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7 Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes: An Inherited

and Developing Relationship
 

The idea that the most original, individual and organicist composer of all
time used some pre-composed materials and formulae might strike some
Beethoven admirers as an abomination. Yet, recent scholarly works have
evinced the presence of those materials in some of Beethoven’s most
revered masterworks, including those of his last creative period. Vasili
Byros explores Beethoven’s network of tonal prototypes in a number of
writings, focusing on Beethoven’s middle period and in particular on the
Eroica symphony: the identification of a schema, the Le–Sol–Fi–Sol, allows
Byros to draw fascinating insights on the relationship between tonal
prototypes and musical meaning (more on this later).1 Job Ijzerman
focuses on the contrapuntal and harmonic properties of a selected group
of schemata and their modifications in works by Beethoven, Schubert and
Schumann.2 Folker Froebe examines the schemata in Beethoven’s Piano
Sonata Op. 10 No. 1, and their function in the large-scale tonal context.3
Analyses of Beethoven’s music according to contrapuntal models are also
found in Johannes Menke’s study of the history and theory of sequences.4
Felix Diergarten and Ludwig Holtmeier survey Beethoven’s connection
with thoroughbass theory and practice, with an analysis of the E major
piano sonata, Op. 109 (also discussed below).5
Galant schemata, contrapuntal techniques, certain thoroughbass pro-
cedures, partimento patterns and Satzmodelle appear in the music of

1
Vasili Byros, ‘Topics and Harmonic Schemata: A Case from Beethoven’, in The Oxford
Handbook of Topic Theory, ed. Danuta Mirka (New York, 2014), pp. 381–414; Byros,
‘Foundations of Tonality as Situated Cognition, 1730–1830: An Enquiry into the Culture and
Cognition of Eighteenth-Century Tonality with Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony as a Case Study’
(PhD thesis, Yale University, 2009); Byros, ‘Meyer’s Anvil: Revisiting the Schema Concept’,
Music Analysis, 31/3 (2012), pp. 273–346.
2
Job Ijzerman, ‘Schemata in Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann: A Pattern-Based Approach to
Early Nineteenth-Century Harmony’, Music Theory & Analysis, 4/1 (2017), pp. 3–39.
3
Folker Froebe, ‘Schema and Function’, Music Theory & Analysis, 1/1–2 (2014), pp. 121–39.
4
Johannes Menke, ‘Historisch-systematische Überlegungen zur Sequenz seit 1600’, in Passagen:
Theorien des Übergangs in Musik und anderen Kunstformen, ed. Christian Utz (Saarbrücken,
2009), pp. 87–111.
5
Felix Diergarten and Ludwig Holtmeier, ‘Nicht zu disputieren. Beethoven, der Generalbass und
144 die Sonate op. 109’, Musiktheorie, 26/2 (2011), pp. 123–46.

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Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes 145

Beethoven as they do in the music of any other composer educated in the

eighteenth-century system of training: therefore, a mere quest for those
patterns in his music makes little sense unless one askes some questions
regarding their presence, such as the connection between Beethoven’s
studies in thoroughbass and his practice of extemporization.6 And again:
does Beethoven’s usage of particular patterns correlate with certain
genres? Did Beethoven use them throughout his career, or only in certain
periods? What is the relationship between schemata and topics in
Beethoven’s music?
In these opening paragraphs I have used different terms for a number of
musical constructs that have one thing in common: they pre-exist the act
of composition of individual works. Those constructs include galant sche-
mata, many sorts of cadences, the stylized bass motions taught by Italian
partimento masters (called moti del basso in Italian, marches d’harmonie in
French), sequential techniques (such as 5–6 or 7–6 sequences) that origin-
ated in counterpoint and later found their way into thoroughbass theory,
modulatory patterns, the Rule of the Octave and the imitation of models
handed down through works that gained the status of exemplars.7 Since
the study of those constructs has been conducted in the last twenty-five
years or so by scholars in different countries with different cultural trad-
itions and who mostly worked independently of each other, different
names have been devised; schemata, Satzmodelle, partimento patterns are
commonly encountered. We must also keep in mind that the terms are not
exactly interchangeable, but that there exist subtle but significant differ-
ences in meaning, arising from different cultural traditions.8
A general term covering all the above-mentioned does not yet exist, so
I suggest using ‘tonal prototype’. By ‘tonal prototype’ I designate a set of
pre-composed materials shared by composers through different gener-
ations, handed down by means of imitation and teaching.9 Most tonal
prototypes are contrapuntal in nature, with harmony playing a secondary
role: for example, galant schemata are defined by the relationship between
bass and melody, whereas the chords are often interchangeable. For few of

6
The reference monograph on galant schemata is Robert O. Gjerdingen, Music in the Galant Style
(New York, 2007).
7
For a survey of partimento patterns, see the author’s The Art of Partimento (New York, 2012).
8
For a history of the recent success of what he calls ‘pragmatic theories of music analysis’, see
Felix Diergarten, ‘Editorial’, Eighteenth-Century Music, 14/1 (2017), pp. 5–11.
9
On the subtleties of terminological problems, see Jan Philipp Sprick, ‘Schema, Satzmodell and
Topos: Reflections on Terminology’, Music Theory & Analysis 1/1–2 (2014), pp. 101–6.

