6770

An Analytical Comparison of the Variation Movement from Ludwig van Beethovens
Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 109 to Johann Sebastian Bachs Aria mit verschiedenen
Vernderungen, BWV 988 (Goldberg Variations)
A document submitted to the

Graduate School
of the University of Cincinnati
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Musical Arts
in the Keyboard Studies Division

of the College-Conservatory of Music
by
Eliana Maria Murphy
BM, University of Colorado-Boulder, 2003

MM, University of Colorado-Boulder, 2005
Committee Chair: bruce d. mcclung, PhD
Abstract
The correlations between J. S. Bachs Aria mit verschiedenen Vernderungen,

BWV 988 (Goldberg Variations) (1741) and the variation movement of Ludwig van
Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 109 (1820) may not be apparent at a cursory
glance, yet upon closer examination, some striking parallels emerge. This document
compares relevant excerpts of J. S. Bachs Goldberg Variations and Beethovens
Op. 109 variation movement, offering evidence that Beethoven indeed did use the
Goldberg Variations as the inspiration for his musical invention in Op. 109s last
movement.
While there is no proof that Beethoven ever heard a performance or read through
a score of the Goldberg Variations, much circumstantial evidence points to the
conclusion that he had several opportunities to do so. In the first chapter, I explore how
Beethovens exposure to Bachs music influenced his development as a composer,
especially in his last compositional period. Special emphasis is given to the role that
Gottfried, Baron van Swieten played in introducing Beethoven to many of Bachs scores.
The second chapter describes many possible connections between the two works,
including the following: 1. Many editions of the Goldberg Variations had been
published by the time Beethoven was composing Op. 109, meaning that Bachs work was
more accessible than many of the composers other works; 2. Beethoven could have
encountered the score in the libraries of Swieten or the composers patron Archduke
Rudolph; 3. Johann Philipp Kirnbergers theory text Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der
Musik (1773/77), a book Beethoven owned, includes two brief excerpts of the Goldberg
Variations; 4. Carl Czerny, a member of Beethovens inner circle, claimed that he had
ii
been familiar with the Goldberg Variations during the time that Beethoven composed
Op. 109; and 5. Scholars have noted the similarities between the Goldberg Variations
and other works by Beethoven, especially Op. 120, the Diabelli Variations.
In the third chapter I summarize the compositional history and form of the
Goldberg Variations and Op. 109. The majority of score analysis occurs in the fourth
chapter, where I present related excerpts of Op. 109 and the Goldberg Variations
including not only those discussed by previous scholars but also ones left previously
unnoticed or summarily acknowledged by other authors. Finally, in the fifth chapter, I
explore unexamined connections between the Goldberg Variations and Beethovens
sketches for the Op. 109 variation movement by juxtaposing excerpts of both and
providing analytic comparisons, thus shining new light on the correlations between these
two works.
iii
Copyright 2013 by Eliana Maria Murphy.

All rights reserved.
iv
Copyright Permissions
All musical examples have been taken from the following sources:
Johann Sebastian Bach, The Open Goldberg Variations, ed. Kimiko Ishizaka (Creative
Commons Zero license), http://musescore.com/opengoldberg/goldberg-variations.
In the public domain.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 (Nos. 1632),
ed. Heinrich Schenker (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1913). In the public domain.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethovens Werke, Serie 6: Quartette fr 2 Violinen,
Bratsche und Violoncell, Zweiter Band, Nr. 50 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, 1863;
Reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1970). In the public domain.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Variations for the Piano, Vol. 1, Schirmers Library of Musical
Classics, Vol. 6, Book 1, 1894, ed. Hans von Bulow, Sigmund Lebert, and Philip Hale
(Reprint, New York: G. Schirmer, 1939). In the public domain.
Nicholas Marston, Beethovens Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109 (New York: Clarendon Press,
1995). Used with permission.
Alexander Silbiger, Passacaglia, Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online (Oxford
University Press) accessed June 7, 2013, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com
.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/21024. Used with permission.
Martin Zenck, Die Bach-Rezeption des spten Beethoven: zum Verhltnis von
Musikhistoriographie und Rezeptionsgeschichtsschreibung der Klassik (Stuttgart:
Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1986). Used with permission.
Acknowledgements
S. D. G. 1
My document adviser, Dr. bruce d. mcclung, is one of the most intelligent and
diligent scholars whom I know, and an outstanding adviser. I admire his thorough
mastery of the Chicago Manual of Style, his dedication to reading drafts thoroughly and
offering corrections even while on summer break, and his meticulous attention to detail.
Because of this, I have learned much from this project and have earned an even greater
respect for anyone who seriously engages in the research process. Additionally, I wish to
thank him for his excellent class on Bachs Keyboard Works, which gave me a much
greater familiarity with the Goldberg Variations and helped me generate the idea for
this document topic.
To Dr. David Berry, I thank him for his theoretical expertise, his careful reading
of my document this summer, his insightful comments, and for his theory classes which I
took at the University of Cincinnati (UC). Aside from taking the time to read through my
document, Professor Elizabeth Pridonoff has offered me much personal and musical
support during my years studying at UC in her piano studio, and I thank her for her warm
enthusiasm and vivaciousness on the stage and off, along with her husband, Professor
Eugene Pridonoff. As a piano duo and masterclass teachers, they illustrate the adage that
two heads [or four hands] are better than one.
It was in Professor Emeritus Frank Weinstocks class on Beethovens late sonatas
that I first thought of my thesis for this project. After having examined the Goldberg
Variations in Dr. mcclungs class, I was re-examining the score of Op. 109 (which I had
1
An abbreviation of Soli Deo Gloria (glory to God alone) written by J. S. Bach at the beginning of
many of his musical manuscripts.
vi
previously performed) in Professor Weinstocks class and suddenly the similarities of the
two works jumped out at me, leading me to explore the topic of this document. For that
class and for his continual kindness as chair of the piano department and later as interim
dean, I thank him.
To Dr. Michelle Conda, I appreciate her encouraging me to stay the course in the
completing my document, as well as her excellent pedagogical advice, which led to
having my first article published and my lecturing at a national conference; I would never
have ventured to do so without her recommendations.
To my family I offer my deepest love and gratitude for their love, their prayers,
their patience, their moral, and at times financial support through my many years of
university studies and for helping to keep me on track to complete this doctoral degree. I
couldnt have done it without you!
To my fianc, Jevan Ellis, you are my biggest cheerleader, and your belief in me
helped me find confidence to complete this document. From allowing me to flood your
inbox with multiple drafts to listening me to voice my fears and concerns, you have been
at my side encouraging me. I look forward to many years of love and music together!
To my friends Laura and Kirsten, you have put up with my many years of venting
and gripes about this document and my doctoral journey. For pushing me to keep going
and not give up, I say thank you! And to my friends Kelly, Katherine, and Jaime, thank
you for being my support team and accountability partners, including allowing me to
clutter your inboxes with my chapters this spring.
To my piano professor Doris Lehnert, with whom I studied piano (and the
Op. 109 sonata) during my undergraduate and masters degrees, I wish to say that you are
vii
my greatest musical role-model, and I am so thankful that my university studies on the

