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File courtesy of www.piano-midi.de Source: ‘Well Known Piano Solos – How to Play Them, Charles W. Wilkinson, Theo. Presser Co. 1915’
The pathetic mood is usually associated with the minor key. One can hardly imagine the minor key being associated with "ragtime." Perhaps as a boy at school, where brothers were designated major and minor, not senior and junior, I had exceptional advantages; but, if you ask a grammar school boy or even a high school girl what the English words major and minor mean, quite apart from music, they are mostly dumb. It also is a reflection on general intelligence that pupils rarely know the common meaning of our English words "augmentation" and "diminution." In early English days the easier words were used; as, for instance, "Fa with the lesser third." This, today, apparently would be more intelligible than F minor. It will be well to explain for the benefit of some readers that in the major scale of C, for instance, the third note is E, and in the minor scale, E flat, a semitone (half-step) less distant from the keynote C. Apart from this technical structure of a minor scale, the aesthetic feeling, as it strikes the ear, should be cultivated in all elementary schools; for, whereas the Welsh people seem to prefer the minor, the plaintive mode, and feel quite at home in it, the English (and Americans) fight shy of it. But, worse still, the teachers in our tonic sol-fa classes seem easily satisfied, and leave the minor scale more or less to chance. There is then a mode and also a mood, and it is with this latter that we are now concerned.
The major mood represents a mood of elation, sunshine and optimism; the minor, a mood of depression, gloom and pessimism. Strike the first chord of this sonata and you will at once feel this true. But not only are the musical sounds here conducive to solemnity, but also the slow speed. Running always is suggestive of eager gaiety, and a slow gait the reverse. In addition, in this introduction we find that the much halting and indecision, which Beethoven felt, arouses expectancy, and, by force of contrast, gives such infinite zest to the impetuous upward burst when the allegro begins. Pupils find the "time" of the introduction difficult, and the usual result is irregular and boneless. It always is advisable, in the case of a long and complicated measure, to take it bit by bit. Let the eighth-note be the pulse-beat; cut each measure in half. Test it with the metronome, beating each slow eighth-note. It will lose all dignity unless perfect time is kept; and machinelike measurement is invaluable. After dispensing with it, and noting where you are inclined to hurry the metronome, which will not budge, then you may modify the speed in the rapid runs, as in measure 4, where there are thirteen notes to the last eighth-note division, and, at 10, as many as sixteen. The editor's footnote in the Cotta edition insists on absolute time even in these two rapid passages. Fortunately, the Tempo is grave; but, unfortunately, almost always hurried. Before we leave this instructive as well as beautiful introduction, may I point out the prevalent mistakes? First of all, sad to relate, there is no B flat in the first measure. Then, although "grave" tempo, the three-tailed note must be short and decisive, and not taken too soon, but rather delayed. The four legato chords in 4 cannot be too smoothly connected. Lastly, at 9, the run is apt to be begun too soon; and the rests at the end are worth three eighth-notes, not an indiscriminate pause. This measure, more than any other, demands metronome proof.
In the allegro the characteristic interval of the augmented second pervades the movement. Make the long notes long. A "passage" of arpeggio eighth-notes in the third line must, like all the scale groups, be thoroughly studied, especially the solo cadenza passage of eight measures bringing back the first subject. Try to get them perfect, even if a bit slower; nothing mars your playing more than hesitancy, and a slight cautious easing of the tempo is excusable and commendable. By way of keeping up the pathetic mood of the movement, the composer retains the minor mode for the second subject in both cases (that with the prall-triller and the crossed hand work), which is unusual. Another innovation is the reappearance of the slow introductory theme. After the double bar in faint lines, the development is written with signature natural. This is difficult; but, use the wrist for the staccato, succeed with the legato octaves, and, lastly, get the cross slurring in the left hand with the accent strongly marked on the first of each group of two legato quarter-notes.
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