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146  

them, such as modulatory models, the harmony is more fixed, and conse-
quently has greater significance.
The majority of tonal prototypes originated as early as the sixteenth
century, some of them even earlier.10 Some very early patterns, such as the
5–6 ascending and 7–6 descending sequences, originated in the fourteenth
century, entered late sixteenth-century polyphony, were incorporated into
the thoroughbass tradition, passed through the Classical period and were
very much alive in late Romantic music. This impressive lifespan is shared
by some other prototypes, such as the Romanesca, which travelled across
centuries from its origins in the sixteenth century to late twentieth-century
popular music.
Tonal prototypes are conceptually distinct from topics, even though they
may occasionally overlap; they are also more precise and more general.11
Their grammar can be described with remarkable precision: for example,
we know exactly how a Prinner is made, including the scale degrees in the
melody and in the bass, the metric position on which the four stages are
expected to appear, the chords used and their possible substitutes. How-
ever, we can hardly attach to a Prinner a specific meaning: a Prinner (as
well as a fragment of a Rule of the Octave, or a sequence) is in itself
semantically neutral.12 On the other hand, we have a fairly accurate idea
about the meaning of an Ombra, but in no way can we specify how exactly
an Ombra is made.13
Tonal prototypes could not have enjoyed such a long life without a
manner of transmitting them through generations. Thanks to a recent
surge of interest in compositional pedagogy through the ages, we know
that the main venue of transmission occurred through imitation of works

10
Johannes Menke, ‘Die Familie der cadenza doppia’, Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie,
8/3 (2011), pp. 389–405.
11
The Le–Sol–Fi–Sol is one of the rare cases of a schemata that may assume the significance of a
topic; see Byros, ‘Topics and Harmonic Schemata’. Also Hans Aerts, ‘“Modell” und “Topos” in
der deutschsprachigen Musiktheorie seit Riemann’, Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie,
4/1–2 (2007), pp. 143–58.
12
On the interactions between schemata, topics and form, see William E. Caplin, ‘Topics and
Formal Functions: The Case of the Lament’ in The Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory,
pp. 415–52.
13
In order to define the Ombra topic Clive McClelland lists no fewer than ten parameters, with
several possibilities for each (for example, the parameter ‘Melody’ lists the following possible
characteristics, ‘exclamatory, often fragmented, sometimes augmented/diminished leaps,
occasionally narrow intervals contrasting with wide leaps, monotones/triadic lines for oracles
and invocations’). Clive McClelland, ‘Ombra and Tempesta’, in The Oxford Handbook of Topic
Theory, pp. 279–300, at p. 282. See also McClelland’s Ombra: Supernatural Music in the
Eighteenth Century (Lanham, 2012).

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Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes 147

that gained the status of ‘exemplars’ and through the practice of specifically
designed exercises such as partimenti and solfeggi.14 Since tonal prototypes
did not change much between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centur-
ies, their uninterrupted transmission ensured a remarkable continuity in
musical language. In Italy, tonal prototypes were at the core of teaching in
the Neapolitan conservatories from at least the mid-seventeenth century,
so it is hardly surprising that they are easily detected in the music of
Italian-trained composers, especially in the eighteenth century. But tonal
prototypes were not confined to Italy: they were at the core of the musical
language of non-Italian composers too. The works of composers such as
Archangelo Corelli – where so many tonal prototypes are exposed with
admirable clarity – were considered models for imitation all over Europe
until the nineteenth century.15
Partimenti and solfeggi travelled through Europe following the large-
scale emigration of Italian musicians that took place in the eighteenth
century.16 An impressive number of Italian musicians and poets lived
and worked in Vienna, with one modern scholar describing Austria as
‘a promised land for Italian music’.17 According to George Buelow the
‘Italian domination of the Viennese court was virtually complete by the
end of the [seventeenth] century. The Italian language had largely replaced
German at court and among the educated classes.’18 A famous case is that
of the Roman Pietro Metastasio, who in the middle of the following
century spent forty years in Vienna as court poet and never felt the need
to learn German.19 As well as the Italian tradition partimenti existed also
in Austrian and German versions: in Austria the Partitura tradition lasted

14
On exemplars in composed works, see Elisabetta Pasquini, L’Esemplare, o sia saggio
fondamentale pratico di contrappunto. Padre Martini teorico e didatta della musica (Florence,
2004), in particular pp. 59–102.
15
See Nicola Cumer, ‘“Se il divin Corelli imparerai”: Didaktische Anregungen zum Partimento-
Studium’, in Corelli als Modell: Studien zum 300. Todestag von Archangelo Corelli (1653–1713),
ed. Pedro Memelsdorff, Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis, 37 (2015); Kenneth Nott,
‘Corelli’s op. 5, no. 8. Sarabanda as a compositional model for Handel and his contemporaries’,
Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, 7 (1998), pp. 182–207; Eugenia Angelucci, ‘Il modello Corelliano in
area germanica’, Studi Corelliani V: Atti del quinto congresso internazionale (9–11 settembre
1994), ed. S. La Via (Florence, 1996), pp. 393–439.
16
Reinhard Strohm (ed.), The Eighteenth-Century Diaspora of Italian Music and Musicians
(Turnhout, 2001).
17
Theophil Antonicek, ‘Österreich: Ein gelobtes Land der italienischen Musik’, in The Eighteenth-
Century Diaspora of Italian Music and Musicians, pp. 121–38.
18
George J. Buelow, A History of Baroque Music (Bloomington, 2004), p. 231.
19
Gianfranco Folena, L’italiano in Europa. Esperienze linguistiche del Settecento (Turin, 1983),
p. 437.

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until the nineteenth century and German partimenti existed within the
Generalbass tradition.20 In France, tonal models were widely used and
taught well into the nineteenth century. A work such as Luigi Cherubini’s
Marches d’harmonie (posthumous published in 1847) is a collection of
partimento patterns contrapuntally elaborated, clearly inspired by Fenaroli
and Sala but larger and more systematic.21
As was generally the case at the time Beethoven was educated in
thoroughbass and counterpoint.22 According to Ludwig Holtmeier, while
Nottebohm had proposed that Neefe made Beethoven familiar with fun-
damental bass theory, ‘it is much more likely that Beethoven’s understand-
ing of harmonic theory was characterized by a symbiotic coexistence of
Italian partimento tradition (Rule of the Octave) and French fundamental
bass theory, a combination that is particularly characteristic of Viennese
thoroughbass teaching’.23 Holtmeier lists a number of German thorough-
bass treatises that Beethoven owned and used for his own teaching: they
include C. P. E Bach, Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen
(second edition, 1797); D. G. Türk, Kurze Anweisung zum Generalbaßspie-
len (first edition, 1791); J. G. Albrechtsberger, Gründliche Anweisung zur
Composition (first edition, 1790); and J. P. Kirnberger, Kunst des reinen
Satzes (Viennese edition, 1793). To further corroborate Beethoven’s
involvement with thoroughbass theory we might add his acquaintance
with other authors of thoroughbass treatises, such as Emanuel Aloys
Förster24 and Joseph Drechsler,25 as well as the collection compiled by
Ignaz von Seyfried of materials found after the composer’s death and
published as Beethovens Studien im Generalbasse, Contrapuncte und in
der Compositions-Lehre.26

