Beethoven's 250th

I was just listening to a Radiolab podcast from this past May that concerns Beethoven's metronome markings. You can read the transcript here, if you like. The discussion concerning the speed at which Beethoven indicated his symphonies should be played (yawn) has been going on continuously for at least a century. My ambivalent feelings about Beethoven's metronome markings have to do with my belief that all composers hear music in their head too quickly. They want to make their way from the beginning of a phrase to the end of a phrase, and without the physical sensation of touch or friction, which is very difficult to imagine in a satisfying way. In the musical space in our inner ears there is nothing to prevent difficult combinations of pitches and rhythms to make their way clearly through even the most difficult topography. It just doesn't happen as easily in actual physical conditions.

I found a very interesting dissertation from 2016 by Marten A. Noorduin from the University of Manchester that discusses metronome markings in published editions of Beethoven's music (including his string quartets and piano music) that were added by his contemporaries Karl Holtz, Carl Czerny, and Ignaz Moscheles. I have only browsed through it, but I do intend to read it carefully (which is one reason I'm putting it here, a far easier place to find it than on my computer desktop).

What I did learn from it was that Beethoven didn't retroactively indicate metronome markings for his string quartets or any of his chamber music involving strings the way he did for his symphonies. I imagine it is because he knew that the tempo of a string quartet is always flexible, and he had the skill to write the music in such a way that the correct tempo would be inevitable. Four string players with the laws of physics in play will find the tempos that work best for them. Knowing these pieces rather intimately, I can't imagine any way that tempo indications could improve them. They are already masterpieces. All they require is to be played by thoughtful and skilled people, and the tempos take care of themselves. His symphonies, on the other hand, require a conductor. And that conductor may or may not be as thoughtful or as skilled as the people doing the playing.

My project during what was to be a year-long celebration of Beethoven's music before the pandemic made it impossible to play or attend concerts, was to learn the first violin parts of all the string quartets. I have played the viola parts of many of them, but not the violin parts. In order to do this I really had to improve my skills on the violin, particularly navigatigating the upper parts of the E string where the first violin lives a lot of the time. Acquiring the technical facility to play the Opus 18 Quartets took me several months, and learning to play the first violin parts well enough to play along with my favorite recordings (and the Colorado Quartet's recording is still my favorite) took me many more months. Now that I have the technique I need, the Opus 59, 74, and 95 quartets are within reach. Though I did try, I imagine that being able to play the late quartets with my favorite recordings with any sense of comfort and fluency will probably take another year.

What I have learned about Beethoven from this experience is that he really understood the violin. He understood everything that the violin could do, and he understood what kinds of gestures feel good on the violin. I enjoy playing his viola parts, but I enjoy playing his violin parts more. And from Beethoven I am learning what the violin is, and what it is capable of doing.

Once we are able to play chamber music again, I imagine that my Beethoven Quartet playing (which I really hope will be able to happen in non-performance situations) will be from the viola "chair." But that's fine with me. The private experience I am having with Beethoven's first violin parts is very special and very personal, and knowing the "territory" will help me to understand more about his quartets when I approach them again from the inside.

I still have to decide which quartets to play on December 16th!