path to a doctoral degree allowed me to enjoy six wonderful years of music-making,
laughter, and inspiration.
To my fiancs mother, Mary Ellis, I offer thanks for her editing suggestions in
the French language.
Finally, I am thankful to the family of my student Rebecca Schwartz who offered
their support and advice on surviving the graduate research process.
viii
Contents
List of Musical Examples ................................................................................................ xi

Introduction........................................................................................................................1
Purpose of Study ......................................................................................................1
Literature Review.....................................................................................................2
Methodology ............................................................................................................5
Chapter 1
Beethoven and Bach...................................................................................6

Admiration and Study of Bach ........................................................7
Bachs Influence in Beethovens Compositions ............................14
Chapter 2
Beethoven and the Goldberg Variations............................................23

Evidence for Beethovens Encountering the
Goldberg Variations ...................................................................23
The Goldberg Variations and the Diabelli Variations ............31
Chapter 3
Compositional History.............................................................................37
History of the Goldberg Variations ............................................37
Formal Structure of the Goldberg Variations.............................39
Genesis of Op. 109.........................................................................43
Form of Op. 109.............................................................................47
Chapter 4
Analytical Comparison of the Goldberg Variations

with Op. 109..............................................................................................55
Comparison of Op. 109 to the Goldberg Variations:
Structure.........................................................................................55
Themes...........................................................................................60
ix

Variations.......................................................................................66
Op. 109: Variation 1 ..........................................................67
Op. 109: Variation 2 ..........................................................70
Op. 109: Variation 3 ..........................................................73
Op. 109: Variation 4 ..........................................................75
Op. 109: Variation 5 ..........................................................78
Op. 109: Variation 6 ..........................................................83
Summary of Similarities ................................................................86
Chapter 5
Comparison of the Op. 109 Sketches to the

Goldberg Variations ............................................................................87
Beethovens Sketch Process ..........................................................87
The Op. 109 Sketches ....................................................................89
Relation of the Op. 109 Sketches to the
Goldberg Variations ...................................................................93
Epilogue ..........................................................................................................................107
Bibliography ...................................................................................................................110
List of Musical Examples
1.1
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 101, IV, mm. 96109...............................................17
1.2
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 106, IV, mm. 34954...............................................18
1.3
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 110, III, mm. 2737 .................................................19
1.4
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 110, III, mm. 13649 ...............................................19
1.5
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 111, I, mm. 7281....................................................20
1.6
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 131, I, mm. 117......................................................21
1.7
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 110, III, m. 4 ............................................................21
2.1
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 25, mm. 2124 .......................................30
2.2
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 101, III, mm. 2124 .................................................30
2.3
2.4
2.5
Ludwig van Beethoven, Diabelli Variations, Var. 31 ........................................35
3.1
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria, mm. 18................................................40
3.2
Girolamo Frescobaldi, Cento partite (1637), Bass Line........................................41
3.3
Johann Kaspar Kerll, Passacaglia for Harpsichord (c. 1670), Bass Line ..............41
3.4
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria Bass Line, mm. 18 ...............................41
3.5
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, I, mm. 112......................................................48
3.6
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, II, mm. 116 ....................................................49
3.7
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, II, mm. 4149 ..................................................50
3.8
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, mm. 116 ...................................................51
3.9
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, I, Bass Line ......................................................52
3.10
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, II, Bass Line.....................................................52
xi
3.11
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Bass Line ...................................................52
3.12
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 6, mm. 16 .........................................54
4.1
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria Bass Line, mm. 18 ...............................60
4.2
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Bass Line, mm. 18 ...................................60
4.3
Sarabande Rhythm of J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations and Ludwig van

Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Theme ............................................................................61
4.4
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria, mm. 1112............................................63
4.5
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Theme, mm. 1314 ....................................63
4.6
4.7
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Theme, mm. 18 ........................................64
4.8
4.9
4.10
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 13, mm. 12 ...........................................69
4.11
4.12
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 13, mm. 910 .........................................69
4.13
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 1, mm. 1618 .....................................69
4.14
4.15
4.16
4.17
4.18
4.19
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 2, mm. 912 .......................................72
4.20
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 1, mm. 18 .............................................74
xii
4.21
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 27, mm. 13 and 1719 .........................74
4.22
4.23
4.24
4.25
4.26
4.27
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 4, m. 17 ..............................................77
4.28
4.29
4.30
Opening Rhythms of J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 22 and