20
Felix Diergarten, ‘“The True Fundamentals of Composition”: Haydn’s Partimento
Counterpoint’, Eighteenth-Century Music, 8/1 (2011), pp. 53–75.
21
Luigi Cherubini, Marches d’harmonie pratiquées dans la composition produisant des suites
reguliéres de consonnances et de dissonances (Paris, 1847).
22
On Beethoven and thoroughbass, see Diergarten and Holtmeier, ‘Nicht zu disputieren’.
23
Ludwig Holtmeier, ‘Generalbaß’, in Beethoven-Lexikon, eds. Heinz von Loesch and Claus Raab
(Laaber, 2015), p. 285.
24
Emanuel Aloys Förster, Anleitung zum General-Bass (Leipzig, 1805); Praktische Beispiele als
Fortsetzung zu seiner Anleitung (Leipzig, 1818).
25
Joseph Drechsler, Harmonie und Generalbass-Lehre (Vienna, 1816).
26
Beethovens Studien im Generalbasse, Contrapuncte und in der Compositions-Lehre, aus dessen
handschriftlichen Nachlass ges. und herg. v. Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried (Wien, 1832; Leipzig,
1853); (reprint Hildesheim, 1967). Beethoven’s studies have recently been published in a critical
edition: Julia Ronge (ed.) Ludwig van Beethoven, Kompositionsstudien bei Joseph Haydn, Johann
Georg Albrechtsberger und Antonio Salieri, Ludwig van Beethoven: Werke: Neue Ausgabe
Sämtlicher Werke, XIII/2 (Munich, 2014). See also Ronge, ‘Beethoven’s Apprenticeship: Studies

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Evidence of contact between Beethoven and the Italian partimento is

largely circumstantial. The Bonn Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi, under
whom the young Beethoven worked as a member of the court chapel,
was a student of Giuseppe Saratelli, maestro di cappella at St Mark’s in
Venice, who left a fine collection of northern Italian partimenti.27 Two of
Beethoven’s teachers in Vienna, Haydn and Salieri, used partimenti in
their learning or teaching. In his youth Haydn had studied with Nicola
Porpora, a student of Gaetano Greco (one of the most distinguished
Neapolitan teachers) and the author of a manuscript partimenti collec-
tion,28 while Salieri compiled for his students a Libro di partimenti di
varia specie per profitto della gioventù, now lost. Intriguingly, Beetho-
ven’s name appears among the subscribers of the largest Italian parti-
menti collection ever published, Alexandre-Étienne Choron’s Principes
de composition des Écoles d’Italie (Paris, 1808), a monument of exhaust-
ing erudition. Book 1 is a thoroughly revised version of his Principes
d’accompagnement des Écoles d’Italie (Paris, 1804), written in collabor-
ation with Vincenzo Fiocchi (1767–1843), a pupil of Fenaroli and Padre
Martini. In this work Choron attempted to rationalize the principles
underlying the Italian partimento tradition and included his own treatise
on harmony together with an appendix of partimenti by Fenaroli,
Durante, Sala and others, realized by Fiocchi for a variety of settings.
Choron’s theory of harmony still shows some obvious influence of
Rameau (such as the basse fondamentale), but the main conceptual
frame comes from the northern Italian school of Padua, in particular
from Luigi Antonio Sabbatini’s La vera idea delle musicali numeriche
segnature.29
A key characteristic of Choron’s Principes de composition is the presence
of a series of modèles for each of the six books. For Book 1 (the treatise of
harmony) the models are a collection of 210 partimenti, each with the
name of its author, crowned by Leo’s triple fugue in F minor (a work that,
given the large number of manuscripts copies in which it is found, must

with Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and Salieri’, Journal of Musicological Research, 32/2–3 (2013),
pp. 73–82.
27
Irene Maria Caraba, ‘I bassi per esercizio d’accompagnamento all’antico: Giuseppe Giacomo
Saratelli e la tradizione del partimento in area veneta’, Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, 53 (2018),
pp. 57–72.
28
Nicola Porpora, Partimenti, I-Mc Ms. Nc. 176. On Haydn’s engagement with the partimento
tradition see Diergarten, ‘“The True Fundamentals of Composition”’.
29
Luigi Antonio Sabbatini, La vera idea delle musicali numeriche segnature diretta al giovane
studioso dell’armonia (Venice, 1799).

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have been considered a model of fugue writing).30 Book 2 is a partial

reprint of the Regole del contrappunto pratico by Nicola Sala, supplemented
by a translation of Marpurg’s Handbuch bey dem Generalbasse. In the
modèles part Choron added to Sala’s examples a series of sixteen trios on
regular bass progressions composed by Cristoforo Caresana, organist of the
Royal Chapel of Naples, dated 1681. Book 3 is based on Marpurg’s
Abhandlung von der Fuge. In the preface Choron explains that although
Marpurg’s treatise is so good that even Padre Martini recommended it, it
suffers from poor organization. For that reason, Choron revised Marpurg,
put the content in a different order and added models drawn from Nicola
Sala’s Regole del contrappunto pratico. Books 4 (fugue) and 5 (canon) have
the same pairing of Marpurg and Sala. Under the rubric ‘Musical rhetoric’
Book 6 deals with the ‘non-scholastic’ parts of music – phrases, form, styles
and genres – and is, apparently, original. The volume is completed by a
380-page anthology of examples of all kinds of music described in the text,
almost exclusively by Italian composers.
One of the most striking aspects of Choron’s Principes de composition is
that three out of six books of a compendium devoted to the Italian ‘school’
of composition are actually the work of German authors. In the preface to
his and François Fayolle’s Dictionnaire historique des musiciens Choron
states that Italian and German ‘schools’ share the same principles, and that
they are basically the same.31 Unfortunately, Italians were great for models,
but not so for theorizing, for which Germans were better: so Choron
decided to compile the best of both.
The publication of this huge work almost drained the financial resources
of its author. Therefore, Choron made recourse to a subscription system,
publishing the names of the subscribers at the beginning of the first
volume. The list of ‘Compositeurs, Professeurs, Editeurs et Marchands de
Musique’ opens with the name of Joseph Haydn, followed (among others)
by Paisiello, Fenaroli, Sabbatini, Spontini, Albrechtsberger and Asioli. The
name of Beethoven is in eleventh position, followed by Cimarosa, Clementi
and Forkel.

