Diabelli variations

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Theme of the variations - Diabelli's "German"
Recording of the topic

The Diabelli Variations op.120, completed in 1823, are Ludwig van Beethoven's last major piano work. For Gerhard Oppitz , the Diabelli Variations are among the great works in music history "which we are only now beginning to understand". For Hans von Bülow they are a “microcosm of Beethoven's genius, even a reflection of the whole world of sound”.

history

In 1819 the Viennese music publisher and composer Anton Diabelli asked all well-known Austrian composers to write variations on a theme he had given for his publication Vaterländischer Künstlerverein . Originally he had thought of a collection that would contain a variation from each composer. Ludwig van Beethoven, however, did not want to deliver a “cobbler”. As the last, long after Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt , he completed his contribution in 1823. Diabelli enthusiastically edited Beethoven's Variations separately and let the works of the other composers follow in a second part.

Dedicated to Antonie Brentano , the 33 changes on a waltz by Diabelli are Beethoven's last great piano creation. At that time he wrote the last three piano sonatas ( op. 109 , op. 110 and op. 111 ) and the Missa solemnis .

Alongside the Goldberg Variations , the Symphonic Etudes , the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel and Max Reger's Bach Variations , the Diabelli Variations are the largest and richest set of variations for piano. The lecture lasts 50 to 60 minutes. Unlike perhaps the Goldberg Variations, they are not “just” a condensation of all earlier music, but also an opening up of later music.

“Old and new stand side by side, rather: both are merged into a higher unit within the development architecture. The principle of the balancing opposition prevails everywhere: inexorable contrapuntal severity stands next to tender touching like in a nocturne (Var. 29), unleashed virtuosity next to lyrical points of calm; colored flatness alternates with sections in which rugged accents »comb the subject against the grain«. "

- Volker Scherliess

The Beethoven-Haus acquired the autograph for Opus 120 in 2009 and exhibited it until April 20, 2010. A digitized version has also been available on the company's website since January 2010.

theme

Diabelli's theme in C major and Vivace (!) Is a " German " , a predecessor of the Viennese waltz . As “simple” it may seem, with 8 × 2 × 2 bars it corresponds perfectly to the composition theory of the time . Beethoven's student Carl Czerny wrote:

"Subjects that have beautiful singing, little modulation, the same two parts and an understandable rhythm are particularly suitable for variations."

- Carl Czerny

In Diabelli's theme, the melody alternates between the right and left hand. The second eight bars are syncopated . Beethoven “transforms” everything, even Diabelli's accents and dynamic guidelines . "Red threads" are the seconds of the suggestion from the beginning and the subsequent fifth with the repeated quarters. The inner structure of the work into three times ten variations and a final part with three variations is “ear-catching”. This is also supported by the fact that Variations X and XX (and XXIX) are not repeated.

Variations

The 3 / 4 -stroke of the thread is already in the first variation to the striking counterproposal in 4 / 4 ( Alla Marcia maestoso ). It is followed by contrasts with piano and leggiermente (Var. II) and dolce (Var. III and IV) that indicate the immense breadth of the entire work. The var comes as light as it is energetic and still in 3 ⁄ 4 . V therefore ( Allegro vivace ). In its strict two-part voice, the Var. VI the suggestion of the subject on the trill . The tempo indication Allegro ma non troppo e serioso warns against “gambling away” something here. The stretching of the subject in the Var is touching delicacy. VIII ( Poco vivace, dolce e teneramente ). The Var is playing a mischievous game with the proposal. IX, the first in the darker C minor . The first third of the Variations comes to an end with a gorgeous Presto between pianissimo and fortissimo (Var. X). Scales in octaves and sixth chords , trills in the bass and Terzsprünge make the variation on a fine copy .