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 5 .........................................................79
4.31
4.32
4.33
4.34
4.35
4.36
J. S. Bach Goldberg Variations, Var. 23, mm. 2526 ........................................82
4.37
4.38
4.39
4.40
4.41
4.42
4.43
xiii
4.44
4.45
5.1
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria, mm. 2830............................................95
5.2
5.3
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches:

Artaria 195, p. 57, st. 1/2 .......................................................................................95
5.4
5.5
5.6

Artaria 195, p. 57, st. 6/7 .......................................................................................96
5.7
5.8

Artaria 195, p. 50, st. 16.........................................................................................97
5.9
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 20, m. 13 ................................................98
5.10

Artaria 195, p. 52, st. 4/5 .......................................................................................98
5.11
5.12

Artaria 195, p. 53, st. 1/2 .......................................................................................99
5.13
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 11, mm. 1316 .....................................100
5.14
5.15

Artaria 195, p. 62, st. 13/14 .................................................................................100
5.16
5.17
Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches: Artaria 195, p. 66, st. 4/5..........101
5.18
xiv
5.19

Artaria 195, p. 68, st. 4/5, and 7/8........................................................................102
5.20
5.21

Artaria 195, p. 68, st. 10/11 .................................................................................103
5.22
5.23

Artaria 195, p. 69, st. 6/7 .....................................................................................104
5.24
J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 15, mm. 1 and 17 .................................105
5.25
5.26

Artaria 195, p. 6869, st. 15/16 ...........................................................................105
5.27
5.28

Artaria 195, p. 59, st. 15/16 .................................................................................106
xv
Introduction
Purpose of Study
The correlations between J. S. Bachs Aria mit verschiedenen Vernderungen,
BWV 988 (hereafter Goldberg Variations) (1741) and the variation movement of
Ludwig van Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 109 (1820) may not be apparent
at a cursory glance, yet upon closer examination, some striking parallels emerge. I will
disclose underlying connections between the two works, not only by discussing
Beethovens probable knowledge of the Goldberg Variations but also by comparing
relevant portions of the score to J. S. Bachs variations to the score and sketches for
Beethovens Op. 109 variation movement.
Several scholars have written about the connection between Bachs Goldberg
Variations and Beethovens Diabelli Variations, but few have written more than a few
sentences about the Goldberg Variations and Op. 109. The only major discussion of the
two works is by Martin Zenck, 1 and aside from several internet essays, precious little
scholarly writing in English exists on the topic. Furthermore, to the best of my
knowledge, no other scholar has attempted to compare the Op. 109 variation sketches
with the Goldberg Variations, meaning that this study will fill a gap in the Beethoven
literature. I have compared J. S. Bachs Goldberg Variations and the score and sketches
for Beethovens Op. 109 variation movement to demonstrate that Beethoven indeed did
use the Goldberg Variations as the inspiration for his musical invention in Op. 109s
third movement.
Musikhistoriographie und Rezeptionsgeschichtsschreibung der Klassik (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag
Wiesbaden, 1986).
Literature Review
In researching this document, I have relied extensively on the writings of three
leading Beethoven scholars: William Kinderman, Nicholas Marston, and Martin Zenck.
Both Zenck 2 and Kinderman 3 have intensively studied the effect that Johann Sebastian
Bachs music had on Beethovens compositions. Marston has not focused his attention on
that area, but instead has spent much time analyzing Beethovens Piano Sonata Op. 109,
including transcribing the sketches for that sonata. 4 The work of all three scholars helped
to lay the groundwork for this document.
Zenck, Bach-Rezeption des spten Beethoven; idem, Bach, der Progressive: Die GoldbergVariationen in der Perspektive von Beethovens Diabelli-Variationen, Musik-Konzepte 42 (1985): 2992;
idem, Rezeption von Geschichte in Beethovens Diabelli-Variationen: zur Vermittlung analytischer,
asthetischer und historischer Kategorien, Archiv fr Musikwissenschaft 37, no. 1 (1980): 6175; idem,
Bach Reception: Some Concepts and Parameters, in The Cambridge Companion to Bach, ed. John Butt
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 21825; idem, Reinterpreting Bach in the 19th and 20th
centuries, in The Cambridge Companion to Bach, ed. John Butt (New York: Cambridge University Press,
1997), 22650.
3
William Kinderman, Bachian Affinities in Beethoven, in Bach Perspectives III: Creative