30
Using the same copper plates, Choron also published the collection as Régles de Contrepoint
pratique contenant une série de modéles sur toutes les partes de l’art du counterpoint par Nicolas
Sala, maitre de chapelle, Napolitain, Nouvelle èdition, mise en ordre et augmentée de la collection
complete des partimenti ou leçons de basse chiffrée du même auteur par M. A. Choron (Paris,
preface dated 1808).
31
Alexandre-Étienne Choron and François-Joseph-Marie Fayolle, Dictionnaire historique des
musiciens, Tome premier (Paris, 1817), p. lxxvii.

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Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes 151

The presence of Beethoven among the subscribers is something of a

mystery; Choron’s volume is not included in documents related to the
composer’s estate. It is similarly absent from Haydn’s estate.32 The fact that
one apparent subscriber, Cimarosa, was no longer alive, raises questions
about the nature of the subscription list. Nathalie Meidhof has suggested
some of the names on it do not represent individuals who actually paid for,
and came to own, the book.33 Perhaps Beethoven’s name, as well as that of
Haydn and others, was added for prestige and the composer may never
have come to know of it. Certainly no record has been found.

Tonal Prototypes and Improvisation

It is generally assumed that free-form pieces such as variations and

cadenzas, or those bearing titles such as ‘fantasia’, reflect the improvisa-
tional practice of their author better than compositions such as sonatas or
fugues. Indeed, works such as Beethoven’s Fantasia, Op. 77, seem to
originate from actual improvisation (in this case, during an academy held
in December 1808). However, confining improvisation to a few peripheral
genres downgrades its importance in Beethoven’s compositional practice.
Relying on coeval critics, Angela Carone makes the point that ‘for an
improvisation to be positively evaluated . . . it had to be provided with a
well-defined form, which therefore represented an aspect of the musical
performance that was anything but negligible. In particular, in order to
make a positive impression, the improvisation had to present a treatment
of the musical material that was similar to the one found in a sonata or a
strict contrapuntal construction.’34 According to Carl Czerny, Beethoven’s
improvisation could belong to three ‘forms’: (1) the form of the first
movement or the final rondo of a sonata; (2) free variation; or (3) a ‘mixed
genre’ or a potpourri, as in the Fantasia, Op. 77. In addition, like many
other composers of his time who had trained as organists, Beethoven used

32
See documents transcribed in Elliot Forbes (rev. and ed.), Thayer’s Life of Beethoven (Princeton,
1967), pp. 1061–76; and H. C. Robbins Landon, Haydn: Chronicle and Works. Haydn; the Late
Years 1801–1809 (London, 1977), pp. 392–403.
33
Nathalie Meidhof, Alexandre Étienne Choron Akkordenlehre. Konzepte, Quellen, Verbreitung
(Hildesheim, 2016), p. 56.
34
Angela Carone, ‘Formal Elements of Instrumental Improvisation: Evidence from Written
Documentation, 1770–1840’, in Musical Improvisation and Open Forms in the Age of
Beethoven, eds. Gianmario Borio and Angela Carone (London, 2018), pp. 7–18, at p. 7.

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to improvise fugues in public.35 Therefore, fantasia was only one of the

three ‘forms’ of improvisation practised by Beethoven. This leads us to
distinguish between improvisation as extemporized composition and
improvisation as rhetoric (as Marco Targa called it). In the first kind, all
musical genres can be present, included the strictest ones, such as the
fugue: and, the closer to a written composition the result, the better. In the
second kind, the music consists of a free flowing of ideas, characterized by
open form, tonal instability and brilliant style. This latter kind of music
must give the impression of being improvised, but does not necessarily
have to be improvised: indeed, many of these pieces (usually titled ‘fanta-
sia’) have been preserved in written form.36
The illusion of freedom often concealed the fact that the use of models
was standard practice. As Jan Philipp Sprick put it, ‘many improvisation
treatises from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, such as the prominent
chapter on free improvisation in C. P. E. Bach’s Versuch über die wahre Art
das Clavier zu spielen (1753–62), focus mostly on harmonic schemata,
ornamentation or the efficient use of special chromatic chords’.37 Those
‘formulas, tricks and models’, as Dahlhaus called them, were an essential
toolbox for improvisation in many different styles.38 A compelling example
of Beethoven’s use of ‘tricks’ and ‘formulas’ – what I would prefer to call
tonal prototypes – is the first movement of the Piano Sonata, Op. 27 No. 2,
the so-called ‘Moonlight’ sonata; like its companion, Op. 27 No. 2, it was
given the suggestive title of ‘Sonata quasi una Fantasia’.39
The Adagio sostenuto opens with a descending tetrachord in the bass
from C sharp to G sharp (the A is decorated by a consonant skip to F sharp;
Example 7.1). On the second bass note, B, the chord remains the same as in
the previous bar, thus producing a dissonant 6-4-2 chord that moves on a
5-3 chord on VI. This procedure corresponds to a variant of the Romanesca
that became popular in northern Italy about 1760, thanks to Giovanni
Battista Sammartini, which Gjerdingen accordingly calls ‘Romanesca à la
Sammartini’.40 The short Romanesca leads to cadence on G sharp lasting a

35
Carone, ‘Formal Elements’, pp. 9–10.
36
Marco Targa, ‘Improvisation Practices in Beethoven’s Kleinere Stücke’, in Musical
Improvisation and Open Forms in the Age of Beethoven, pp. 178–92.
37
Jan Philipp Sprick, ‘Musical Form in Improvisation Treatises in the Age of Beethoven’, in
Musical Improvisation and Open Forms in the Age of Beethoven, pp. 19–29, at p. 20.
38
Quoted in ibid., p. 20.
39
The outer bifolio of the autograph of Op. 27 No. 2 is lost, and we cannot know whether the title
was given by Beethoven or by his publisher, Cappi.
40
Gjerdingen, Music in the Galant Style, p. 43.

