Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/504

488 upon a career which lasts unchecked for thirtysix bars, embracing a long crescendo. The climax being reached, Beethoven, in a manner very characteristic of him, drops quickly from fortissimo to piano, in order to make another start in climbing to another fortissimo. But by way of guarding against the monotony of beginning again at once with the same materials, he introduces a short passage of more broken character with quicker changes of harmony, in which there is a witty bit of by-play founded on the latter part of the figure just before predominant (Ex. 5), and pointed allusions to the first subject.

Then the rhythmic figure (b) again asserts itself, and resumes its course for another thirty-six bars, matching the first thirty-six in distribution, but starting from another point in the scale, and making the one vital change of the harmony in the passage down a third instead of up a third; and the whole is followed by the same broken passage as before, but transposed. The reference to the subject with which this concludes is carried a step further to the figures (d) and (e), which from that time are continually used, in balanced groups of passages mounting thirds each time, till the end of the working-out, and always plainly. The following quotation will serve to illustrate the manner in which this part of the subject is worked, persisting through modulations, and even somewhat changing its character, without losing its identity (Ex. 6).

This constant use of the first subject through the whole of the working-out is a little uncommon, but it is made specially effective in this instance by the difference of character which subsists between the two phrases of the subject. In connection with this is to be noticed the nicety of management by which Beethoven avoids making the figure he had used at the latter part of the working-out come too soon and too obviously in the recapitulation. He not only interpolates a fresh passage on the Dominant between one phrase of the subject and another, but when the melody (d) (e) comes in again it is hidden away under an ornamental variation, so that its prominence is reduced to a minimum.

The harmonic structure of this working-out is as simple as the distribution of subject matter. Everything from beginning to end is reducible to balancing groups of passages of different lengths. To begin with, a passage of eight bars is divided into groups of four bars, representing C as tonic and dominant alternately, and this is directly answered by a similar set of eight bars divided also into fours and treating the root F in similar manner. This in its turn is followed by a long passage of forty bars, in which there is only one change of harmony. The first twelve bars are on B♭, and the next twenty-eight on D, and this in its turn is followed by a short passage of six bars, in which the harmony changes more quickly; making altogether forty-six bars of very definite design; and this is instantly followed by another forty-six bars starting from G, of exactly the same design saving the one very artistic change before alluded to namely, that the one change of harmony in the long passage devoted to the rhythmic figure (d) is down a third instead of up. These ninety-two bars are therefore exactly divisible into two groups of forty-six, which match exactly; and the remainder of the working-out (thirty-six bars) is made of a series of melodic sequences, rising thirds each time, with a short passage consisting of closer repetitions of concise figures to prepare the re-entry of the first subject after the principal key has been reached.

The exactness of these balancing portions will be best appreciated by a condensed scheme of the central ninety-two bars, which form the most conspicuous feature of this working-out. In the following example the second line represents the passage which follows immediately after that represented by the first.

Ex. 7.

A point of great interest in connection with working-out is the device of transforming figures and subjects by modification of intervals or rhythms, in such a way that they either take a new interest without losing their identity (as happens in the case of some of the figures used in