Responses to Bach from Mozart to Hindemith, ed. Michael Marissen (Lincoln: University of Nebraska,
1998), 81108; idem, Rckblick nach vorn, Beethovens Kunstvereinigung und das Erbe Bachs, in
Beethoven und die Rezeption der Alten Musik: Die hohe Schule der berlieferung, ed. Hans-Werner
Kthen, Internationales Beethoven-Symposion, 2000 (Bonn: Verlag Beethoven-Haus, 2002), 12145;
idem, The Piano Music: Concertos, Sonatas, Variations, Small Forms, in The Cambridge Companion to
Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 10526, 31820; idem,
Thematic Contrast and Parenthetical Enclosure in the Piano Sonatas, op. 109 and 111, in Zu Beethoven:
Aufstze und Dokumente III, ed. Harry Goldschmidt and Georg Knepler (Berlin: Verlag Neue Musik,
1988), 4359; idem, Beethovens Diabelli Variations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987); idem,
Beethoven (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009); idem, Bach und Beethoven, in Bach und die
Nachwelt I: 17501850. ed. Michael Heinemann and Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag,
1997), 35177; idem, Klaviersonate E-dur op. 109, in Beethoven: Interpretationen seiner Werke, vol. 2,
ed. Albrecht Riethmller, Carl Dahlhaus, Alexander L. Ringer (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1994), 16268;
idem, Artaria 195: Beethovens Sketchbook for the Missa Solemnis and the Piano Sonata in E Major, Opus
109 (Champaign-Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003).
4
Nicholas Marston, Schenker and Forte Reconsidered: Beethovens Sketches for the Piano
Sonata in E, op. 109, 19th-century Music 10 (1986): 2442; idem, The Origins of Beethovens Op. 109:
Further Thoughts, Musical Times 127 (1986): 199201; idem, Beethovens Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109
(New York: Clarendon Press, 1995); idem, The Sense of an Ending: Goal-Directedness in Beethovens
Music, in The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2000), 84101, 31518.
The most authoritative study to date analyzing the Goldberg Variations and
Op. 109 is found in a section of Zencks Die Bach-Rezeption des spten Beethoven: zum
Verhltnis von Musikhistoriographie und Rezeptionsgeschichtsschreibung der
Klassik. 5 Additional books mentioning the topic include Wilfrid Mellerss Beethoven
and the Voice of God and Donald Francis Toveys Essays in Musical Analysis: Chamber
Music. 6 Moreover, the pianist Andrs Schiff has spoken of connections between the
pieces as part of a lecture on the Op. 109 sonata. 7 Other musicians who have discussed
the parallels between the two pieces in a less formal manner on the internet include Igor
Kriz, Robert Silverman, Nathan Carterette, Matthew Saunders, and Christopher Taylor. 8
(An interesting subset of my studies involved the connections between Beethovens
Diabelli Variations and the Goldberg Variations, since many authors writing on that
topic offered supporting evidence for my documents thesis, such as Zenck, Arnold
Mnster, Walter Schenkman, and Stephen Rumph. 9 )
Zenck, Die Bach-Rezeption des spten Beethoven.
Wilfrid Mellers, Beethoven and the Voice of God (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983);
Donald Francis Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis: Chamber Music, vol. 7, Essays in Musical Analysis
(London: Oxford University Press, 1944).
7
Andras Schiff, Andras Schiff Lecture Recital: Beethovens Piano Sonata Op 109 no 30, The
Guardian Culture Podcast, February 1, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/audio/2006/dec/20
/culture1440.
8
Igor Kriz, On Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 109, Igor Kriz, Professor of
Mathematics, University of Michigan, accessed February 1, 2013, http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~ikriz
/109.pdf; Robert Silverman, Beethoven Piano Sonatas: Liner Notes, Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109,
AudioHigh.org Music and Home Theater Systems: Upcoming Events, accessed February 1, 2013,
http://www.audiohigh.org/upcoming-events/beethoven-notes/sonata-30-in-e-major-op-109; Nathan
Carterette, Beethoven Sonatas 29 and 30, Nathan Carterette: Essays and Other Writing, accessed
February 1, 2013, http://nathancarterette.com/files/essays/BeethovenOp109Op110Notes.pdf; Matthew
Saunders, Op. 109, Matthew Saunders Blog, accessed February 1, 2013, http://martiandances.com/blog
/?p=81; Christopher Taylor, Christopher Taylors Program Notes, Wisconsin Public Radio, accessed
February 1, 2013, http://www.wpr.org/music/special/CTBeethoven.cfm.
9
Arnold Mnster, Studien zu Beethovens Diabelli-Variationen (Munich: Henle, 1982); Walter

Schenkman, The Establishment of Tempo in Bachs Goldberg Variations, BACH, Journal of the
Before discussing the connections between the two works, it was necessary to
learn more about Bachs influence on Beethoven, and for this I found the following
authors very helpful: Donald W. MacArdle, Ernst Fritz Schmid, Elinore Barber, Yo
Tomita, Elaine Sisman, and Hans-Josef Irmen. 10 For biographical aspects of Beethovens
life, I turned to Alexander Wheelock Thayers indispensable Beethoven biography and
volumes of Beethovens letters edited by Kalischer and Anderson, as well as writings by
Kinderman, Lewis Lockwood, and the controversial Anton Schindler. 11
In my further studies on the compositional history and form of the Goldberg
Variations, Peter Williamss Bach: The Goldberg Variations and David Schulenbergs
The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach were particularly helpful. 12 In conclusion, to acquire
information about the compositional history and sketches for Op. 109, I depended on the
work of William Meredith, Barry Cooper, and William Drabkin, as well as The
Riemenschneider Bach Institute 6, no. 3 (1975): 310; Stephen Rumph, Beethoven after Napoleon:
Political Romanticism in the Late Works (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004).
10
Donald W. MacArdle Beethoven and the Bach Family, Music and Letters 38 (1957): 35358;
Ernst Fritz Schmid, Beethovens Bachkenntnis, Neue Beethoven-Jahrbuch 5 (1933): 6483; Elinore
Barber, Beethoven and Bach, BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute 1, no. 4 (1970): 45;
idem, Beethoven on Bach, BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute 1, no. 4 (1970) 68; Yo
Tomita, Bach Reception in Pre-Classical Vienna: Baron van Swietens Circle Edits the Well-Tempered
Clavier II, Music & Letters 81, no. 3 (2000): 36491; Elaine Sisman, Memory and Invention at the
Threshold of Beethovens Late Style, in Beethoven and His World, ed. Scott G. Burnham and Michael P.
Steinberg (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 5187; Hans-Josef Irmen, Beethoven, Bach
und die Illuminaten, in Beethoven und die Rezeption der Alten Musik: Die hohe Schule der berlieferung,
ed. Hans-Werner Kthen, Die hohe Schule der berlieferung: Internationales Beethoven-Symposion, 2000
(Bonn: Verlag Beethoven-Haus, 2002), 2550.
11
Alexander Wheelock Thayer, Thayers Life of Beethoven, rev. and ed. Elliott Forbes (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970); Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethovens Letters, ed. Arthur Eaglefield
Hull and Alfred Christlieb Kalischer, trans. John South Sheldock (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1926;
reprint, New York: Courier Dover Publications, 1972); Ludwig van Beethoven, The Letters of Beethoven,
ed. Emily Anderson (London: Macmillan, 1961); Lewis Lockwood, Beethoven: The Music and the Life
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2005); Anton Felix Schindler, Beethoven as I Knew Him: A Biography, ed.
Donald W. MacArdle, trans. Constance S. Jolly (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966).
12
Peter Williams, Bach: The Goldberg Variations (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2001); David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, rev. 2nd ed. (New York: Taylor & Francis
Group, 2006).
Beethoven Sketchbooks: History, Reconstruction, Inventory by Douglas P. Johnson, Alan

