Beethoven and His ForerunnersMason, Daniel Gregory
History
Beethoven and His Forerunners
Mason, Daniel Gregory
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827; Music -- 18th century -- History and criticism; Music -- 19th century -- History and criticism
Mere repetition, of course, is not, strictly speaking, development,
however efficient it may be as a means of building up musical
structures. With the repetition of the motif at a different place in
the scale, however, such as is used in the “answer,” we have a true
development, though an elementary one. Here all the metrical and
harmonic relations of the motif are kept intact, at the same time that
the bodily shifting of it in the scale throws upon it, so to speak,
a new light. This will be felt at once by any musical person who will
play over attentively the two subjects and answers of Figure VIII. A
much more radical change is effected when the motif is changed from
major to minor, or vice versa, or presented in some key other than the
dominant and more remote, or presented with new harmonization. Still,
even in such cases, the metrical and fundamental harmonic form of the
subject remains unaltered.
In the device called “inversion,” much used by Bach, we have an
essential change. The metrical form of the subject, remaining
unchanged, ensures recognizability, but the harmonic relations, while
remaining identical in respect of size, are exactly reversed in respect
of direction; in other words, the subject is turned upside down. A few
examples will explain this better than many words.
In Fugue VIII, Book I, W-T.C.,
[Music: score]
[Illustration]
becomes
[Music: score]
[Illustration]
In Fugue XX, Book I, W.-T.C.,
[Music: score]
[Illustration]
becomes
[Music: score]
[Illustration: FIGURE IX. EXAMPLES OF INVERSION.]
Many other examples might be given, for Bach is endlessly ingenious in
his use of inversion, and all the composers who followed him have used
it. Its effect, as will be seen from the examples, is most stimulating;
the mind easily perceives the likeness to the original subject, since
the rhythm is retained intact; yet the turning upside down of all the
pitch relations produces most unexpected and interesting features.
So much for modifications dependent on altered tonal relationships.
Those produced by metrical alterations are if anything even more
serviceable to the composer. The simplest metrical change possible
is produced by increasing or decreasing the actual duration of all
the tones in the motif, while retaining jealously their proportionate
duration. Thus the identity of the motif is not tampered with, but it
is made to bear a new relation to its musical context. This device is
named augmentation or diminution, according as the time-values of the
motif are augmented or diminished.
In Fugue VIII, Book I, W.-T.C.,
[Music: score]
[Illustration: FIGURE X. EXAMPLES OF AUGMENTATION AND DIMINUTION.]
becomes by augmentation,
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