Talking about Sonata-Allegro Form . . .

A few weeks ago I wrote about First Movement Form, or how classical symphony first movements were traditionally constructed. The example I used was Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Mozart's serenade for strings in G, actually not a symphony at all. Learning first movement form decades ago at the feet of Thomas Schippers, and the Book of the Month Club and their Musical Appreciation series of vinyl records, one of the earliest symphonies I learned to analyze was Beethoven's famous 5th symphony in c minor. I tried, in my article to explain how two themes are presented, the first theme regarded as the 'masculine' theme, the second theme regarded as the 'feminine' one, after which there is a Development section, after which came the Recapitulation, where both themes are re-stated. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony opens with the famous four note theme. After this is formally presented with a certain amount of repetition and extension and other rhetoric, there comes the second theme, in the key of E Flat major, played by a Horn. Brass instruments at that time, you may have heard, were not chromatic, except for trombones (and slide trumpets, which were not commonly used in concert music). The theme was written to be playable on the horn in E Flat. When a piece is written in a minor key, such as c minor, the second theme is most often in the major key that has most of the same notes, called the Relative major. The Relative Major for C minor is E Flat. If you listen to the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth, and listen carefully to the two big chords just before the Horn theme, you will realize that there is rather an abrupt change there, in order to continue in the relative major. It is an unusual chord sequence, from the F sharp diminished seventh to the B Flat major seventh. Well, the movement goes on its determined way, and finally we come to the recapitulation. Now, of course, the two themes must both be played in C minor. Oops; the Horn can no longer play it, because an E Flat horn cannot play in C minor, or at least could not play it, in Beethoven's time. This was not an insurmountable problem; no doubt there were horns that could play in C, but Beethoven chose to do something creative: he gave the recapitulation of the second theme to the bassoon! Hearing the bassoon play the horn theme is eerily fascinating. It is clearly the same theme, but it has a sad dignity now in place of the jaunty challenge issued by the horn. However, in the late nineteenth century, and the early twentieth century, conductors made the horns play the recapitulation as well, in defiance of the written music. The reasoning was that Beethoven had written the music for the bassoon as a second best, since the horns could not play it. Modern horns, of course, are essentially chromatic, and can play the notes without turning a hair. So why not let them? Each of us must decide for ourselves whether it makes better sense to let the bassoon play the theme, or let the horns. It is hard nowadays to actually find a recording in which the horns play the recapitulation, since most people are on the side of the bassoon. I will try to find a clip with the horns, and post it here. [OK, mission accomplished.] Here is the second theme played in the Recapitulation by John Eliot Gardiner's Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique. This recent (1994) recording features the bassoon. There is some lead-in stuff to orient you. Note that the bassoon, though it has a distinctive voice, is not a very familiar voice: Gardiner, 1994 Here is the same spot, the second theme in the recapitulation, played by Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra in the 1950s (?). In this performance, it has been given to the horns (more than one, obviously, playing in unison), as I said, in contradiction to the music as written by Beethoven. Still, even without the drama of using a bassoon, the music is effective: Karajan, 195x Arch.