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Example 7.1 Beethoven, Piano Sonata in C sharp Minor, Op. 27 No. 2, 1st movement,
bars 1–5

full bar, with the harmonic progression 7-5-3 / 6-4 / 5-4 / 5-3. This cadence
is known as Cadenza doppia and, according to Johannes Menke, it was first
described by Nicola Vicentino in L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna
prattica (1555), who characterized it as ‘all’antica’ (old fashioned).41 The
variant used by Beethoven was called by Francesco Gasparini a ‘major
compound cadence with suspended seventh’.42 The Cadenza doppia was
one of the three principal cadences in the Neapolitan partimento tradition,
and continued to be taught and practised in the eighteenth century, its
‘all’antica’ nature emphasized by its use in sacred music extensively.43 The
Cadenza doppia appears again in Op. 27 No. 2 in a version called by
Gasparini ‘cadenza maggiore diminuita’ (bars 40–41, with a double neigh-
bour figure in the bass). A shorter kind of archaic cadence is used more
frequently, the Cadenza composta (compound cadence) with its character-
istic 4–3 suspension (bars 8, 14, 22, 45 and 59).
Altogether the first movement of the ‘Moonlight’ sonata is remarkable
for its usage of archaic cadences (in particular the Cadenza doppia), a
characteristic highlighted by their absence in similarly titled works such as
the companion sonata, Op. 27 No. 1 and the Op. 77 Fantasia; indeed, apart
from the Rule of the Octave, these latter two works do not use any standard

41
Menke, ‘Die Familie der cadenza doppia’.
42
Francesco Gasparini, L’armonico pratico al cimbalo (Venice 1708), pp. 46–7.
43
A beautiful instance of a Cadenza doppia is the closing Adagio of the Kyrie in Mozart’s
Requiem (K. 626).

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patterns to a significant degree. In general, it seems to me that there is no

real difference between improvisation-related pieces and fully worked
compositions in the employment of tonal models. There are differences,
however, between genres, and from one creative period to another.

Tonal Prototypes and Genre

Within musical works composed in the second half of the eighteenth

century, schemata, Satzmodelle and other patterns are more apparent in
those genres where there is a focus on the performer before a listening
public, such as the concerto. A comparison between the opening ritornellos
of three concertos, all of them in C major, by three different composers,
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, illustrates the conspicuous function of
tonal models in this genre between 1760 and 1800. The three concertos
are Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C (Hob. VIIb:1) from c. 1763, Mozart’s
Piano Concerto in C, K. 415 (1783) and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in
C major, Op. 15 (1793–1800).
The opening ritornello of Haydn’s cello concerto is composed almost
entirely of tonal prototypes (see Table 7.1). It begins with a variant of the
classic opening move, the Do–Re–Mi (here, Do–Fa–Mi) followed by a
short Cadenza lunga ④⑤① and a Cadenza semplice; the repetition of
the Do–Fa–Mi brings to a half cadence that opens the space for the
transition, beginning with a Sol–Fa–Mi, followed by a modulating Prinner
and a twofold Sol–Fa–Mi that leads to a Cadenza lunga. After a filled-in

Table 7.1 Haydn, Cello Concerto in C Major, 1st movement: tonal

prototypes and formal functions in the opening ritornello

Bars Tonal model Formal function

1–5 Do–Fa–Mi/Cadenza lunga Main theme

6–8 Sol–Fa–Mi Transition
8–9 Prinner ”
9–10 Sol–Fa–Mi ”
10–11 Cadenza lunga PAC (MC)
12–15 Contrappunto alla scala descending/Indugio Subordinate theme group
15–17 Fenaroli ”
18 Cadenza lunga PAC (EEC)
19 Heartz Post-cadential section
20–21 Basso che cala di terza/cadenza lunga Post-cadential – PAC

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(medial?) caesura there comes a new theme based on a descending scale

(from g2) in the upper voice accompanied by a counterpoint in the middle
voice/bass (contrappunto alla scala) that includes an Indugio in bar 13.
Another theme begins on the third beat of bar 15 based on the Fenaroli
that is closed by a Cadenza lunga. Bar 19 has a Heartz followed by a ‘bass
descending by thirds’ leading to a Cadenza lunga.
The substantial usage of tonal models in many classical concertos may
be related to social and musical expectations: though a very familiar and
very popular genre it lacked the prestige that late-eighteenth century
writers accorded to the symphony as a genre. The entry ‘Concert’ in
Sulzer’s Allgemeine Theorie der schöne Künste (1771–74) is quite dismissive
in this regard, asserting that as a genre the concerto ‘has no fixed character’
and that ‘no one can say what it is supposed to represent’; it is nothing
more than ‘a practice session for composers and players, and a totally
indeterminate aural amusement, aimed at nothing more’.44 Extensive
usage of tonal prototypes allowed the composer to make his music more
accessible and to focus on the skills of the soloist. Listeners, however, could
include connoisseurs; for their enjoyment a resourceful composer would
make sure that the tonal models were cleverly elaborated and combined
with ingenuity. I think that this is what Mozart meant in an often-quoted
passage in a letter to his father dated 28 December 1782 concerning the
three piano concertos, K. 413, 414 and 415:
These concertos are a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult;
they are very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural, without being vapid. There
are passages here and there from which the connoisseurs alone can derive satisfac-
tion; but these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to
be pleased, though without knowing why.45

As Haydn did twenty years earlier, Mozart made extensive use of tonal
prototypes in the opening ritornello of his piano concerto K. 415 (sum-
marized in Table 7.2). The movement opens with a Do–Re–Mi played by
the first violin, and followed in canon by the second violin. The third entry

44
Simon P. Keefe, ‘Koch’s Commentary on the Late Eighteenth-Century Concerto: Dialogue,
Drama and Solo/Orchestra Relations’, Music & Letters, 79/3 (1998), pp. 368–85. The translation
of Sulzer is taken from Keefe’s article.
45
Emily Anderson (trans. and ed.), The Letters of Mozart and His Family, 3rd ed. (London, 1985),
p. 1242; Wilhelm A. Bauer, Otto Erich Deutsch and Joseph Heinz Eibl (eds.), Mozart: Briefe
und Aufzeichnungen, Gesamtausgabe (Kassel, 1975), vol. 3, p. 245. This passage has been
discussed by, among others, Leonard Ratner, Classical Style: Expression, Form, and Style (New
York, 1980), p. 3; and Joseph Kerman, ‘Critics and the Classics’ in Write All These Down
(Berkeley, 1994), pp. 51–72, at p. 65.

