Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3, Op. 68
If you have already taken our mini-course “7 Days to Beethoven,” you will recognize this video. It shows up in Professor Carol’s discussion of musical rhetoric. Beethoven was a musical wordsmith, and the third movement of this Cello Sonata is just one of many works that could be used to illustrate that point.
Beethoven began his compositional career composing in the Classical style of Hadyn and Mozart. He even studied with Haydn shortly after he moved to Vienna as a young man. But Beethoven had a distinctive approach to how he constructed melodies and developed his musical ideas. He did not often write the drawn out and symmetrical melodies typical of Mozart, but worked with short statements—mere kernels of a melody that could be transformed and elaborated endlessly. Think of the famous 4-note opening of his Fifth Symphony.
As you listen to the beginning of the third movement of Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3, you may be thinking that it sure sounds melodious with drawn-out phrases. Indeed, this may be one of Beethoven’s best melodies. But Beethoven’s rhetoric is still different, as Professor Carol explains:
The movement opens with a slow introduction lasting around a minute and a half. In it, the cello and piano are engaged in a careful dialogue where one player puts forth an idea and the other answers. It’s as if they are finishing each other’s sentences.
Then, suddenly, the piece bursts with energy. The listener is propelled by a driving rhythm in the piano and an urgent melody in the cello. The phrases are short and impelling.
You can find many recordings of this work on YouTube and elsewhere. I waded through quite a few of them trying to find the one that was right for the Beethoven mini-course. (You might find it interesting to make some of your own comparisons and see which performances appeal to you most.) I settled on this one for many reasons, but primarily for the level of communication between the two players. In the rhetorical style of Beethoven, that dialogue is key.
