The hypermetric theory.
Finally, Deborah Stein’s work brings forth a deeper understanding of the placing of a strong beat in a musical phrase, of what informs a cadence or a new phrase. Her work Poetry Into Song: Performance and Analysis of Lieder (Stein 1993) discovers such rhythmic and agogic ambiguity in word settings and observes the richness of a relationship between elements of music that is not entirely ‘causal’, but rather informed by itself, by the consistency, consistencies, and the direction of discrete musical material. The flux of time, being perceived and written, permeating through a work, provides a construction in music which is to her fleeting, expressed by length rather than by the ‘affirmation’ of a theme, as even a theme develops through time. Said theme, depending on how it is written, articulated, can, thanks to the performer, be either leading to a secondary idea or closing off its own entity. This hypermetric ambiguity and richness has been explored by William Rothstein, in Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music (Rothstein 1989), even though this preoccupation has been on the mind of music theorists since the 17th century (as is explained here: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/music/research/projects/hypermeter-and-phrase-structure-in-eighteenth-century-music.page).
Linking Stein’s with van Oort’s research, we can also describe and uncover the ambiguity given by a combination of musical signs, and their eventual influence upon each other according to where they are inscribed along the structure of a work, and a phrase. Our conclusion will help include Kitchen’s dynamic scheme on the metaphorical operation table that is musical analysis.
The tools for our research will be to blend these sources with manuscript study as to shed light on some ambiguities of the text.
(Such precise notation can only proof of the extreme volition of the composer to transmit a message through form : instead of, say, 50 ‘piano’ dynamics in a sonata, we have 17 of ‘p’, 6 of ‘p’, 9 of ‘pp’ and so on. This creates larger ‘detail’, focus inside a work. This goes rather against a common conception of Beethoven interpretation that there are piano and forte dynamics, and little in between, same goes for piano and pianissimo. This discovery is unvaluable to observe Beethoven’s own understanding of the structure of his works. It is also true that, as Kitchen says, Beethoven comes back to manuscripts of his ancient works, to add or correct a few of these dynamics : therefore he already is an interpret.
N.B. The fact that manuscript dynamic markings do not match whether we, for example, look at the parts and full score of a string quartet, may be due to several reasons : the copyist having a different handwriting than Beethoven, bad reading of the latter’s handwriting, the unawareness on the copyist’s part of these dynamic shadings, or changes of mind in Beethoven’s creative process
On another aside, this idea of dynamics has been hinted at in its importance by – according to my observations – Romain Rolland, who in his « de l’Héroïque à l’Appassionata » says the following : je voudrais que tous les musiciens, qui cherchent à pénétrer l’art de Beethoven, eussent sous les yeux, comme moi, telle partition manuscrite de Leonore, corrigée de sa main. Ils liraient, sur une seule page, entre les portées, sept fois, récrit au crayon :
Sempre più piano ppmo
Et encore au-dessus – et encore au-dessous de la page – d’une grosse écriture appuyée, la même injonction « sempre più piano ppmo »
(Rolland 1950: 427)
Nicholas Kitchen's dynamic discovery and theory.
Kitchen’s transcript deals with a new category of thought in Beethoven’s thinking, that of intensity variations within the dynamic spectrum of the classical era. It is this article which sparked interest in me in the first place concerning interpretation in the classical era. Kitchen uncovered a theoretical dynamic system more and more used in manuscripts of the classical era, up until the late works of Beethoven. For example, copies of Bach’s works made in the classical era contain such unique signs. Haydn uses them in a greater deal, even Mozart in a few sources, while Beethoven embraced it, in a way of understanding and controlling the formal space of a work.
Understanding Classical and Early Romantic Dynamics, by Bart van Oort (Piano Bulletin, 2016 2d issue)
Van Oort’s article is of deep interest in that it presents us with a new way of looking at elements of the score which might have been overlooked by the performer and by editors. He brings up the organic quality of Beethoven’s composition, rather than the block-like ideal we have in mind. His main thesis is that – between others - there is a lesser deal to be made of apparent subito dynamics, and places stronger value in the different types of slurring used in the classical era as well as the facture of the instruments : should the emphasis of a slur be on its beginning, or on its middle part (where the curved line is highest) ? He also discusses much of the ambiguity between meter and phrasing, as well as phrase-shape, pointing out a dialectical relationship between the three that is the ‘room’ within which the performer plays. Van Oort cleverly indicates that there are contrasts other than dynamics – two harmonies might be functionnally linked, while an apparent subito dynamic appears : which, in this case, is prevalent, the dynamic or the ‘unsurprising’ harmony ? As all things interpretation go, there is no definite answer – but there are directions that can be given in a text to help us. For example, where in the form (early ? in the development ?) does this situation appear ? This brings up a philosophical question we will be referring to later.
The MANUSCRIPTS and SCORES we have used for this research are :
For the violin concerto :
Mus.Hs.17538 the 1806 manuscript held in Vienna.
MS 47851 the ‘Meyerstein’ copy held in London (‘before 1808’)
The Bärenreiter Edition of the violin part (ed. Jonathan Del Mar) BA 9019a
The ‘Supplemente zur Gesamtausgabe’ vol. X band 2 of Beethoven’s works, edited by Willy Hess in 1969 with Breitkopf & Härtel : transcript of the 1806 manuscript.
For the violin sonata op.47 :
Beethoven, Ludwig Van, Ferdinand Ries, Wenzel Schlemmer, N. Simrock, and G. Henle Verlag. Sonatas, violin, piano no. 9, op. 47, A major. XX, 1803. , Monographic, 1802. (only full manuscript of the work)
The partial first autograph of 1802 of the exposition of the first movement (piano part) Beethoven-Haus Bonn, NE 86
The Henle edition from 1978
