{"id":628,"date":"2014-10-07T11:09:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T18:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/?page_id=628"},"modified":"2020-03-13T06:18:45","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T13:18:45","slug":"beethoven-ludwig-van-op-9-no-3-string-trio-in-c-minor","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/?page_id=628","title":{"rendered":"Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 9, No. 3, String Trio in C minor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The string trio is an unforgiving group to write for. Its power and dynamic range are limited\u00a0to that of only three instruments. Its \u00a0three-note textures\u00a0leave little room for doubling or for flexibility\u00a0of voice-leading. Moreover, the violin, viola, and cello are all fairly similar in their materials, purpose, and expressive range. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN<\/strong>, though,\u00a0seemed to have no trouble with any of this. Beethoven\u2019s concentrated style of writing was\u00a0well suited to working powerfully with\u00a0limited resources.<\/p>\n

From the first bars of the trio, there can be no doubt of its\u00a0author. Beethoven roars in as the author\u00a0with whom we are well familiar, introducing a simple, insistent 4-note pattern\u00a0over a falling harmonic-minor line (fig. A<\/span>, bars 1-2). This entrance requires answers (which\u00a0\"Beethoven_Op9_No3\"<\/a>come, at least partially, in bars 3-4). The second movement returns to the falling scale line, but releases it to fall further (in the cello), while the violin makes an offering of a four- note rise (fig. B)<\/span>. The third movement also carries this four-note rhythm, but concerns itself also very much with\u00a0the initial answer answer (fig. A<\/span>, bars 3-4), especially in the trio section (fig. C)<\/span>. The last movement seems to have solved something about this falling figure –\u00a0\u00a0something to do with allowing it to find\u00a0a cadence (fig. D)<\/span>.<\/p>\n

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Beyond a few images of basic patterns, the music is difficult to describe \u2013 there is little to add that would not seem terribly abstract. But in the end the piece doesn’t seem abstract – it is indeed astonishingly visceral for such lean writing. One gets a sense of just how strongly grounded Beethoven was as a composer even at opus number nine. When he would later write for orchestra and chorus and soloist and expand into pre-Wagnerian greatness, it was never without the absolute knowledge of how to do something comparably powerful\u00a0with only three stringed instruments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The string trio is an unforgiving group to write for. Its power and dynamic range are limited\u00a0to that of only three instruments. Its \u00a0three-note textures\u00a0leave little room for doubling or for flexibility\u00a0of voice-leading. Moreover, the violin, viola, and cello are all fairly similar in their materials, purpose, and expressive range. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, though,\u00a0seemed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t