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Table 7.2 Mozart, Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 415, 1st movement: tonal
prototypes and formal functions in the opening ritornello

Bars Tonal model Formal function

1–4 Canon on Do–Re–Mi Main theme

5–10 7–6 sequence ascending ”
10–18 Contrappunto alla scala ascending Transition
18–20 Bass falling by thirds ”
20–24 Indugio HC (MC)
25–35 Bass rising by step and falling by thirds Caesura fill
36–46 Prinner by canon; cadenza lunga Closing theme I
47–52 Cadenza lunga Closing theme II
52–59 Cadenza lunga Closing theme III

of the canon, in the bass, starts an ascending scale through an octave

accompanied by the partimento scheme 8–7–6. In bars 10–18 the
ascending scale moves up to the first violin accompanied with a contra-
ppunto alla scala played by the viola and the second violin on a pedal point.
The bass skips down by consecutive thirds (bars 18–20, another parti-
mento pattern) leading to an Indugio (bars 20–21) and a half cadence. The
extended passage between bar 26 and bar 34 is based on the partimento
pattern ‘ascending by step and descending by thirds’ accompanied by
alternating 6-5 and 5-3 chords (the true bass is the viola), and accelerated
from bar 32. The first perfect authentic cadence is reached at bar
41 through a Prinner in canon.46
Beethoven followed Haydn and Mozart’s approach in his early piano
concertos. Like the earlier composers, Beethoven sought to make his early
concertos appeal through easily comprehensible tonal prototypes. The
opening ritornello of the C major concerto is entirely composed from
standard eighteenth-century patterns, but presented on a broader scale
(summarized in Table 7.3). The opening ritornello of the Haydn cello
concerto has twenty-one bars; that of the Mozart concerto fifty-nine bars;
but Beethoven’s has 105 bars.47 The tonal prototypes are correspondingly

46
On the Heartz, see John A. Rice, ‘The Heartz: A Galant Schema from Corelli to Mozart’, Music
Theory Spectrum, 36/2 (2014), pp. 333–9.
47
However, given the tempo indication in the Haydn (Moderato) and the length of the thematic
units, we can reasonably assume that a notated bar is twice the length of the real (or
experienced) bar. The first tutti of the Haydn thus approximates in length the first tutti of the
Mozart (forty-two and fifty-nine bars respectively). On notated versus real bars, see Caplin,
Classical Form, p. 35.

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Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes 157

Table 7.3 Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15, 1st
movement: tonal prototypes and formal functions in the opening ritornello

Bars Tonal model Formal function

1–8 Do–Re–Mi Main theme

9–12 Prinner ”
13–15 Passo indietro/cadenza lunga ”
16–23 Do–Re–Mi Transition
24–31 Prinner ”
32–38 Prinner/scale mutation ”
38–45 Ponte Leads to MC
46–66 Fifth up, fourth down Subordinate theme
66–69 Fenaroli ”
72–75 Fonte Subordinate theme II
75–79 Syncopation in the bass ”
79–81 Rule of the Octave ”
81–85 Passo indietro/cadenza lunga EEC
85–105 Cadences Post-cadential section

expanded: the Prinner in the transition of the Haydn concerto takes one-
and-a half notated bars, while the same schema in the exposition of the
Beethoven concerto takes seven bars, and is followed by another modulat-
ing Prinner of the same length.48 The sequence ‘fifth up, fourth down’ has
no fewer than twenty-one bars. The opening theme is a sixteen-bar
sentence that is entirely made of galant schemata: a Do–Re–Mi, a Prinner,
a Passo indietro and a Cadenza lunga. This passage, however short,
highlights an interesting point: here Beethoven uses tonal prototypes to
generate thematic function, something that he would avoid in other genres
and styles.
The solo sections of the movement are also largely composed with tonal
prototypes. For instance, the first solo opens with an Aprile, followed by a
③④⑤① cadenza lunga repeated twice. Afterwards, the main theme
Do–Re–Mi is followed by a Fonte, both greatly enlarged by the soloist’s
passagework, before a major/minor Fenaroli opens the path to the modu-
lation to V, reached through a Phrygian cadence.

48
The Prinner in Beethoven is coupled with a Heartz (see the pedal point in the bass): only at the
third stage do we realize that the melodic line descends further onto the third degree of
the scale.

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Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes: An Attempt at Periodization

Around the turn of the century, Beethoven used tonal prototypes also in
music written for private enjoyment, such as solo piano music. The main
theme of the Rondo in G, Op. 51 No. 2, written in 1800, features no fewer than
four Fonti, all of them with a thematic function.49 The Fonte is also discern-
ible in other works composed at the turn of the century: in the Cello Sonata in
G Minor, Op. 5 No. 2, the main theme of the Rondo (in G major) has a ternary
structure in which the contrasting middle section consists entirely of a
Fonte.50 In the second movement of the Piano Sonata in C Minor, Op. 10
No. 1, the transition is composed of a Fonte, a Phrygian cadence and a Ponte
leading to a subordinate theme beginning with a Fenaroli.51
If one had to choose one work that showed the changing nature of
Beethoven’s relationship with tonal models, that would probably be the
substitution of the original middle movement of the ‘Waldstein’ sonata,
Op. 53 (subsequently published separately as Andante favori, WoO 57), by
an Introduzione (marked Adagio molto). Alan Gosman suggests that
Beethoven may have replaced the Andante favori because the Andante’s
theme originated from the same descending octave line that also underlies
the first movement’s second theme, and that he wanted to avoid too close
an affinity.52 I agree with Gosman, but from a slightly different angle: not
only is the melody similar, but the two themes share, too, the same
prototype, as Example 7.2 shows.
As Job Ijzerman convincingly argued, the first movement of Op. 53 is
largely based on elaborated variants of the Romanesca prototype: a step-
wise Romanesca with passing 6-4-2 chords underlies the main theme and
its transformations, while the subordinate theme is based on a modified
leaping version.53 Now, the main theme of the Andante is based on a
variant of the leaping Romanesca with 6-3 chords at the second stage, that
is the simplest and most regular version of this prototype (the differences
from the standard schema are the inverted metrical placement and the use

