In F Major (1st movement) I enjoyed listening to this piece. All throughout the first movement, I constantly felt tension rising and relaxing (tension rising because of the repetitive melodies with crescendo and changing the melody key to a minor key and tension relaxing when it has descend or a key changes to a Major); I think this was Beethoven’s Intention to have the audience keep their attention on his music rather than have the audience come inattentive during the middle of the performance.
Also, in this movement, I noticed that there were many opening and closing phrases or sections-?like a book with many brief chapters. I know this because I noticed a very brief pause whenever a phrase ended and then right after there would be a section that sounds totally different or similar to the previous phrase. I have played many of Beethoven’s piano pieces and I have noticed that in all of his pieces, he chooses very simple notes (for this movement the notes he chose was F-G- F-E-F-C) of Its Major or minor key and utilize those several specific notes to create music.
He constantly changes keys of that same melody as if he is trying his very best to hear them. That was what I concluded on the reason why he repeated the same melody with the same rhythm-? as if he was pondering which will sound better; for example at or at 2:40-?2:46, at first the quartet plays the notes (F-G-F-E-F-C) but as If Beethoven were not satisfied or wondered If he have not chose the notes right, he writes (F-G-F-E-F-D) right after. This tells me that I believe Beethoven was trying to experiment with Is melody.
I also want to share that liked the parts (for example at 0:34 – 0:44) where the music builds tension by making a crescendo; soon after the tension relaxes by a quick decrescendo at the end of the phrase. Furthermore, I like the part at 4:19-?4:36 where the viola plays the melody line and violin also play the melody line right after and they keep on playing repeatedly as If they were having an agitated conversation until the violin plays the runs and the other Instruments Join soon after and all instruments crescendo together until the phrase ends.
String Quartet Pop. 18 No. 6 in a-flat Major (2nd movement) The second movement Is always the slow tempo piece. I felt very calm and I heard harmonize and the connecting lines (or the legato lines) are the highlights of this particular piece. The violin takes the main melody from the beginning of the piece, and at 0:23, the viola slowly and gradually takes over and repeats the main melody and ends at 0:43.
Furthermore, at 1:10, the violin plays the main melody again at a higher register but slightly more musical than how it was played in the beginning of the piece; this time the cello plays dotted note rhythms and the other violin and viola lays the long base lines with the violin to make it more interesting (ends TTL :30). Right after, there is a mood change and the tension grows when cello and violin plays the minor scale. However, as if Beethoven was not satisfied, they repeat the minor scale (viola) but it is played differently.
I thought this part was interesting at 2:57; thieving tricks the audience by pretending to finish a phrase but plays a different note to make the phrase hang in the air as if to make the audience hold their breath or feel agitated. At 2:57, the audience probably wanted to hear “E flat-C)-C,” but instead, Beethoven wrote “E flat-D-E” to create suspense in the air. After, the quartet continues to play the melodic line they were playing before the suspense.
At 3:53, the violin plays the chromatic scale to lead to the main melody (at 4:02) that was played in the beginning of the piece. After this part, everything else sound similar from the beginning part of the recording. At 6:40, the performers decrescendo, and surprises the audience with a submit forte or fortissimo. The piece ends cutely with two pizzicato notes. Piano Sonata in d, Pop. 31 No. 2 (2nd movement) This Piano Sonata by Beethoven has a nickname called “The Tempest” which by definition means a violent commotion or disturbance-?like a bad storm.
It does sound like that in the first movement. It does not, however, sound like a violent disturbance in the second movement. It is as if the “storm” in the first movement has settled and the sea has become quiet and is taking a break. The first chord that starts in the second movement shows calmness in the air-?like a sign of relief. In the beginning, the first few measures are the main melody theme that Beethoven will be using throughout this piece. The melody starts right after the first chord in the beginning (which is at 0:07).
Again, Beethoven repeats the main theme again right after at 0:48 but with a turn-?which is a sign that tells the performer to play the note that is under to play a note step up, come back to its note, go down, and then get back to the notes again. Furthermore about this repeated melody, there Nerve more tension; the sounds were much stressed and had more feeling of agitation between the notes. I think I felt agitation between the notes was because hat the left hand notes were dissonances. Going along, at 1:26, the left had starts to play octaves notes which are triplets.
And as the music continues, tension builds gradually with the left hand’s octaves become heavier and louder till the tension ends briefly with a right hand staccato run at 2:40. The left hand octaves come back as if the relaxed tension never existed before and tension builds again-?the tension is released again at 3:46 with the main melody theme come back. I want to mention hand of the part, there is a resolved part where the left hand plays E natural and hen F which gives Off resolved feeling.
Right after that resolve in the left hand, I heard a surprise which were notes of thirds and fifths going down and sometimes an arpeggio appears here and there while the main melody theme plays (4:32-?5:07). Soon after this, the left hand octaves come back again-?which is the repetition from earlier section of this piece. From 8:00, I feel like he was making a very short summery of what had happened in this second movement. The piece ends with a single note of B flat from right hand and then left hand right after.