BEETHOVEN ON SATURDAY

“The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.” - Tennessee Williams

Another busy Saturday today with lots of chores done around the house and garden and also some shopping. Tomorrow I am leaving for Perth to spend three days there for work. Not the best way to spend one’s Sunday – airports and planes, but once again we have to please our regulators and when they say “jump” we can only reply, “how high?”

We had all sorts of weather today: Rain, sunshine, warm, cold… We did a bit of work in the garden in one of the sunny spells and it’s beginning to look greener with many more flowers beginning to bloom.

Here’s a very spring-like Beethoven piece. The first movement from his Septet in E flat.



The Septet in E-flat major, Opus 20, by Ludwig van Beethoven, was first performed in 1800 and published in 1802. Scored for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and contrabass, it is in six movements:

1. Adagio; Allegro con brio 2. Adagio cantabile 3. Tempo di minuetto 4. Tema con variazioni: Andante 5. Scherzo: Allegro molto e vivace 6. Andante con moto alla marcia; Presto

The overall layout resembles a serenade but Beethoven expands the form by the addition of substantial introductions to the first and last movements. The main theme of the third movement had already been used in Beethoven's Piano Sonata, (Op. 49 No. 2), which was an earlier work despite its higher opus number. The finale features a violin cadenza. The Septet was one of Beethoven's most successful and popular works and circulated in many editions and arrangements for different forces. In about 1803 Beethoven himself arranged the work as a Trio for clarinet (or violin), cello and piano, and this version was published as his op. 38 in 1805.