49 50
Bars 5–6; 21–22; 25–26; 27–28. Bars 8–12.
51
Gjerdingen, Music in the Galant Style, p. 238.
52
Alan Gosman, ‘From Melodic Patterns to Themes: The Sketches for the Original Version of
Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein’ Sonata, Op. 53’ in Genetic Criticism and the Creative Process: Essays
from Music, Literature, and Theater (Rochester, 2009), pp. 95–107, at pp. 105–6.
53
The stepwise Romanesca with passing 4-2 is coupled with a chromatic descending tetrachord in
the main theme, and with a Monte in the development. The leaping version features seventh
chords in place of the standard 6-3 on the weak beat. Job Ijzerman, ‘Schemata in Beethoven,
Schubert and Schumann’, Music Theory and Analysis, 4/1 (2017), pp. 3–39.

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Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes 159

Example 7.2 (a) Beethoven, Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 53, 1st movement, bars 35–38;
(b) Beethoven, Andante favori (WoO 57), bars 1–4

of a 6-3 chord at its beginning). It is possible that Beethoven realized that

this display of a bare prototype was incongruous after a first movement in
which the existing prototypes are elaborated in a very complex and indi-
vidual fashion. In fact, the new Introduzione is based on a radical trans-
formation – almost beyond perception – of the descending 5–6 pattern
(also known as galant Romanesca) with passing 4-2 chord that is the
foundation of the first movement’s main theme (see Example 7.3).54
As a bold generalization, I would venture to say that Beethoven’s ‘heroic
style’ tended to eschew tonal prototypes because they do not sit easily with
two of the major hallmarks of that style: the motivic and thematic indi-
viduality of each work and what has been summarized as the general
tendency of Beethoven’s heroic-style music towards ‘the monumentaliza-
tion of tonics, subdominants, and dominants’.55 Consequently, tonal
prototypes are either transformed almost beyond recognition (as in the
‘Waldstein’ sonata) or are excluded from thematic units and confined to
formal sections such as the transition or the development. But they do not
completely disappear. A telling case is a passage in the first movement of
the Fifth Symphony. Often regarded as the epitome of the heroic style
(‘a drama of tonic and dominant’ in Burnham’s words) and of totalizing

54
For the diatonic version with interpolated augmented fourth, see Sanguinetti, The Art of
Partimento, p. 140. In the Largo of Op. 53 the succession of 5-3 – 4#-2 – 6-3 is clearly
recognizable only in bars 3–4.
55
Scott Burnham, Beethoven Hero (Princeton, 1995), p. 83.

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Example 7.3 Beethoven, Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 53: (a) 1st movement, opening
bars; (b) 2nd movement, opening bars

motivic unity, the Fifth Symphony does make use of tonal prototypes.56
One of the most extraordinary passages in the first movement, the huge
intensification and prolongation of the tonic harmony in bars 33–43
leading to the onset of the tutti in bar 44, is entirely dependent on the
same partimento pattern noted in Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C (K. 415):
the ascending 8–7–6. This prototype is one of the main sequential accom-
paniments for the ascending scale, together with the 5–6 and the 9–8: all
three were taught as alternatives to the Rule of the Octave. Example 7.4
shows the ascending 7–6 in the version given by Fenaroli, alongside the
passage in the Fifth Symphony (strings only). In Beethoven the sequence is
part of the transition passage, but its characteristic shape also matches the
main theme’s motive.

Tonal Prototypes and Musical Meaning in Beethoven

When the heroic style gave way to different, sometimes strikingly new,
modes of expression the old stock phrases surfaced again, often in a
thematically exposed function. The main theme of the rondo of the
Sonatine in G, Op. 79 (1809), a plain galant Romanesca moving stepwise

56
Ibid., p. 39.

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Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes 161

(a)

(b)

Example 7.4 (a) Fenaroli, bass ascending stepwise with 8–7–6; (b) Beethoven,
Symphony No. 5, Op. 67, 1st movement, bars 33–44, strings

through a sixth, from 1 to 3, is an early example of Beethoven’s renewed

interest in tonal prototypes. Ten years later, the same tonal prototype
through the same span of a descending scale became the main theme of
the first movement of the Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109 (1820), the fifth of the
Six Bagatelles, Op. 126 (1824) and the Neue Kraft fühlend of the third
movement of the Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 (1825; this passage is
discussed later). Not only did Beethoven use the stepwise Romanesca in
three major works in five years, but the tonal prototype is plainly exposed
on the surface of the music.
The stepwise Romanesca is not an isolated case of Beethoven’s interest
in tonal prototypes in his late style. The Allegro of the first movement of
the Quartet in E flat, Op. 127 (1825), is based on a Prinner repeated twice,

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and the main theme of the Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile from
the C sharp minor Quartet, Op. 131 (1826), is an obvious, unadorned
Meyer. Also formulaic is the subject of the fugue in the Sonata in A flat,
Op. 110 (1821); the subject is based on a sequence of rising fourths and
falling thirds.57
This return to bare, unelaborated tonal material caught the attention of
no less a critic than Theodor W. Adorno, who, prompted by Op. 127,
wrote the following:
The late Beethoven covers its traces. But which? That is no doubt the riddle. For, on
the other hand, the musical language is displayed here nakedly and – as compared
to the middle style – directly. Does he, in order to enable tonality, and so on, to
emerge in this way, obliterate the traces of composition? Is this supposed to sound
as if it had not been composed? Has the subject passed over into the production, so
that it is eliminated as the producer? An image of autonomous motion?58

