Part 14 (2/2)

No earnest, conscientious teacher should neglect to explain to those entrusted to him the essential nature of the laws which for centuries, by a kind of natural necessity, have developed themselves in the forms of instrumental music. They are so simple that their princ.i.p.al features may be made clear to the most childish comprehension, and every step in advance will bring with it a deeper insight. That Beethoven, in the closest relation to his great predecessors, submitted to these laws, makes his appearance doubly great: he did not come to destroy, but to fulfil the law.

O that our art, the most spiritual of all, were not bound by so many and such rigorous ties to matter! O that Beethoven's sonatas were within the reach of all educated minds, like the lyrics of our great poets! But not this alone does Nature deny to our art; she withholds from the greater number of those even who are striving as musicians and as pianists the full enjoyment of these lofty works, at least in their totality. They make demands upon the executants which are not easily met. Here and there we find the necessary talent. Were it but accompanied by the indispensable earnestness and diligence!

Beethoven's pianoforte music demands (apart from the consideration of the extraordinarily difficult works) sound and solid execution. The first conditions of this are also the rarest, viz., a powerful and yet gentle touch, with the greatest possible independence of finger.

Beethoven never writes difficulties merely to win laurels for those executants who shall overcome them, but neither is he deterred by any technical inconvenience, if it be necessary to give firm and clear expression to an idea. Thus we meet, in works reckoned amongst the easiest, with pa.s.sages which presuppose a pretty high degree of technical skill; and since a pure style properly demands that there shall be at least the _appearance_ of ease on the part of the performer,--with compositions of the intellectual depth of Beethoven's this is an indispensable qualification. Therefore it is not advisable to take or place the sonatas of our master in hands which are not educated for their reception. When that degree of progress has been attained which will insure the mastery of the technical difficulties, the enjoyment and advantage to be derived from their thorough study will be doubled, and the effort to grasp them intellectually unhindered.

The most essential figures which Beethoven employs are built upon the scale and the arpeggio. They belong, therefore, to that style which is specially designated the Clementi-Cramer school. The studies of these n.o.ble representatives of pure pianoforte playing will always be the best foundation for the performance of Beethoven's works, and the practice of them ought to accompany without intermission the study of the master.

Happily, the rich productions of Beethoven's imagination offer fruits for every epoch of life and of--pianoforte-playing. We can reward the diligence of the studious child by allowing him to play the two sonatinas published after the master's death, which sound to us rather as if they had been written _for_ than _by_ a beginner. But we should carefully guard against giving to immature young minds pieces which, though easy in a technical point of view (and this, after all, is sometimes only _apparent_), require a power of conception and of performance far beyond the demands made upon the fingers. Who, for example, with any experience in musical life, does not remember having heard the Sonata Pathetique played with a _navete_ of style which might prove the narrowness of the boundary line between the sublime and the ridiculous? And similar misconceptions are met with every day.

We give below a list of the sonatas in the order in which they ought to be studied, arranged with a view to the demands made upon the heart and mind, as well as upon the hand and finger of the performer. It is evident, however, that this cannot be done with mathematical precision, and that individual views and capability must, after all, decide; since _difficulty_ and _ease_ are but relative terms, and depend in each case upon other and pre-existing conditions. If, however, our attempt succeed so far as to render the selection easier to the student, and prevent his making any great mistakes, we shall not consider our trouble thrown away.

_May Beethoven speedily find a home in every house--in every heart!_

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 33: From an edition of the Sonatas published in Breslau.]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CLa.s.sIFICATION OF BEETHOVEN'S PIANOFORTE SONATAS.

1. Op. 49, No. 2, in G major.

2. Op. 49, No. 1, in G minor.

3. Op. 14, No. 2, in G major.

4. Op. 14, No. 1, in E major.

5. Op. 79, in G major.

6. Op. 2, No. 1, in F minor.

7. Op. 10, No. 1, in C minor.

8. Op. 10, No. 2, in F major.

9. Op. 10, No. 3, in D major.

10. Op. 13, in C minor (_Pathetique_).

11. Op. 22, in B flat major.

12. Op. 28, in D major (_Pastorale_).

13. Op. 2, No. 2, in A major.

14. Op. 2, No. 3, in C major.

15. Op. 78, in F sharp major.

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