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Scan 48
The Violin Music Of Beethoven, 1902
2 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1of deepest peace and content. We have here one of the most beautiful melodies of the great master. And how simple its construction! As in many other cases in his Andantes and Adagios, the composer just moves up and down the scale with only here and there a leap. Why do certain themes such as this entrance musical listeners of all nationalities, whilst those written by lesser men (though equally correct and admirable from a purely constructive point of view), frequently produce utter weariness and impatience in us? No formulas, or the utmost display of mere cleverness enable us to write an immortal work, yet the reasons why we are affected in the one case so profoundly, and in the other can barely stifle a yawn, perpetually baffle the investigator. The variations are four in number. In the first the violin has nothing to do except give, as daintily as may be, some repeated notes in semiquavers above the triplet figure maintained throughout the piano accompaniment. In the second variation the piano has the melody in broken chords, whilst the violin has a sort of commentary upon and above it, in a thoroughly characteristic violin figure in demisemiquavers with legato and staccato bowing, mixed, in each group of four notes. In the third, in F minor, we are taken farther afield from our original theme, which appears in more obvious fashion in the more extended final variation decked out with many trills and florid figuration. The final presto is a worthy crown to the whole work. Compared with many a recent work, the part writing of this presto looks thin on paper, but though the notes are few and octaves and full-sounding chords made but little use of, the means are ample, and the effect brilliant when dashed off with the necessary fire and energy. The Russian novelist, Count Tolstoi, wrote a novel which borrows its title from this sonata. Very curious is the attitude of the novelist, or the "narrator" towards music generally:—"A terrible thing, this sonata" (says Pozdnisheff), "above all, the opening Presto! and music is a terrible thing generally. What is it? Why does it do what it does? Music makes
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