Adorno’s idea is that Beethoven withdraws from the compositional process,

leaving the musical language and its conventions to speak for themselves.
Adorno uses here the term composition not in the etymological sense of
assembling objects (from the Latin cum-ponere); rather, he means the
process of forcing conventional language into expressing the individuality
of the author. As a result the metaphor of organicism is not relevant
anymore; instead ‘[t]he bareness of the very late Beethoven’s music is
connected to the inorganic element. What does not grow, does not luxuriate.
Unadornedness and death. – Allegorical rather than symbolic.’59 Michael
Spitzer, in his book on Adorno and Beethoven’s late style, argues that
Adorno points ‘to the possibility of a tonal semiosis based on the concept
of allegorical harmony’; by ‘allegorical’ he means a musical language that is
neither organic nor individual but rather literal, that is plain and
unadorned.60 There could be no greater contrast with the middle style:
individuality versus conventionality, organic versus inorganic, and compos-
itional elaboration versus bare language. And yet, Adorno runs into trouble
when he tries to identify exactly what these conventions or utterances of
bare language are. He writes about ‘decorative trills’, ‘cadences’, ‘fiorituras’,

57
One of the Trios sur les intervalles de la gamme par Cristoforo Caresana, Organiste de la
Chapelle Royale de Naples (Naples, 1681) published by Choron in the second volume of his
Principes de Composition is based on the same sequence.
58
Theodor W. Adorno, Beethoven: The Philosophy of Music. Fragments and Texts, ed. Rolf
Tiedermann, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Oxford, 1998), p. 154.
59
Ibid., pp. 154–5.
60
Michael Spitzer, Music as Philosophy: Adorno and Beethoven’s Late Style (Bloomington, 2006),
pp. 64–5.

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Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes 163

‘elementary accompaniments’ and, very generally, ‘formulae’.61 When

describing pieces where tonal models are in full evidence, such as the fifth
bagatelle from Op. 126, he observes the effect (‘Tender, lyrical polyphony’),
but not the prototype that yields that effect. Reading Adorno’s prose one
almost feels his discomfort at not being able to pinpoint the cause. At the
same time, he gives the reader further remarkable insight into the possible
meaning of convention in late Beethoven’s style: ‘[t]he compulsion of
identity is broken and the conventions are its fragments. The music speaks
the language of the archaic, of children, of savages and of God, but not of the
individual. All the categories of the late Beethoven are challenges to ideal-
ism – almost to “spirit”. Autonomy is no more.’62
Among the conventions displayed in Beethoven’s late style, I believe a
notable place is occupied by tonal prototypes. They not only sound again in
unadorned fashion as they had done decades earlier, but also convey a special
meaning, one that Adorno connects with the ‘language of the archaic, of
children, of savages and of God’. In other words, they become topics of a
primal state of nature, innocence and joy. Nowhere is this meaning clearer
than in the contrasting section in the slow movement of Op. 132. After the
religious reverence of the Heiliger Dankgesang eines genesenen in die Gottheit,
in der lidischen Tonart comes a section in D major entitled Neue Kraft
fühlend. This section opens with a twofold Romanesca galante, whose bass
descends stepwise from ① to ③, joined by another stepwise motion by
double tenth played by the second violin (bars 31–34) and then by the first
violin (bars 35–36). All of Adorno’s hallmarks of conventionality are present
here, ‘decorative trills’, ‘cadences’ and ‘fiorituras’, but the single most import-
ant ingredient is the complex of features that makes the galant Romanesca
utterly distinctive: the bass descending stepwise from the tonic to one of the
triadic tones (the fifth, the third, or the lower tonic); the alternation of 5-3
and 6-3 chords; the metrical (or hypermetrical) placement, with the 5-3 on
the strong and the 6-3 on the weak bar; and the melodic profile of the upper
voices, one descending in parallel motion with the bass by tenths, the other
alternating fifths and sixths above the bass. All these features are synthesized
in Fenaroli’s prototype shown in Example 7.5.
There is no doubt about the meaning of this section. In Robert Hatten’s
words, ‘Beethoven expresses new strength and vitality within the context of

61
Trill as convention is also mentioned in Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus; Adorno was the
principal advisor to Mann in matters of music analysis. A critique on the nature and function of
trills in Op. 111 is offered by Spitzer, Music as Philosophy, pp. 165–6.
62
Adorno, Beethoven, p. 157.

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164  

(a)

(b)

Example 7.5 (a) Beethoven, Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, 3rd movement, bars 31–39;
(b) Fenaroli, partimento with descending bass, harmony of third and fifth on the first
degree, and of third and sixth on the second degree

grateful prayer and the use of a stylized Baroque dance . . . This dance is
the perfect blend of energy (trills and melodic figures in a vibrant triple
metre) and dignity (stately tempo, with pomp in the alternating forte
measures, and a “ceremonial” stepwise descent in the bass.’63 To quote
Adorno, the galant Romanesca becomes the ‘language of the archaic, of

63
Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation
(Bloomington, 1994), p. 199.

Giorgio Sanguinetti, Associate Professor of Music Theory, University of Rome Tor Vergata

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press
978-1-108-42852-1 — Beethoven Studies 4
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Beethoven and Tonal Prototypes 165

children, of savages and of God’. This particular tonal prototype seems to

have been employed by Beethoven in his late style as a signifier of inno-
cence: the withdrawal from individuality, leaving space for a language of
nature.
A similar feeling of almost nirvanic contemplation can be heard in the
Cavatina of the Quartet in B flat, Op. 130. In his extensive analysis of this
movement Hatten draws attention to its ‘primal’ expressivity, notably its
‘Chorale-like harmonic progressions and hymnic textures’, a high style
whose sincerity ‘is established by the use of straightforward harmonic
progressions at the beginning’. This style stands in striking opposition to
the recitative-like section marked ‘Beklemmt’ (anguished). The ‘straight-
forward harmonic progressions’ are, once more, derived from a tonal
prototype, the most general and least individual of them all: the Rule of
the Octave. To claim that the Rule of the Octave is a topic would be
nonsense: it is a tonal paradigm like a scale; in fact, it is a scale. Nonethe-
less, the primeval quality of simple tonal prototypes and – to quote Adorno
once more – this ‘bare language of music, purified of all individual
expressions’ allows Beethoven to look music ‘in the eye’.64

64
Adorno, Beethoven, p. 154.

Giorgio Sanguinetti, Associate Professor of Music Theory, University of Rome Tor Vergata

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org