♫ So, I think it’s definitely time to get to the music! You’ve very often heard me say “here is the exposition of the first movement”: well, that’s not going to happen today, because neither the first movement nor any other movement of op. 27 no. 1 is a sonata form, and therefore, there are no expositions to be played! The dreamy, pianissimo, andante opening immediately establishes that this will not be a sonata allegro, or anything adjacent to one. ♫ I mentioned that Beethoven is not afraid to use material that is on the simplistic side in this piece, and beautiful as it is, I feel that this opening exemplifies that. Consider it, element by element. Rhythmically, six of the eight bars in this phrase are identical – short, short, long. ♫ Harmonically, it is composed almost entirely of two chords: I and V, I and V. ♫ And melodically, it has a very sing-song quality. For the first four bars, each hand moves up and then down with comforting predictability, like a seesaw, or a nursery rhyme. ♫ ♫ The second half of the theme is slightly different: rather than rise and fall, it rises and rises, with a crescendo to boot, thus conveying a bit more determination. ♫ But even with that extra bit of intensity, it remains highly stable, both harmonically and rhythmically, and therefore the whole thing conveys a real sense of contentment. The next phrase, while it differs from the opening in some ways, is another essay in contentment. Whereas the first 8 bars were a dialogue between the two hands playing music of different rhythmic profiles, this is a vocal solo over a steady, continuous eighth note accompaniment. ♫ Yet again, harmonically we go no further than tonic and dominant! The piece has been going on for a good while by now – it may have only been 12 bars, but every phrase is repeated, and the whole thing is in this very leisurely tempo – and in all that time, we have barely ventured beyond the two most fundamental chords. The point is to establish that the E flat major is extremely stable – a point which Beethoven stretches almost to the verge of monotony… …that all changes abruptly with the next phrase. ♫ So, without warning, or modulation, we move into far-away C Major. ♫ Now, I don’t want to overstate this; this shift is a move to a distant but not all that distant key – from three flats to no flats. But the extreme, atypical, really, stability of all the music we’ve heard up to this point makes this sudden visitation of C Major sound positively dream-like. The effect is enhanced by the rhythm – in the previous phrase, eighth notes were a constant presence. So when they go away, at the exact moment that we move away from our good old E flat major, it feels like a moment of stasis. ♫ This dream state proves very short lived, however: with one short phrase, we’re back in E flat major, ♫ and once we get there, the theme, and with it the absolute harmonic stability, return. ♫ Not only does the theme return, we get the full thing again, once again with all the repeats, even though they are lightly embellished this time. ♫ These embellishments do nothing to alter either the harmonic scheme or the entirely peaceful character of the music, though. All in, this opening section of the piece takes about three minutes to play, which is actually quite long, if you consider that there has been exactly one harmonic event of any account in it, and if you think of how otherwise monochromatic this opening has been. I want to be clear: that is not a criticism of the piece! The monochromaticism is intentional, and it makes its desired effect: one of quiet, uncomplicated contentment.
