Beethoven - 'La Folia' Hidden in his Compositions

[robert newman]

One of the most extraordinary discoveries of the 20th century in studies of Beethoven’s music has been occurrence of an ancient theme and chord progressions known as ‘La Folia’ which the composer uses at least 3 times in his known compositions, each time hidden within his music.

a) Beethoven 5th Symphony, Second Movement, Bars 167 to 176
b) Beethoven Sonata No.3 for Cello and Piano, Op.69 , Second Movement (bars 1-8)
c) Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, Op.73, First Movement (bars 38-45)

Use of ‘La Folia’ in an extrovert and wholly advertised way can be traced back to the 15th century and even earlier. There are many examples. It was really made famous for the first time by Lully in his theoretical writings. During the 18th century we have such works such as –

1. Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788)
12 Variationen auf die Folie d'Espagne in d mineur Wq118/9 H263 (1778): 12 variations

2. Bedard, Jean-Baptiste (1765-1818)
‘Folies d'Espagne’ (Theme and 11 variations)

3. Boccherini, Luigi (1743-1805)
Menuet from quintet Opus 40, number 1 in A (two violins, viola, two celli), Gerard 340 (c. 1785).

4. Cramer, Johann Baptist (1771-1858)
Follia di Spagna (1811) as part of Divertimento X for fortepiano
Theme and 4 variations (and starting the first four bars of the 5th variation). First published 1811 by W. Mitchell, London England.
5. Désargus, Xavier (c.1768-1832)
Études pour harp, Opus 6: Vingt quatre etudes pour la harpe sur les Folies d' Espagne

6 Falconieri Andrea (c.1585-1656) Folia and 10 Variations (1650)

7. Antonio Salieri in 1790/1 wrote 'Folia and 12 Variations for Orchestra'

Far rarer is for ‘La Folia’ to be hidden within music unannounced. It can be found also (hidden) in a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach ‘Unser trefflicher lieber Kammerherr' (1742) from the ‘Bauernkantate’ (BWV 212).

Its discovery within Beethoven's 5th Symphony (where it's quoted by Beethoven towards the end of the slow movement) had apparently escaped expert appreciation until 1994 when it was first pointed out by a music student in the UK (Lucy Hayward-Warburton) to the astonishment of her music tutor. !

Those interested in the subject can visit a remarkable website dealing with this very curious area of research at http://www.folias.nl/html5f.html

Robert



[This message has been edited by robert newman (edited 02-21-2006).]

[Peter]

Thanks for that Robert - More info on this ancient tune:

"The tune known as 'La Folia' has fascinated many composers since the seventeenth century. Portuguese in origin, the word means 'mad' or 'empty-headed' and until the 1670s it indicated a fast and noisy dance in which the participants seemed to be 'out of their minds'. By the end of the century a new, slower form had developed which threw the accent from the first beat on to the second every other bar and slightly adjusted the harmonic structure to form the perfect symmetry which inspired Corelli to use it in the twelfth of his Violin Sonatas, Op 5. That famous work further inspired Vivaldi, C P E Bach, Alessandro Scarlatti and other composers to write variations on 'La Folia' - including even Rachmaninov (though his 'Variations on a theme of Corelli' seem to indicate that he thought the tune was by that composer)."


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'Man know thyself'

[Sorrano]

Can use of this "La Folia" theme be compared to the usage of the dies irae from Berlioz to Crumb?

[Peter]

Originally posted by Sorrano:
Can use of this "La Folia" theme be compared to the usage of the dies irae from Berlioz to Crumb?

That of course has symbolic meaning as well, which can't be said of La Folia. When I've time later today I'll check out my Beethoven scores for La Folia!

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'Man know thyself'

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 02-22-2006).]

[Ateach Asc]

My apologies for absolute ignorance on this rather intriguing idea concerning La Folia. Perhaps someone might link us to an MP3 version so that more light can be shed on this rather mysterious topic.

I do however have another question. It has been persistently rumoured that Beethoven included in his 14th string quartet the Jewish traditional chant of the near Yom Qippur liturgical passage Kol Nidrei. Does anyone know anything about this rather unusual idea?



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Must it be? It must be!

[atserriotserri]

Originally posted by Ateach Asc:
My apologies for absolute ignorance on this rather intriguing idea concerning La Folia. Perhaps someone might link us to an MP3 version so that more light can be shed on this rather mysterious topic.