"Transformed" yourself, you are amazed in another world. In calm dolce the Var does. XI ( Allegretto ) suggested three-part triplets . In the next ( Un poco più moto ), fourths and thirds with the theme in the bass build up new tension. So it seems like the beginning of the Var. XIII to quote the Scherzo of the 9th Symphony (Beethoven) ; the hammered A minor chords are followed by calm quarter dabs. In C major, Vivace turns to the wonderful Grave e maestoso (Var. XIV) with heavy tonic and dominant chords in the bass and falling grinders in the upper parts. In 2 ⁄ 4 and semper pp , the Presto scherzando (Var. XV) is reminiscent of the Moments musicaux (Schubert) . Carefree joy in playing unfolds in the two middle Allegro variations (Var. XVI and XVII). After a gentle question-and-answer game from the Var. XVIII ( poco moderato, dolce ) and the canonical Presto (Var. XIX) closes the second third with the curtained bass variation in 3 ⁄ 2 ( 6 ⁄ 4 ).

Stormy ( Allegro con brio ) the last third begins with short trills at octave intervals across the entire keyboard (Var. XXI). The leporello quotation from Mozart's Don Giovanni “notte e giorno faticar” (Var. XXII), which is not inferior to the virtuoso Allegro assai (Var. XXIII), is as fast as it is enchanting . The singing of the three-part Fughetta (Var. XXIV) is a post-baroque miracle, a contemplative retreat before the first return of the "waltz" in 3 ⁄ 8 time . The right hand plays with the fifth and the tone repetitions of the first, the left leggiermente with the second half of the theme. The following two variations ( piacevole and Vivace ) remain in the same measure . Your confusion about seconds and fifths is "stopped" in the expansive chord and octave sequence of the massive Variation XXVIII, with sforzatos on each of the two quarters. Only silence can follow. In the mezza voce, the second minor variation ( Adagio ma non troppo ) shines like light from a distant star . With three quiet chord quarters on the left and again with grinders on the right, it goes by without repetition. The three-part fugato of Variation XXX ( Andante, semper cantabile ), which fluctuates between C minor and D flat major in the small grace second , remains cautious.

The largo, molto espressivo (Var. XXXI) exudes calm turned inward . In 9 ⁄ 8 this melancholy “fantasy” is reminiscent of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach . As a matter of course, these successive third C minor variations lead to the luminous parallel key in E flat major . The three-part double fugue (Var. XXXII) is the keystone of the vault, a homage to Bach , whom Beethoven adored. A rushing dominant seventh chord (shortened, without a keynote) wipes away all strictness of the joints. "Through one of the most ethereal and ... appallingly impressive passages ever written" ( Tovey ) find six bars of Poco adagio and ever quieter over the E flat major, the (apparently identical) excessive B major chord and the dominant substitute e -Moll (the parallel key of G major) to C major of the last variation. In the Tempo di Menuetto moderato (but not slow) it is the decoration of the keystone. She looks back with grace on the long journey of the transformed subject; very similar to the Arietta of op. 111, but it does not end piano , deep and closed, but forte , high and open with a third above - as if it could go on.

So Johann Baptist Cramer (who was valued by Beethoven) also applies the Diabelli Variations when he says about the character of the key of C major:

“A mixture of cheerful cheerfulness and gentle seriousness is the main characteristic of this key. Minuets and graceful sonatas are among other things appropriate to their properties. "

- Johann Baptist Cramer (1786)

literature

  • William Kinderman : The Diabelli Variations from 1819. The sketch findings for op. 120. A study of the compositional creative process , in: Zu Beethoven. Articles and documents 2 , ed. by Harry Goldschmidt , Berlin 1984, pp. 130-162.
  • William Kinderman: Beethoven's Diabelli Variations . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
  • Claus Raab : Strange stories and figures about a waltz: Ludwig van Beethoven's “Diabelli Variations” op. 120 and their connection to graphics and literature . Pfau, Saarbrücken 1999.
  • Facsimile edition of the autograph, 2 volumes. Bonn Beethoven-Haus and Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-88188-119-7 .

Web links

Commons : Diabelli Variations  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Volker Scherliess in the booklet accompanying the CD with Ugorski's Diabelli Variations (DG 435 615-2)
  2. ↑ Rising grinders play the basses at the beginning of the 2nd movement of the Eroica
  3. ^ Cantor Matthias Hoffmann-Borggrefe , Hamburg
  4. ↑ Key characteristics