J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

It is, in part, a question of authority: ‘Well, and who has forbidden them?’
asked Beethoven about a pair of parallel fifths in his string quartet op.18/4. The
hapless Ferdinand Ries replied: ‘Marburg [sic], Kirnberger, Fuchs, etc., etc., all the
theoreticians!’ ‘And so I allow them!’ was Beethoven’s answer. 27
Of course we permit greater latitude to a musician of demonstrated
achievement like Beethoven than to a student of little experience and doubtful
competence; but what if that student happens to be Beethoven himself? The excerpts
from his F minor Praeludium in Ex.5.2 are particularly difficult to evaluate in this
respect. Do their occasional peculiarities represent incompetence, or individuality
—‘just accident, or something characteristic?’, as C. H. H. Parry would say. 28 This is
why the dual dating of WoO 55 is such a teasing uncertainty. The piece was first
published in 1805; but, according to a note in an unknown hand, had been composed
‘à l’âge de 15 ans’ (1785 or 86). 29 It has been assumed that Beethoven would have
revised his Praeludium at this time for publication (as a whole the texture shows
exceptional skill for the earlier date); 30 but this is difficult to square with the total
absence of indications of tempo, dynamics, phrasing, and articulation. On no other
occasion did Beethoven send his music into the world in such a naked state. Was it,
like the early sonatas now known as op.49 (which also appeared in 1805), published
without Beethoven’s knowledge or consent? The question only matters because
(whether we should or not) we will naturally tend to permit more creative license to
the composer of the ‘Eroica’ than to the inexperienced composer of the
27 Beethoven: impressions by his contemporaries, ed. O. G. Sonneck (New York: Schirmer, 1926),
pp.49-50. It is worth noting that Ries was not criticising these fifths but pointing out how beautiful
they were. Cf J. Dubiel, ‘When you are Beethoven: kinds of rules in Schenker’s “Counterpoint”’,
Journal of Music Theory 34/2 (Fall 1990), 291-340.
28 R. Vaughan Williams and G. Holst, Heirs and rebels: letters written to each other and occasional
writings on music, ed. U. Vaughan Williams and I. Holst (London: Oxford University Press, 1959),
pp.95-96.
29 See M. Solomon, ‘Beethoven’s productivity at Bonn’, Music & Letters 53/2 (April 1972), 167.
Solomon has pointed out how, after the relatively fruitful years 1782-85, virtually nothing can be
attributed with certainty and only a little conjecturally (including this piece) to the second half of the
decade; and he raises the possibility—extraordinary as it seems to us—that Beethoven had actually
given up on the idea of being a composer at this time.
30 O. von Irmer, preface to Beethoven: Klavierstücke (Munich: Henle, 1975), p.6.
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