Sunday, September 23, 2007

Beethoven String Quartet Op.54 No.2

I know that the first movement of a string quartet is supposed to be sonata form but I am having trouble making any sense of it. So I am going to throw out what I see and let you fillet me....

It starts out in Em with a small intro at the begining. Theme 1 starts in m.3 and lasts till m.33. There is a transition from the end of m.33 to m.35. Theme 2 begins in m.36 and ends in m37. There is a coda from m.58- the double bars.
This begins the exposition where I see him playing with some of the same rythmic and melodic lines from the exposition. The retransition begins in 135 with all of the trills.
The recap begins in m.145 in AM. It looks different from the one in the exposition and I can't figure out what exactly is going on untill i see the begining of theme 2 in m.73. The codetta goes from m199 to the double bars. From then on is the coda where it ends nicely in Em.

7 comments:

misterpianoman said...

Yes,... so i am verry tired with two table spoons of nightquil in my system. I was waiting for someone to post something so i can comment b4 i go to bed. ok....
i looked at it before i saw your posting. The way I saw the piece was a ROUNDED BINARY. i think mostly because of the repete signs. it starts and ends in E minor.
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I think i see what your talking about with the different themes. We"ll talk about it more in class... im falling asleep.

Jonathan Schorr said...

Remember when Dr, King says - it is in Sonata Form - it is in Sonata Form. :-)

You have the intro which is good - then the exposition looks good, the developement will most likely begin in the 2nd ending of the exposition, with the recap happening where the originally material occurs in the 2nd ending of the development.

No worries - you look good here.

SamanthaW said...

Everything looks good up to the recap. If you look at m.143 you will see that it starts the exact same way as the beginning...and then goes on to embellish the exposition

Anonymous said...

I am confused...as to where you actually have the Exposition beginning.

I agree with you about the retransition, but i think it begins 2 measures eariler than you stated and the Recap begins in m. 146.

We know it is in Sonata Form too cause Dr. King told us it was. :)

Randy Griggs said...

I am in with you on the intro. and themes. It is rounded binary from the double bars. Development occurs in 2nd ending going until original melody reappears. I think you have a good analagy. I would need more time to look at the piece and compare with your analysis before making comments. I was up til 11:00pm. last night waiting for postings.

janzie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
janzie said...

just because dr. king says it, doesn't make it biblical truth. it looks a lot like binary and these things are easily reinterpreted. even so, starting and ending in e minor could make it a number of forms. i think binary is arguable for this piece but it actually is in sonata form. so find better reasons for it to be sonata then "dr. king says so..."