Tyson, and Robert Winter. 13
Methodology
To provide historical context for my argument, I first present a general history of
Beethovens reception of Bachs compositional legacy. Then, I focus on the many
arguments in support of my thesis that Beethoven would have had several opportunities
to access the Goldberg Variations. This is followed by analysis of the history and form
of both the Goldberg Variations and Op. 109. Subsequently, I examine in depth the
parallels between the two works, often juxtaposing excerpts from the score of the
Goldberg Variations with the score and sketches for Op. 109 to highlight similarities of
form, texture, harmony, rhythm, and ornamentation. Occasionally, I use brackets or
Roman numeral chord labeling to make these affinities clear. Finally, a brief epilogue
allows the reader to discern the place of this study within Beethoven research.
13
William Meredith, The Origins of Beethovens Op. 109, The Musical Times 126 (1985): 713
16; idem, The Sources for Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, Opus 109 (PhD diss., University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1958); Barry Cooper, The Compositional Act: Sketches and Autographs,
in The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2000), 3242, 310; idem, Beethoven and the Creative Process (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990);
William Drabkin, The Sketches for Beethovens Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus 111 (PhD diss.,
Princeton University, 1977); Douglas P. Johnson, Alan Tyson, and Robert Winter, The Beethoven
Sketchbooks: History, Reconstruction, Inventory, ed. Douglas Johnson (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1985).
Chapter One
Beethoven and Bach
In defining the relationship between Johann Sebastian Bach (16851750) and

Ludwig van Beethoven (17701827), scholar William Kinderman unhesitatingly
declares, There is no other composer for whom the influence of Bach was more
important than for Beethoven. 1 In contrast, Beethovens student Ferdinand Ries (1784
1838), wrote, Of all composers, Beethoven valued most highly Mozart and Handel, then
[Johann] S. Bach. Whenever I found him with music in his hand or lying on his desk it
was surely compositions of these heroes. 2 The real truth as to Bachs importance to
Beethoven likely lies somewhere in the middle. Bach had been very influential to
Beethovens development as a musician and composer, especially during his third-style
period, albeit, as Ries points out, other composers were quite significant to him as well.
Because of the focus of this document, I will confine myself to considering Bachs
influence alone, and set aside discussion of other composers significance to Beethoven.
In this way I will lay the groundwork for my discussion of the influence of J. S. Bachs
Goldberg Variations on Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 109.

1998), 108.
2
Alexander Wheelock Thayer, Thayers Life of Beethoven, rev. and ed. Elliott Forbes (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970), 956.
Admiration and Study of Bach

One need look no further than Beethovens own words to glimpse Bachs
importance in his life. According to Karl Gottfried Freudenberg, Beethoven said of Bach:
His name ought not to be Bach [brook], but Ocean [Ozean], because of his infinite and
inexhaustible wealth of combinations and harmonies. He was the ideal of an organist. 3
In an 1801 letter concerning his plan to raise funds to assist Bachs impoverished
daughter, Regina Susanna Bach (17421809), Beethoven named her daughter of the
immortal god of harmony. 4 As part of a conversation book discussion with Andreas
Stumpff (17691846) in 1824, Beethoven agreed that Bach, though dead, could live
again, but only if he is studied and for that we have no time. 5 (Whether Beethovens
use of the word we refers specifically to himself and Stumpff, or generally to musicians
of the time is unclear.) Furthermore, in another conversation book entry he opined,
Portraits of Handel, Bach, Gluck, Mozart, and Haydn in my room. They can promote
my capacity for endurance. 6
Beethovens acquaintance with Bachs music began while he was yet a youth,
when his teacher Christian Gottlob Neefe (17481798) introduced him to most of The
Well-Tempered Clavier (unpublished until 1801). Much later in life, Beethoven still
3
Ibid., 366.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethovens Letters, ed. Arthur Eaglefield Hull and Alfred Christlieb
Kalischer, trans. John South Sheldock (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1926; reprint, New York: Courier
Dover Publications, 1972), 29.
5
Thayer, Life of Beethoven, 27576. The conversation books were notebooks which Beethoven
used from 1818 onwards to communicate with his visitors once his hearing began to decline. The visitor
wrote down a question, to which Beethoven generally responded verbally. Conversation Books,
Beethoven-Haus Bonn, accessed July 18, 2013, http://www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de/sixcms/detail.php
/18568/glossar_detail_en.
6
Maynard Solomon, Beethovens Tagebuch, in Beethoven Essays (Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press, 1988), 258.
enjoyed playing the work. 7 In an announcement in Johann Baptist Cramers (17711858)

