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Thematic Patterns in Sonatas of Beethoven
Book fine except for name inside front cover. Scuff in top and bottom left corners of front cover. (w)
204 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
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September 16, 2023
My used book find of the year has been a first edition of Reti’s book on Beethoven published in 1967. I think Faber would say it was just the standard professional quality book they would produce at the time but it is absolutely lovely. Tasteful blue covers (not the edition illustrated), nice paper and crucially, extremely well engraved and printed musical examples.
The book is essentially a (very) deep dive into two Beethoven sonatas, the Pathétique and Appassionata. It was unfinished at the time of his death but was very skilfully and unobtrusively edited by the brilliant Deryck Cooke. What makes it so compelling is the method of analysis that Reti uses (introduced in his more general and earlier book. ‘The Thematic Process in Music). For anyone who grew up with a theory of analysis still based on Tovey (still very common here in the UK) then there will be much that is initially confusing. My advice is simply to go with it, even if you think Reti is making no sense or even mistaken. There is for example an epiphanic moment in his analysis of the Pathétique where I was becoming more and more dubious as to the sense of what I was reading where Reti as it were draws back the curtains and the light just gushes in (see Section 2 of the analysis of the Third Allegro section (of the first movement) entitled a ‘A Huge Architectural Idea’).
I'd also just point out that it’s quite important to understand what Reti means by the ’thematic pitch’ of a section. It’s not, it turns out a reference to tonality as we would normally understand it in analytical terms. Again, I was becoming quite confused until this dawned (thanks to Cooke's helpful footnotes).
Anyway you will probably know by now if this is something you are interested in or not. I would say that although one can of course follow the examples whilst reading if you know both works well (and my advice would be not to think about reading this unless you do) I found so much benefit from frequent recourse to the piano with book in hand.
In some ways this book is a testament to a slightly bygone age. Admittedly its original £4 price tag would be something like £65 - £70 today so still a specialist purchase, but there is no doubt in Cooke’s mind that it wasn’t just for music graduates. There is a poignant reference to an old BBC Radio Programme ‘Music questions’ where a listener was asking questions about Reti’s analysis. Imagine Radio 3 even contemplating such a programme today given its current deeply patronising assumptions about its audience. And I would like to think there would still be people out there who would ask questions about thematic analysis if so :)
So perhaps a bit niche, but I don’t think any other book has come close to giving my brain such wonderful exercise this year as this one.
The book is essentially a (very) deep dive into two Beethoven sonatas, the Pathétique and Appassionata. It was unfinished at the time of his death but was very skilfully and unobtrusively edited by the brilliant Deryck Cooke. What makes it so compelling is the method of analysis that Reti uses (introduced in his more general and earlier book. ‘The Thematic Process in Music). For anyone who grew up with a theory of analysis still based on Tovey (still very common here in the UK) then there will be much that is initially confusing. My advice is simply to go with it, even if you think Reti is making no sense or even mistaken. There is for example an epiphanic moment in his analysis of the Pathétique where I was becoming more and more dubious as to the sense of what I was reading where Reti as it were draws back the curtains and the light just gushes in (see Section 2 of the analysis of the Third Allegro section (of the first movement) entitled a ‘A Huge Architectural Idea’).
I'd also just point out that it’s quite important to understand what Reti means by the ’thematic pitch’ of a section. It’s not, it turns out a reference to tonality as we would normally understand it in analytical terms. Again, I was becoming quite confused until this dawned (thanks to Cooke's helpful footnotes).
Anyway you will probably know by now if this is something you are interested in or not. I would say that although one can of course follow the examples whilst reading if you know both works well (and my advice would be not to think about reading this unless you do) I found so much benefit from frequent recourse to the piano with book in hand.
In some ways this book is a testament to a slightly bygone age. Admittedly its original £4 price tag would be something like £65 - £70 today so still a specialist purchase, but there is no doubt in Cooke’s mind that it wasn’t just for music graduates. There is a poignant reference to an old BBC Radio Programme ‘Music questions’ where a listener was asking questions about Reti’s analysis. Imagine Radio 3 even contemplating such a programme today given its current deeply patronising assumptions about its audience. And I would like to think there would still be people out there who would ask questions about thematic analysis if so :)
So perhaps a bit niche, but I don’t think any other book has come close to giving my brain such wonderful exercise this year as this one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review