The Importance of Beginnings in Beethoven's Fourth Fortepiano Concerto (1996)

I The Opening Chord as Motive Several years ago I had a conversation with a colleague at college where I teach in which we discussed importance of beginnings of works of literature and music. Aristotle's admonition, the beginning is more than half, was a guide to us as we explored our topic. My colleague mentioned how he had discussed this issue in his courses in which students were reading Milton's Paradise Lost. They were required to memorize its famous opening lines in which Milton gives us theme or cause of his epic poem. The nature of music allows significance of beginnings to have even more weight than is available to literature. Furthermore, no composer was more obsessed with organic qualities which beginnings might provide than Beethoven. Many of Beethoven's works reveal in their openings much of what is to come. And we have evidence of Beethoven's focus on such compositional concerns, most famous example being third movement of Hammerklavier Sonata, where he added beginning measure's rising third (A to C-sharp) in order to make a connection with rising (and falling) third motive which begins previous two movements and dominates work. Beethoven's Fourth Fortepiano Concerto begins with what is generally acknowledged as one of his most poetic utterances (see Example 1). Anyone who listens attentively to this movement notices how motivic ideas extracted from these measures proliferate in remainder of movement. This is expected. I wish to draw reader's attention to less obvious connections between this music, including next twenty-three measures of orchestral tutti, and rest of work. Example 2 shows beginning of orchestra tutti which follows. The voicing of opening chord of piece is such that most informed listeners need to hear only this chord in order to identify work. The voicing of this chord with third in soprano also has compositional significance for Beethoven throughout work. The B major chord which begins tutti is a result of this voicing. It is this third, tone B, which Beethoven uses to produce B Major chord via a common-tone modulation. This is only one of several ways in which Beethoven gives significance to presence of note B in soprano of this opening chord. (The final chord of concerto returns us to this voicing.) It would not be so unusual for Beethoven to eventually modulate to a key a third away such as B Major; however, this B Major is startling in spite of its pianissimo dynamic marking. After all, this is no modulation at all; it comes out of nowhere, completely without harmonic preparation. And it is far too early to be leaving tonic. Of course, we do not actually leave tonic, as we reach a very convincing cadential return to G Major in mm. 13-14. But it is essential that we allow Beethoven his harmonic surprise; he wants us to think that he has indeed shifted his music abruptly into B Major. Not to hear music this way is to deny music one of its most important expressive devices. After having undermined G Major tonality briefly in mm. 6-7, we come upon yet another harmonic adventure which culminates in mm. 26-28. Through major persistent application of rhythmic displacement, Beethoven makes us hear G Major tonic chord in m. 27 as a chord which requires resolution! It is through rhythm alone, as not a single chromatic change is involved. Beethoven's mastery of rhythm has long been acknowledged, and here is one more illustration. (Notice voicing of tonic chord in m. 27.) The second subject theme, beginning in m. 119, also begins with a long chord (two beats) with third in soprano. I view this as both a new theme and one which seems to come out of opening theme. Notice that in its third measure ( see Example 3) rhythm is identical to third measure of opening theme, including even sforzando half-note chord on beat two! …