Beethoven in C Minor-Discovering Musical Science:
One might expect Beethoven's Op 1 to be less of a masterwork than this, but we must remember that he wrote the three trios in Vienna, at age 25, when he had already been composing for over a decade. Haydn was still alive, and Mozart had died only four years earlier. Vienna was the world's musical capital, and standards were high, so Beethoven waited. Not only had his skills as a composer developed, but his prowess as a pianist. This is a virtuoso work.
The romantic notion of music that prevails today, would locate a powerful piece like this as flowing from some deep inner emotional experience. Look up "Beethoven and C Minor", and you will see quotes like: "stormy, dramatic, and heroic." While there is undoubtedly great passion in this work, and Beethoven had a profound sense of the heroic, such characterizations fall short of the music's actual importance. Just as scientists will work on a problem, and pass it down to the next generation, to take the discoveries further for the benefit of mankind, classical musicians do the same. Bach composed his Musical Offering in c minor, and both Mozart and Beethoven continued his investigations, in that same key.
The opening 5 notes of the Musical Offering, stated alone in a single voice, feature a minor third C-Eb, a fifth C to G, and the downward leap of a diminished 7th Ab to B. Several other polyphonic questions are posed by that, including the role of the inverted half-tone motions, G-Ab and C-B, as well as the implied tritone (or Lydian) interval that divides the octave in half, C to F#.
Mozart explores the interplay of those intervals in his piano sonata K. 457, and Fantasy K. 475, as does Beethoven in this work, and his piano sonatas Op 13, and Op 111. Mozart focuses on just the intervals involved, by opening his Fantasy with just one line of music, played in octaves. Compare Bach's C Eb G Ab B, with Mozart's C Eb F# G Ab C B.
Beethoven follows suit. Op 1 # 3, also opens with one line of music played in octaves by all three instruments, starting with C-Eb, and featuring the upward leaps of B-G, and C-Ab, after which the violin settles on a long resolution of F# to G. Throughout the first movement, that theme reappears in different tonalities.
The second movement is a Theme and Variations. The theme is long, and in 2 parts that are repeated. For those who have never delighted in following a Theme and Variations before, we give the timings in this video:
The Theme begins at 10:57 ,
Variation 1 at 12:18
Variation 2 at 13:33
Variation 3 (where you hear Beethoven's humor) at 14:52
Variation 4 (in a minor key) at 15:56
Variation 5 at 17:24
See if you can tell where the short Coda, the ending, starts.
The 4th movement shows Beethoven already mastering the motivfuhrung-the unity of the piece. It also starts with a unison statement in octaves, the last two notes of which are B-G, that same upward leap. With its prestissimo tempo, Beethoven, the newcomer pianist and composer, must have dazzled his audience.