Non-Tonic Settings of the Primary Tone in Beethoven Piano Sonatas

Abstract

Beginnings of movements by Beethoven often convey a feeling of instability, tension, and expectation. Frequently, opening themes sound introductory and points of harmonic arrival or resolution are delayed. Among the musical techniques described by Heinrich Schenker that heighten the inner tension of such openings, is the setting of the primary tone of the fundamental line-the first Urlinie tone-by a harmony other than the tonic.' This non-tonic setting heightens the dramatic effect of the primary tone. The primary tone is approached either by a rising arpeggiation or an initial linear ascent, two voice-leading procedures which Schenker described as representing a retardation or delaying at the very outset of the piece.2 A dramatic example of upper-voice arpeggiation to the primary tone is the opening section of the Marcia Funebre from Beethoven's Piano Sonata in Ab major, Op. 26, analyzed by Schenker in Free Composition (Example i). The primary tone cb2 (3) arrives only in m. 17, where it is included within the applied diminished seventh of V. The diagonal line connecting the primary tone with the initial Ab in the bass indicates that the Cb2 of m. 17 is part of a prolongation of the opening tonic chord. In m. 18, the striking diminished-seventh chord is emphasized by syncopation and sf a procedure typical of Beethoven (Example 2). An illustration of initial linear ascent to a primary tone is the opening theme (mm. 1-9) of the Largo e mesto from Beethoven's Piano Sonata in D Major, Op. 1o, No. 3, another passage analyzed by Schenker