Magazin der Musik on March 2, 1783 (probably written by Neefe himself), we read of
the young Beethoven: He plays chiefly The Well Tempered Clavier of Sebastian Bach,
which Herr Neefe has put into his hands. Whoever knows this collection of preludes and
fugues in all the keyswhich might almost be called the non plus ultra of our artwill
know what this means. 8 (Whether Neefe was actually the first to place The WellTempered Clavier in Beethovens hands is uncertain, since the publisher Nikolaus
Simrock (17511832) claimed that he presented it to Beethoven when he was nine and
that the composer worked on them every day with all his might. 9 ) After Beethovens
study with Haydn, his counterpoint studies in 17941795 with Bach enthusiast Johann
Georg Albrechtsberger may have introduced him to some other of Bachs works. 10
Beethoven traveled to Leipzig and Berlin in 1796, assisted by Karl Alois, Prince
Lichnowsky (17611814), a friend of Forkel and a collector of Bach manuscripts, who
lamented the fact that the newer generation of musicians was not appreciative of the
music of Bach and George Frideric Handel (16851759). 11 One can only guess which
7
Thayer, Life of Beethoven, 6667.
Er spielt grtenteils das wohltemperierte Clavier von Sebastian Bach, welches ihm Herr Neefe
unter die Hnde gegeben. Wer diese Sammlung von Prludien und Fugen durch alle Tne kennt, (welche
man fast das non plus ultra nennen knnte), wird wissen, was das bedeute. Ernst Fritz Schmid,
Beethovens Bachkenntnis, Neue Beethoven-Jahrbuch 5 (1933): 72. English translation in Thayer, Life of
Beethoven, 6566.
9
Anton Felix Schindler, Beethoven as I Knew Him: A Biography, ed. Donald W. MacArdle, trans.
Constance S. Jolly (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966), 81, n. 17.
10
Lajos Rovtkay, Er komponierte postum weiterberlegungen zur kompositorischen

