A COMPANION TO BEETHOVEN’S PIANOFORTE SONATAS (Bar-to-bar Analysis) DONALD FRANCIS TOVEY Published by THE ASSOCIATED BOARD OF THE ROYAL SCHOOLS OF MUSIC 14 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3JGCOPYRIGHT 1931 by THE ASSOCIATED BOARD of the R.A.M. and the R.C.M.PREFACE Tue methodical analysis of musical masterpieces is an exercise that concerns both players and composers. First let us consider the player. Players should understand what they play. In the case of conductors, who play upon the whole orchestra, this is never disputed ; nor is much doubt raised in regard to chamber-music. The solo player and his critics are often more sceptical as to the good effects of the analytical insight upon performance. But current ideas on this subject seem confused. It is usually supposed that an “‘ analytical ” performance will chop the music up into small sections with gaping joints. Anyone who tries to follow the contents of the present volume will soon discover that the only possible bad effect that an analytical view could have on the performance of Beethoven would be to hasten its tempo and to make it pour out the music in one breathless stream. Almost the first impression that a correct analysis will give is that of “* AB closing into CD closing into EFG closing into... XYZ.” It is not clear what is commonly meant by “ analytical playing ”’; but the expression is probably inspired by the kind of playing that emphasizes accidental details. Such is the playing that in the G minor episode of the first movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto turns the solo part into an adagio, through which the horns cannot make any recognizable sense of the main rhythmic figure. Such is the playing that in the first movement of the Sonata Appassionata puts hard accents on the quintoles of bars 81-90 and so chops into 2-bar snippets a sequence which is divided between two parts ranging over 5 octaves with 8-bar limbs. Such is the playing that brings out the subject of a fugue as if on trumpets and trombones, while displaying a crass ignorance of all counter-subjects and counterpoints. In all these cases the effect of a correct analysis can only be to inculcate a broader view ; and if genuinely analytical performance can have a fault, that fault can only be a tendency to present the music with too little care for euphony and too much of the technical per- functoriness that composers are apt to show in their own playing. iii