Bill Pirkle writes:

>I sense a lot of impulse, rather than overall design in Beethoven's music.
>As if he decided to fly into a rage at a point in a composition - like OK
>that's enough of this, it time for some excitement.  Maybe that is part of
>his meta-composing style.

I completely disagree.  I see much structure in Beethoven's music -- as if,
for example, he decided all along that he wanted to end up in C minor, and
he picks a specific way to do it.  In some pieces (the sonata in D major,
op.  28), the only reason that the recap in the first movement doesn't take
us back to the exposition is that Beethoven changes one note in the recap.
The movement was constructed that carefully that one note changed the
entire goal of the passage.

That is only one example, but I think that most of the pieces I've studied
by Beethoven have that kind of structure behind them.  Perhaps the most
impressive thing about Beethoven is that, on first glance, so many of his
works appear impulsive, but, on closer study, they are actually masterworks
of a careful mind.

Jeff Grossman
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