Beethoven: Septet in E flat, Op. 20, movement I

Background Information:

• Beethoven spent most of his life in Vienna, studied for a time with Haydn. 
• Known initially as predominantly a virtuoso pianist. 
• Eventually dedicated himself to composition (especially because of his increasing deafness).
• By the time of its performance, he was aware of hearing problems, although it was only 20 years later that he reached the point where normal conversation became impossible.
• Main contributions to music are symphonies and piano sonatas, though his chamber music is outstanding and his string quartets are greatly admired. 

Performance Circumstances:

• Septet was written in 1799.
• First performanced very successfully in Vienna, a year after its composition. 
• The septet grouping was/is rare, and this is one of the few important examples by any composer. 
• No standard instrumentation for this grouping. 

• Keyboard-less chamber music (no more harpsichord). 
• Strings were the basis for all ensemble instrumental music.
• Use of a clarinet, which was hardly used before Classical era, became an important wind instrument. 
• Most movements were written in Sonata form. 
• Big dynamic contrasts. 
• Melody dominated homophony texture was popular.

However:

• There is unusually no second violin part. 
• The coda is longer than most composers would have written. 
• A septet was an unusual grouping. 
• Beethoven varies the way the melody dominated homophony texture is applied in the piece (see texture). 

• Septet was an unusual grouping. 
• There are 4 strings, a clarinet, bassoon and horn. 
• Clarinet in B flat sounds a tone lower than written. 
• A double bass is also used. 
• The horn in E flat is a transposing instrument and sounds a major 6th lower than written. 
• The violin and viola use double stopping in the first bar. 
• The violin has a trill at the end of the slow introduction. 

• The slow introduction includes a number of Tutti homophonic chords, e.g. bar 1.
• The texture for much of the piece is standard melody dominated homophony, e.g. beginning of the exposition. 
• Sometimes the clarinet and bassoon play in octaves, e.g. bar 128, or in sixths, e.g. bar 140. 
• Texture at the end of the coda becomes more complex, with imitation between the lower strings and woodwind (bars 258-264). 
• Beethoven effectively varies the number of instruments playing at one time, e.g. the tutti section in bars 90-92 which contrast with the 3 part texture that precedes it. 

• The movement is the first of six in the style of a Serenade. 
• In sonata form with a slow introduction.
• Coda is much longer than most Classical composers would have written. 
• Introduction is in E flat major (tonic), but with modulations. 
• Exposition: 1st subject in tonic, 2nd subject in dominant. 
• Development moves through various related and unrelated keys. 
• Recapitulation: 1st subject in tonic, 2nd subject in tonic. 
• Coda: tonic. 
• The 2nd subject group includes three melodic ideas, as well as a codetta. 

• Standard functional tonality. 
• Modulations to related keys. 
• Development moves through various keys, including C minor (relative minor), A flat major (subdominant) and F minor (relative minor of subdominant). 
• All keys are generally established by perfect cadences. 

• Functional harmony with clear perfect cadences.
• Most of the piece uses diatonic root and first inversion chords, with occasional second inversion harmonies. 
• There are occasional chromatic chords, including a German augmented 6th.
• The introduction ends with a dominant 7th chords, which leads effectively into the tonic chord at the beginning of the introduction. 
• Harmonic rhythm (rate of change) is often relatively slow, for example the 4 bars of the tonic E flat major chord at the beginning of the Exposition, but speeds up towards cadences. 

• Melodies are mainly diatonic, e.g. first tune of 2nd subject, though they do often contain brief chromaticisms: -the second note of the 1st subject is a chromatic lower auxiliary note. - there is a chromatic scale in bar 26 of the 1st subject. 
• The 1st subject begins with a rising sequence based on a four note motif. 
• The staccato theme from the 2nd subject has a descending sequence. 
• Melodies are often repeated, so the ten bar 1st subject theme is immediately repeated with fuller instrumentation. 
• Some of the themes contain ornaments, such as the turn at the end of the 1st subject tune. 

• The slow introduction is rhythmically complex, including demi-semiquavers and sextuplets. 
• The accompaniment to the first subject theme has a distinctive continuous repeated quaver pattern in the viola, and then becomes a syncopated accompaniment in the violin and viola parts during the repeat, whilst the cello plays continuous crotchet movement, and the clarinet plays the tune. 
• Many themes begin with an anacrusis - the first theme has 3 upbeat quavers, the second subject's first theme has a single upbeat quaver.