No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
“Omne Trinum est perfectum.”–Old Latin adage.
Under the title of the “Triune Element in Beethoven” I propose to bring before your notice a certain feature of construction pervading his pianoforte sonatas. This feature consists in the occurrence three times in succession of a sentence or part of a sentence, or merely of a rhythm, figure, or some other fragment of a musical idea. The way in which I became conscious of it may not be without significance in estimating its true nature. Generally, a discovery of any peculiarity of musical construction is the result of analysis. But in this instance it was not so revealed. It came quite unsought. It merely dawned upon me as I played when my thoughts were far enough from anything pertaining to mere form. I mention this fact because it somewhat confirms mein my opinion that this three-fold repetition is not merely a matter of form, but of the essence of the thought, and further that it is not a mere characteristic of style, but an index of the mind. While this feature occurs so frequently in the pianoforte sonatas of Beethoven as to invest it with more or less significance, it is noticeable that it is only to be found to a very limited extent in the compositions of other great composers; and even where it does occur in them it rarely, and I think I may say never, possesses that logical force and that organic development that raise it in Beethoven's works from a dead form into a vital principle. This three-fold repetition would, therefore, appear in this higher sense as a characteristic peculiar to the great master.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.