DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (August 19, 2020)
We just heard a setting of Goethe’s poem by Beethoven that does not seem to fit the cookie-cutter. Let's now listen to a setting of the same poem by Franz Schubert.
Hum, that does not fit our predetermined cookie-cutter definition either. So what is going on? Despite how different these two settings were, there are surprising, even disturbing similarities.
1. Both versions introduce a new key, and triplets on the beginning of the third line: "Ein sanfter Wind".
2. Both versions end the fourth line, " Kennst du es Wohl" on a question mark, i.e. a harmony associated with the dominant of the new key on which "Dahin" will begin.
3. More importantly, both versions draw out the fourth line, "Kennst du es Wohl." Edgar Allen Poe insists on the ancient idea, laid out by St. Augustine and others that: when, in a poem determined by iambic pentameter, you suddenly encounter a shorter line, the line has to last as long! " Kennst du es Wohl" is only two iambs. It must be drawn out as long as a line of five iambs. Beethoven and Schubert both know that! Well-trained Shakespearian actors know that if Shakespeare's iambic pentameter is cut off, the missing time must be filled in by action. An equality of TIME is the issue!
4. Both versions changed key, tempo, and time signature (to compound duple) at "Dahin, dahin".
Did Schubert know Beethoven's setting? Was he merely following it? We believe that both men were following the musical score that is embedded in a good poem.
Where does this notion of a poetic foot come from? The Chorus in a Greek drama danced across the stage and sang poetry. The very term “choreography”, comes from the Greek verb "To dance." The chorus members had to set their left feet down at the same time! The concept of a "foot" allowed them to do that!
More to come in Part 3