I was going to write and ask what was T's take on the music of Beethoven. I sort of found
the answer in your "people" section,
(which is excellent by the way). I say, "sort of", because T's incessant
and annoying ambivalence about just about everything once again confounds
me.
In the one breath he says of B's 8th that it is "an unsurpassable
stroke of genius." Then T says he shall not us him as a model. If nothing
else, T is a model of a many with feet on both sides of the street!!
I would like to here from others more learned on the subject: what was
T's definitive take on Beethoven
or are we never to ever know. No wonder we need such an excellent site as
yours to try and fathom such an illusive mind.
Thank you for your excellent site and attempting to answer questions
not as "intellectually capturing as others."
George Boyd
P.S.: Note that a major difference between Tchaikovsky and Beethoven is the latter:
ambivalent he was not!
Hello, Mr Boyd
---Titles---
Motif, in the introduction("la^ti^do-_ti---ti^do^re-_do---") and of
main theme in the first movement of T's Sixth Symphony "Symphonie
Pathetique", quotes the tune in the introduction of the first movement on
which Beethoven by himself titled in French, not Russian, "La Grande
Sonate Pathetique"("la----------la^ti--^dodo-------_ti-------").
---Motifs---
- the second movement of Beethoven's Third Symphony; funebre
- "mi-------_re_do---_ti_la---^do-------_ti---"
- the fourth movement of T's Fourth Symphony; "In the Field Stood a
Birch Tree"
- "mimimimi_re-_dodo_ti-_la---"
- the fourth movement of T's Sixth Symphony; lamentoso
- "mi---_re-_do-_ti--_la^do-_ti-------"
- ("Birch" means sticks used for punishment.)
---Keys of first subject in Sonatas---
- Beethoven's Coriolan Overture;
- Exposition: c minor
- Recapitulation: f minor
- T's Fourth Symphony, the first movement;
- Exposition: f minor
- Recapitulation: d minor
- Usually Keys of first subject in Sonatas are same in both exposition
and recapitulation. However these are different keys and in
recapitulations first subjects are very shortened.
---Chords in the Beginnings of Symphonies---
- Beethoven's Sixth Symphony;
- f-c
- Beethoven's Nineth Symphony;
- a-e
- T's Sixth Symphony;
- e-h
- They are "Empty Fifth".
Regards,
Kamomeno Iwao
Tchaikovsky admired Beethoven but did not love him....that love was
reserved for Mozart....and admiration for lesser lights such as Glinka,
Bizet and even Lalo....he thought of Beethoven as the Jehovah of music
while he thought of Mozart as the more approachable Jesus...doubtless
Mozart's superb melodic invention was more in keeping with his own gifts
as a melodist rather than a master of sonata form whose supreme exemplar
was Beethoven....as for the main theme of the first movement of the
Pathetique being influenced by Beethoven's Sonata by the same name, that
also has been questioned as a coincidence.....so his tastes were pretty
consistent...he may have admired Beethoven but he knew that following in
his footsteps was beyond his capabilities....his florid melodic invention
had as many models in Italian Bel Canto as elsewhere...in this he was far
from Beethoven's example...his tastes in music remained pretty
constant...he admired the contemporary French composers but felt the
Germans of his era such as Brahms were played out...on the other hand he
didn't have a high opinion of the "Russian Five" outside of Rimsky
Korsakoff...
I hope this helps answer your question Mr Boyd...
Albert Gasparo
Tchaikovsky Research : Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
When Tchaikovsky entered the St Petersburg Conservatory in his early
twenties he had a very poor knowledge of the great classics of the
repertory....in time step by step his knowledge and appreciation
increased....in an age that had no phonograph, radio or tv and when
concerts were few and far between one turned to the piano transcriptions
of the time as the only outlet to acquaint oneself with the masterworks of
orchestra etc......and of course that had its own limitations.....in the
1920's and 30's the advancements in recorded sound made possible the
recordings of some of the more popular of the masterworks of music...but
it was only with the advent of the long playing record in 1949 that we
were deluged for the first time with exhaustive renderings of the great
and not so great of all eras of music....to the point were the public
became sated with this embarrassment of riches....and so due to the
unavailability of the advantages of our age Tchaikovsky had to endure the
slow torturous route of gradually acquainting himself with the
basics....it was only natural that he would change his mind as he became
more acquainted with each work...the last string quartets of Beethoven
which are now considered the acme of his attainments were thought by some
to be the works of a mad man....and we will always have our favorites of
any composer....that does not mean ambivalence....I for one prefer
Beethoven's String Quartets and Piano Sonatas to his Symphonies....his
opera Fidelio for example to me seems dry and I greatly prefer the
Overtures to that opera....so there is nothing ambivalent about it...I
simply prefer some works over others....as I do just about all other
composers....also ones tastes can change over time....what one time seemed
novel and fresh now seems mundane with repeated hearings....one does grow
and change as the years go by...
The Tchaikovsky Research offering above gives a detailed account of the
composers changing viewpoints in time on the subject of Beethoven....
Albert Gasparo