Nachwirkung Johann Sebastian Bachs aus Anlass seines 250. Todesjahres. III: Die kompositorische BachRezeption Beethovens und der Romantik, Concerto: Das Magazin fr Alte Musik 17, no. 159 (2000): 19.
11
Hans-Josef Irmen, Beethoven, Bach und die Illuminaten, in Beethoven und die Rezeption der
Alten Musik: Die hohe Schule der berlieferung, ed. Hans-Werner Kthen, Die hohe Schule der
berlieferung: Internationales Beethoven-Symposion, 2000 (Bonn: Verlag Beethoven-Haus, 2002), 3239.
pieces by Bach Beethoven may have encountered in Leipzig, Bachs residence from 1723
to 1750.
A key figure who familiarized Beethoven with many of Bachs works (likely
including the Goldberg Variations) was the musical connoisseur Gottfried, Baron van
Swieten (17331803); according to Beethoven biographer Alexander Thayer (1817
1897), to Swieten is due the credit of having founded in Vienna a taste for Handels
oratorios and Bachs organ and pianoforte music, thus adding a new element to the music
there. 12 If one wonders why Swieten deserves special notice among Beethovens
mentors, Andreas Holschneider claimed: The private music collection of Gottfried van
Swieten, the prefect of the library in Vienna, deserves special interest, because it can be
considered as the most important cue for the tradition of the German Baroque music
within the Viennese classics.Beethovens knowledge of Bachs music goesaccording
to Schindlers informationback in large part to the Bach manuscripts in Swietens
library. 13 In the words of Anton Schindler (17951864), Beethovens student and
amanuensis: The evening gatherings at Swietens home had a marked effect on
Beethoven, for it was here that he first became acquainted with the music of Handel and
Bach. He generally had to stay long after the other guests had departed, for his elderly
12
Thayer, Life of Beethoven, 158. Many of the key figures in Beethovens life who introduced him
to Bachs music were Freemasons (Illuminati): Neefe, Lichnowsky, Swieten, et al. Whether it is relevant to
this topic or not is questionable, as Freemasonry was common among key intellectuals of Beethovens day.
For more information, see Irmen, Beethoven, Bach und die Illuminaten.
13
die private Musiksammlung Gottfried van Swietens, des Prfekten der Hofbibliothek in Wien,
spezielles Interesse; denn sie kann als wichtigste Queue fr die berlieferung der deutschen Barock-musik
an die Wiener Klassiker geltenAuch Beethovens Kenntnis Bachscher Musik geht nach Schindlers
Angaben zum groen Teil auf die Bach-Handschriften in Swietens Bibliothek zurck. Andreas
Holschneider, Die musikalische Bibliothek Gottfried van Swietens, in Bericht ber den internationalen
musikwissenschaftlichen Kongre, Kassel 1962, ed. Martin Just and Georg Reighert (Kassel: Brenreiter,
1963), 175. Translations are supplied by the author of this thesis, unless otherwise noted. In most cases, the
original text is reproduced in the footnotes.
host was musically insatiable and would not let the young pianist go until he had blessed
the evening with several Bach fugues. 14 (Schindler is not always a reliable witness; for
example, his words above are contradicted by the fact that Beethoven was acquainted
with Bachs The Well-Tempered Clavier from his youth. However, based on the
evidence of other Beethoven contemporaries, Swieten was highly influential in greatly
increasing knowledge of Bachs works in Vienna among the musical intelligentsia.)
No less a figure than Mozart wrote: I go every Sunday at twelve oclock to the
Baron van Swieten, where nothing is played but Handel and Bach. I am collecting at the
moment the fugues of Bachnot only of Sebastian, but also of [Carl Philip] Emanuel
and [Wilhelm] Friedemann. 15 Speaking of Beethoven, Abb Joseph Gelinek (1758
1825) noted that also that His Excellency Baron van Swieten had earnestly
recommended the study of counterpoint and frequently inquired of him how far he had
advanced in his studies. 16 According to Josef Weigl (17661846): Every Sunday at
twelve noon there was music at his [Swietens] residence. Only compositions by Bach,
Handel, Graun, and others among the oldest and most famous masters were performed.
14
Schindler, Beethoven as I Knew Him, 49. Further evidence for Beethoven being a frequent
visitor at Swietens can be found in a note from the baron: Herr Beethoven, Altergasse 24, care of Prince
Lichnowsky. If you have no other engagement, I should like to have you at my house next Wednesday with
your nightcap in your bag. Please reply immediately, Swieten. Ibid.
15
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Leopold Mozart, The Letters of Mozart and his Family, trans.
and ed. Emily Anderson, 3rd rev. ed. (London: Macmillan, 1985), 800. The importance of Swieten to early
Bach appreciation and scholarship is documented by Johann Nicolaus Forkels (17491818) dedication of
his seminal Bach biography to Swieten: Seiner Excellenz dem Freyheren van Swieten ehrerbietigst
gewidmet von dem Verfasser. Johann Nicolaus Forkel, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work,
ed. Charles Sanford Terry, trans. anonymous (1802; New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, 1920), xii.
16
und da auch Se. Excellenz Baron van Swieten ihm das Studium des Contrapunktes ernstlich
empfehle und fter in Frage gestellt, wie weit er schon seiner Lehre fortgeschritten seye? Johann Baptist
Schenk, Autobiographische Skizze, ed. Guido Adler, Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 11 (Wien: UniveralEdition 1924), 77, quoted in Schmid, Beethovens Bachkenntnis, 75. English translation from Thayer, Life
of Beethoven, 140.
10
Mozart accompanied at the fortepiano. Salieri, Starzer, Teiber, and the baron sang. 17
(Inspired by these concerts, Beethoven would later host his own Sunday musical
matinees for friends and would include music of Bach and Handel, among others.18 ) The
value that Swieten placed on Bachs music can be further seen in his personal comments
in the first volume of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (1799):
I belong, as far as music is concerned, to a generation that considered it necessary
to study an art form thoroughly and systematically before attempting to practice
it. I find in such a conviction food for the spirit and for the heart, and I return to it
for strength every time I am oppressed by new evidence of decadence in the arts.
My principal comforters at such times are Handel and the Bachs and those few
great men of our own day who, taking these as their masters, follow resolutely in
the same quest for greatness and truth. 19
One might wonder how Swieten was able to access so much of J. S. Bachs
music, until one considers his interactions with various members of Bachs circle. When
the baron was the Austrian ambassador to Berlin in the 1770s, the city was the leading
centre of Bach promotion, whose inhabitants included Bachs son Wilhelm Friedemann
Bach, and Bachs pupils Johann Friedrich Agricola and Johann Philipp Kirnberger. 20
While in Berlin, Swieten commissioned Bachs son Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach to write
six Symphonies for String Orchestra (1773), H. 657662, and later in return the composer
17
Nur Bachische, Haendelische, Graunische Compositionen und jene der altesten und
beruhmtesten Meister wurden gemacht. Mozart accompagnirte auf dem Fortepiano. Salieri, Starzer, Teiber
und der Baron sangen. Rudolph Angermller, Mozart in Wien, in Mozart: Bilder und Klnge (Salzburg:
Katalog der 6. Salzburger Landesausstellung Schloss Klessheim, 1991), 335, quoted in Irmen, Beethoven,
Bach und die Illuminaten, 43. English translation in John A. Rice, Empress Maria Therese and Music at
the Viennese Court, 17921897 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 233.
18
Irmen, Beethoven, Bach und die Illuminaten, 48.
19
Gottfried van Swieten, Aus einem Briefe des Herrn Geheimen Rathe, Freyherrn van Swieten:
Wien zu Ende Decembers 1798, Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 1, no. 16 (1799): 25255, quoted and
translated in Schindler, Beethoven as I Knew Him, 49.
20
Yo Tomita, Bach Reception in Pre-Classical Vienna: Baron van Swietens Circle Edits the
Well-Tempered Clavier II, Music & Letters 81, no. 3 (2000): 36566; Donald W. MacArdle, Beethoven
and the Bach Family, Music and Letters 38 (1957): 354.
11
dedicated to Swieten the third set of keyboard Sonaten fr Kenner und Liebhaber
(1781). 21 When Baron van Swieten returned to Vienna in 1777 as Director of the
Imperial Library, he is reported to have brought along a large number of J. S. Bachs
manuscripts, 22 one of which may very well have been a copy of the Goldberg
Variations.
A key part of this growing movement in the nineteenth century to rediscover and
value music of the past was the printing press. 23 The invention of the movable music type
by Johann Gottlieb Emmanuel Breitkopf (17191794) in 1750 had allowed music to be
distributed much more widely than in previous times, giving Beethoven access to the
works of many composers. 24
In a letter to the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister (17541812) of the
publishing house Hoffmeister & Khnel in 1801, Beethoven wrote: Your purpose to
publish the works of Sebastian Bach is something which does good to my heart which
beats only for the lofty and magnificent art of this patriarch of harmony, and I hope soon
to see them in vigorous sale. I hope as soon as golden peace has been declared to be
helpful in many ways, especially if you offer the works for subscription.25 Later that
year, he again wrote to Hoffmeister, requesting, Put me down as subscriber to Johann
21
Irmen, Beethoven, Bach und die Illuminaten, 4243.
22
Tomita, Bach Reception, 369.
23
Irvin Kolodin, The Continuity of Music: A History of Influence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1969), 917.
24
Ibid., 12.
25
12
Sebastian Bachs works, [and] also [put down] Prince Lichnowsky. 26 After receiving
scores for Bach motets published by Breitkopf and Hrtel, Beethoven sent this message:
I thank you heartily for the beautiful things of Sebastian Bach, I will keep and study
them [original emphasis]. If any more follow, do please let me have them also. 27 He also
requested the firm to send him all the scores they owned by J. S. Bach (in addition to
those by Haydn, Mozart, and C. P. E. Bach), including the scores for the Mass in
B Minor, BWV 232, and the newly published The Well-Tempered Clavier. 28 (Afterwards,
he also asked the publisher Hans Georg Ngeli (17731836) for the score to Bachs
mass. 29 ) Beethoven would also have been able to encounter works of Bach in the uvres
compltes de Jean Sebastien Bach (1800) published by the Bureau de Musique in Leipzig
(one of Beethovens publishers and a partnership of Hoffmeister & Khnel), Johann
Philipp Kirnbergers Die Kunst des Reinen Satzes (1793), and Friedrich Wilhelm
Marpurgs Abhandlung von der Fuge (1801). 30
According to Schindler, Beethovens possessions at the time of his death included
multiple keyboard scores by J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, three volumes of the
Clavierbung; the Inventions, BWV 772786; the Sinfonias, BWV 787801; and a
Toccata in D Minor (unknown BWV no.). 31 Schindlers claim would seem to be verified
26
Beethoven, Beethovens Letters, 27.
27
Ibid., 46.
28
Ibid., 90, 11011.
29
Ibid., 330.
30
Kinderman, Bachian Affinities, 8384.
31
Schindler, Beethoven as I Knew Him, 380, 394, n. 314. Schindler does not specify which three
volumes of the Clavierbung Beethoven owned, so at first glance one might think that there is a possibility
that one of the volumes might by Clavierbung IV, which we know as the Goldberg Variations. But this
is disproven by the fact that it was not listed as Clavierbung IV on either the original title page or in
13
by the fact that when he died his own library included such Bach scores as Book I of The
Well-Tempered Clavier, the Inventions and Sinfonias, a Toccata in D Minor, and Partitas
Nos. 2, 4, and 5, with many annotations in Beethovens hand. 32
Bachs Influence in Beethovens Compositions

