DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (August 28, 2020)
Beethoven's sketchbooks reveal that he completed a draft of 22 variations in 1819, He then set it aside to work on the Missa Solemnis. He only finished the work in 1823 as a set of 33 variations. His later additions show something of how a self-conscious genius transcends himself. He wished for some variations to function as a set, almost a miniature composition in itself. Variations 25-28 function like that. Of them, only variation 27 was present in 1819.
Here it is: https://youtu.be/4Hf5VP9XUzw
It moves very quickly, but the triplet figures in the right hand consist of a rising half-step followed by a third, for the most part. This is based on the first three notes of the left hand in motive "E", and carries it to extreme parody.
Variation 25 says a kind of farewell to the theme as a simple dance, using motive "B" in the right hand, and the little-used motive "D" for the left.
Here it is: https://youtu.be/vIZcR7of2zY
Variation 26 introduces the triplet figure of variation 27, but at a slower pace, and on a triad. So, it paves the way for what is to follow: https://youtu.be/zNRUFfDvUbs
Variation 28 isolates the upwards half-tone of "E", and combines it with its inversion from the right hand, a descending half-tone (all of this is in the charts in part 1), and pushes the idea to extreme parody.
Here it is. https://youtu.be/zl0QgFinZdE
Now please listen to all four in a row, and see if you can hear them as a unit transformation.