comed the planned project for a (Society of Friends of Music) in complete edition of Bach’s works, at Vienna; Beethoven wrote a small the beginning of the Nineteenth cen- composition into Cäcilie’s album: tury, as “what does my heart good, “Edel sei der Mensch, hilfreich und my heart which beats fully for the gut” (“Let man be noble, helpful and elevated, great art of this original good”). father of harmony.” Of special value for Beethoven In Beethoven’s sketchbooks, was the library of his student, friend, interspersed among work on his own sponsor, and protector, the Archduke compositions, there are numerous Rudolph, son of Emperor Leopold II, entries of short or long passages from half-brother of Franz I. Archduke Bach’s works, among them, the Rudolph, who later became Cardinal Chromatic Fantasy, and fugues from and Archbishop of Olmuez, was a The Well-Tempered Clavier and highly talented musician. He played The Art of the Fugue. the piano part in the first perfor- The method of noting down asso- mance of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata Bettmann/CORBIS ciation of ideas right away, Bee- Op. 96, and composed forty varia- Archduke Rudolph thoven explained in 1823 in a letter 79 to Archbishop Rudolph, whom he advised the following: Right at the piano, quickly, fleeting- ly write down your ideas. Through this, not only will your imagination be strengthened, but one also learns how to fix the remotest ideas in an instant. Gradually, the ability emerges to present precisely and only what we wish/feel, which is such an essential need of noble men. If Beethoven copied out long pas- sages or special transitions from Bach’s compositions, for study and for later use, he was following a method which J.S. Bach had already applied, who only achieved his sci- ence of composition through the study of good fugue writers, and “only through my own reflections,” as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach reported. Only through the conscious replication of the creative discoveries of great predecessors, does the stu- dent reach true knowledge—as opposed to obtuse, rote learning. (It would be useless, for example, to condemn composition students to copy The Well-Tempered Clavier ten times over!) The Art of Four-Voice Song In Beethoven, this enduring dia- logue with J.S. Bach—and with the works of Mozart, which took up Bach’s discoveries and developed them—leads to a fundamental fur- ther development in his late compo- sitions. FIGURE 1. Autograph score, “Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden,” from J.S. Bach “St. Matthew In an interview with Fidelio Passion.” magazine,2 Norbert Brainin, the Beethoven writes in his late quar- the voices need not be concerned primarius of the unforgettable tets, a kind of four-voice setting, in with how loudly or how softly they Amadeus Quartet (whom we will which the four voices are played, sing, because everything is so perfect- see shortly in a film clip), explained that is, sung, together. All the voices ly composed. The most important where the decisive progress of sing something which is element here, is the Motivführung Beethoven over J.S. Bach’s composi- important—and, that is, all equally [thorough-composition], because the tion method, lies: important. The balance is perfect; motifs that Beethoven uses, all origi- 80 to discover the alto and tenor voices FIGURE 2. Passage from Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 127. themselves.” Later, “he taught them sotto voce to write the bass voice themselves.” Violin I b b 12 j œ. œ j j & b b 8 j j j œb œ ˙. œ œn œ œb œ œn œ. œ œb œ ˙. œ œ J Let us listen to an example of a œ œ four-voice chorale, perhaps the best pizz. Violin II b b 12 & b b 8 ‰Œ‰ ∑ ∑ Œ‰ ‰Œ‰ ‰ known four-voice Bach chorale com- œ œ position: “Wenn ich einmal soll schei- sotto voce j j ˙b . œ œ. œ . den” (“Should I at some time Viola B bb b 12 ‰Œ‰ Œ j ˙ œ œn œœ œn œn œb b 8 œn œ œn . J J J depart”), from the St. Matthew Pas- sion [SEE autograph, Figure 1]. We pizz. Violoncello ? 12 will hear a performance by the bbbb 8 ‰Œ‰ ∑ ∑ Œ‰ ‰Œ‰ ‰ œ œb Wiener Singverein (Vienna Singing ˙. w. Group), conducted by Wilhelm b n # # œ‹ œ œ# œ. œ. œ b b j ‰ n n # # Œ J J œ œ œ 3 & b œ. œœ œ n J J Furtwängler, from 1954.