I do however have another question. It has been persistently rumoured that Beethoven included in his 14th string quartet the Jewish traditional chant of the near Yom Qippur liturgical passage Kol Nidrei. Does anyone know anything about this rather unusual idea?

Ateach Asc, answering both questions:
As far as I'm concerned, there are similarities between the str. quartet and the chant, but not a "transcription" of that chant. Since the jweish chant reproduces the typical passage of the first gregorian mode (natural scale from "re" to "re"), it may be considered that it would be familiar not just to german jewish of the time but could be found in secular & ecclesiastic music (the chant's origins are supposed to be found in Germany/France). Nevertheless, it's a personal interpretation, based on facts I've managed to compile just as a melomaniac .
Schoenberg himself arranged the traditional Kol Nidre melody in 1938 (and also did, for example Max Bruch) and did not mention that resemblance even though he mentioned that he manipulated following the "variation" tradition inherited from Bach & Beethoven, so presumably he could have thought about it.
Moreover, John Zorn a mostly peculiar & prolific composer-saxophonist moving from free jazz to contemporary classical music passing through traditional jewish music arranged for string quartet the kol nidre chant (as well as Debussy's "cathedrale engloutie", for instance) and has an air to B's str. qt., but nothing more.

Concerning la follia, Jordi Savall (fantastic catalan viola de gamba player and researcher of pieces that he brings to a larger audience, who created in 1998 his own record company to have total control of his work and last month it was certified that in this 7 years have sold 700.000 records) has just released a great record precisely named "la follia", and at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=glance&n=5174
you will be able to listen at fragments of the record.

[Michael]

As I can't read music, I would need to hear the examples in order to understand this. Would listening to the opening of the second movement of Opus 69 give me an idea (Robert has mentioned bars 1 to 8)?
What should I be listening for - an actual theme or a chord progression? I find all this very intriguing and also frustrating due to my lack of technical knowledge.
Michael

[Ateach Asc]

Originally posted by atserriotserri:
Ateach Asc, answering both questions:
As far as I'm concerned, there are similarities between the str. quartet and the chant, but not a "transcription" of that chant.

Concerning la follia, Jordi Savall (fantastic catalan viola de gamba player and researcher of pieces at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=glance&n=5174
you will be able to listen at fragments of the record.

atserriotserri thank you so very much for that background. I didn't actually recognize the Kol Nidrei in that LVB work but did note some similarities which may hav triggered the stories I heard.

I also followed that very helpful link to the FOLIA samples and found them to be exquisite. While I was not able to note the connections of these folias to the works originally mentioned (LVB #5:2, P&C #3:2) I thought that there was an eerie premonition of LVB's #7:2 in fourth sample and a ghostly similarity to the Kol Nidrei in the last sampling, which of course brings us back to the 14th Str Qt.

Am I hearing things or is it my imagination playing tricks on me in my old age?


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Must it be? It must be!

[This message has been edited by Ateach Asc (edited 04-04-2006).]

[atserriotserri]

I resume the liner notes on the abovementioned "La Follia" record by Jordi Savall (Alia Vox AVSA 9805) since it seems to be of interest.
Folia is a Portuguese dance of popular origin in the last XV century, associated with popular characters (shepherds or peasants engaging into energic singing and dancing (Folia means madness or wild amusement in portuguese).
In XVI century the musical pattern was well lnown in the Peninsula Iberica, consisting of a repeated bass line (usually in two segments A-E-A-G-C-G-A-E, A-E-A-G-C-G-A-E-A or slightly altered versions) with variations that could be improvised. In that century was also cultivated in Italy.
In XVII century is further standarized with the mentioned bass line becoming a norm (each pitch being assigned a measurelong durational value in triple meter) with a discant tune associated to the harmonic sequence obtained.
In XVIII, now trhoughout europe is one of the preferred grounds for virtuosic instrumental variations (mentions Corelli an in particular his Op.5 collection of solo sonatas for violin and continuo, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Buononcini, Marais, D'Anglebert, and also J.S. Bach).
He mentions also that Cherubini used it as a homage for its portuguese origin as the main theme fo the overture of his 1798 opera "L'hotellerie portugaise", and much later, Lizst's "Rhapsodie espagnole" and Rachmaninoff's "Variations on a theme by Corelli" (I'll liesten to those and say what).