I have often said that Op. 111 had a perfect ragtime passage. Here is a wonderful confirming view from Elaine Fine and James Dean.
And here is a midi version of the rag - oh, what Ludwig would have done with midi!
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2 comments:
I can see your point but only partly agree. The dotted rhythms are there, maybe a little too much so, but not many, if any, accented melody notes off the main beat. Also, the left hand in Op. 111 mirrors the right a lot in the dotted rhythms, taking away from the relaxed effect of a Joplin rag, with steady beats in the left hand, which dramatizes and supports the syncopation and off-beat melody notes in the right.
Finally, beginning at about 5:10 (in this particular recording), Op. 111-2 becomes more "hectic", like a modern jazz piece, but without the major 6th dense chords and steady supporting percussion.
Of course this doesn't take anything away from Beethoven's Op. 111. If anything, he influenced Joplin and jazz!
The best part of Op. 111-2, in my opinion, begins at about 7:47 with the figures in the high notes, then a beautiful transition at about 8:15 to some profound "mutterings" lower down, before going back to the high patterns. There's another beautiful and contemplative transition section from 10:40 to 11:28.
I like to point out to folks who insist that a composer should always use opposing movement (ascending in one hand, descending in the other) instead of parallel, that in this piece Beethoven goes parallel, with beautiful effect, for about 10 seconds, starting at 14:00 near the end in this recording, after the long section with trills.
The only personal complaint I have about this piece is that there are too many trills. If I can manage, however, to listen and imagine them as long, sustained notes (difficult to execute on a piano), then I can get past my irritation with the tri-lil-lil-ing. An organ transcription, replacing the trills with long, sustained notes, would test my theory, I guess, and may prove me wrong!
I really like your midi recording of this variation of Beethoven Op. 111-2! I'm referring to Variation #3 of the second movement. Your recording motivated me to try an experiment to make it sound even more like a Scott Joplin or William Bolcom rag. I'll send it to you later today via e-mail, to see what you think.
To make my arrangement shorter, but long enough to convey my idea, I went straight to the second endings in both parts of this variation, skipping the first endings and omitting the repetitions.
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