[music] Fittingly for music which is almost entirely devoid of harmonic resolutions, nearly every phrase in the opening movement of Opus 101 poses a question. The opening was a question. [music] Answered by another question. [music] And the third phrase is more uncertain still. [music] This uncertainty launches us into a long, wild search, which still provides no answers. [music] Now this last chord [music], is a 5 of 5, which is just a fancy way of saying that it is hovering around the dominant, E major. [music] We've already modulated to the dominant, and we still have NEVER heard the tonic of A major! If you want a reminder of how radical this is, go back and listen to one of the early period sonatas – any one of them will do the trick. Beginning on the tonic is “rule number 1,” and in Opus 101, Beethoven doesn’t just bend it, he ignores it entirely. Now that we are “in” the dominant, we are ready for the second theme which, like the first, is a question answered by another question. [music] You’ll notice that it features a short-short-short-long rhythm [music], just as we heard in the Appassionata [music] – the rhythm Beethoven loved so dearly. But this figure has a rather complex articulation: the three short notes are slurred, but underneath the big slur, he writes a smaller one for the first two notes, and then a dot for the third. [music] The effect of this is that despite the short-short-short-long rhythm, we hear, if only subliminally, the long, short-long of the opening. [music] Beethoven manages to have it both ways here, creating a contrast between the themes while simultaneously unifying them. So we’re in the second theme area, without having had a firm tonic or a firm dominant. At the end of the second theme area, virtually at the end of the exposition, we finally do land on 5. [music] It's the first harmonic landing of any kind in the piece – the first answer, after what must be dozens of questions, of entreaties. What’s so fantastic about this “answer,” though, is that given that it is our first arrival, and that it takes place on the dominant, not the tonic, it only adds to the ambiguity of the piece. It's a point of rest, but it isn’t home. At this critical juncture of the work, as we approach the end of the exposition and the beginning of the development, Beethoven adds rhythmic ambiguity to the ever-present harmonic aspect. The short-long, short-long rhythm remains, but the two notes are now tied together, meaning that the second is not articulated, and therefore is inaudible. [music] Throughout the movement, it is the long note which is on the beat [music], and that is still the case here, which means that the beats themselves are now missing. [music] This persists for long enough that we begin to wonder where the beat is. [music] The correction coming only there. It’s a subtle but powerful way in which Beethoven adds to our sense of dislocation, just as we embark on the development, which takes us in new harmonic directions. [music] All of this is strongly rooted in the opening theme, and therefore is, in a sense, traditional. But as we discussed, in the classic sonata movement, everything – our arrival to the dominant, any and all harmonic points of call in the development – everything is heard in relation to a firmly established tonic. We always know, if only subconsciously, how far away from that tonic we are. (In the case of the dominant, not so far; in the case of development adventures, perhaps much further.) But here, given that our sense of tonic has been compromised from the get-go, we experience every subsequent event differently, as well. This is why musical structure is so critical, above all in the sonata, above all in Beethoven: because our emotional experience of every event in the music is so deeply connected to what has already happened in the music. It probably will not come as a surprise that the recapitulation, the moment of return, is obscured. This is, in fact, an inevitability: the opening of the piece wasn’t harmonically stable, so coming back to it is not going to feel fully like an arrival. But Beethoven obscures the precise moment of return further, because when it comes, it is simply a repetition of the phrase that has just been played, only first in minor. [music] It really does sneak up on us. And while the work’s opening phrase is repeated nearly verbatim, the next several are passed over. None of this [music], none of that reappears. Instead, we move straight into this. [music] This elision gives the music a new urgency – a “quickening,” as Martha Graham might have said. This is an extremely compact, economical sonata movement to begin with, but at this point, we feel Beethoven really putting the screws in. After that elision, the remainder of the short recapitulation proceeds as expected – to the extent that anything in this movement can be described as “as expected.” The second theme, which hovered around the dominant initially [music], now hovers around the tonic [music]. And that eventual arrival – again on V in the exposition [music] – is now, finally, on I, A major. [music] The recapitulation is nearly concluded, the body of the movement is in its final seconds, and only now do we hit home. And this arrival, given that it’s been withheld from us for minutes, is very brief, almost matter-or-fact. This [music], is not sufficient to provide resolution for a whole movement’s worth of music. And while the A major chord is then repeated several times, it doesn't put a stop to the questioning that has been the central feature of the whole movement. In fact, the most troubling question is yet to come: [music]. We’re already in the coda, which means that the main business of the movement should have been worked through already, and instead we get the most dramatic outburst in the piece so far. Beethoven seems to be sending a message that despite the resolution that we’ve finally had, the basic nature of the movement remains unchanged – ambiguous, questioning, and with a quiet but constant underlying vulnerability. Coming out of that dramatic diminished chord, the movement then comes to its conclusion. [music] This deeply moving ending preserves the harmonic uncertainty. The final cadence is more drawn out and substantial than the previous one [music], but by introducing an appoggiatura [music], Beethoven again slightly compromises the arrival – it comes in one place in the left hand, and then in another place in the right [music]. It is a fully satisfying resolution, and yet by staggering it between the two hands, Beethoven remains faithful to the harmonic uncertainty, the harmonic fragility, which is at the movement’s core. This refusal to be firm, harmonically – not at the start, not at the finish – is by no means arbitrary: it's a brilliant example of harmonic language being used to enhance the character of the music – the character, in this case, once again, being vulnerability. Beethoven has again created a new structure in support of an emotional need.