In the minds of numerous scholars, Beethovens compositions are a direct
continuation of the Bachian legacy, 33 and this may have been because of a conscious
attempt of his to match Bachs great compositional heritage. 34 William Kinderman sums
up the thoughts of many when he writes, The fusion of Bachs solidity and continuity
with the dramatic contrasts and discontinuities of the classic style gives Beethovens art a
unique variety and strength. 35 Some may argue that Beethoven could have been
influenced by any number of German composers of fugues, but since he is known to have
revered Bach, who may be considered to bring out the best of the German school of fugal
writing, it is reasonable to propose that Bachs pieces were the primary influence on
Bachs Obituary. The custom of naming the Goldberg Variations as Clavierbung IV came from the
Bach Society 1853 edition (BG vol. III) which grouped the Goldberg Variations with Clavierbung I, II,
and III. According to Bach scholar Peter Williams, the Goldberg Variations may have been informally
labeled Part IV by hand on copies before then. Williams, The Goldberg Variations, 7. See also Andreas
Jacob, Ordnungsprinzipien in Johann Sebastian Bachs Klavierbung, Jahrbuch des Staatlichen Instituts
fr Musikforschung Preuischer Kulturbesitz 1 (1994): 15051; Rolf Dammann, Johann Sebastian Bachs
Goldberg-Variationen (Mainz: Schott Mainz, 1986), 267.
32
MacArdle, Bach Family, 35455.
33
Erwin Ratz, Einfhrung in die musikalische Formenlehre: ber Formprinzipien in den

Inventionen u. Fugen J. S. Bachs u. ihre Bedeutung f. die Kompositionstechnik Beethovens (Vienna:
Universal, 1968), 2122.
34
35
Die Verschmelzung von Bachscher Gediegenheit und Kontinuitt mit den dramatischen
Kontrasten und Diskontinuitten des klassischen Stils verleiht der Beethovenschen Kunst eine einzigartige
Vielfalt und Kraft. William Kinderman, Rckblick nach vorn, Beethovens Kunstvereinigung und das
Erbe Bachs, in Beethoven und die Rezeption der Alten Musik: Die hohe Schule der berlieferung, ed.
Hans-Werner Kthen, Internationales Beethoven-Symposion, 2000 (Bonn: Verlag Beethoven-Haus, 2002),
145.
14
Beethoven in this form. (Contrapuntally, Beethoven was not only inspired by Bach but by
Handel as well, but because of the confines of this paper I will focus on Bachs
significance alone. 36 )
The presence of fugal writing and strict counterpoint in Beethovens works is one
of the reasons most scholars hear Bachs influence. That Beethoven, in common with
many other composers, 37 admired Bachs skill in writing fugues and canons is obvious
from the fact that he transcribed for string quartet the Fugue No. 24 in B Minor from The
Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II; 38 copied by hand in 1810 the Chromatic Fantasy and
Fugue, BWV 903; 39 owned parts (in his own hand) to Die Kunst der Fuge; 40 and
composed a canon on the theme B-A-C-H. 41 He did not limit himself to copying Bach
fugues, but also performing them. Beethovens student Carl Czerny (17911857), when
editing a volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier for publication in 1837, claimed he was
influenced by the clear recollection I have of the way in which I have heard many of the
fugues played by Beethoven. 42 According to Thayer, From Bachs preludes and
fugues, which he [Beethoven] was also to play a great deal later in life, he not only
36
Maynard Solomon, Beethoven and His Nephew: A Reappraisal, in Beethoven Essays

(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), 145.
37
Thomas Payne, Musical Terminology in the Contrapuntal and Canonic Works of J. S. Bach,
BACH: The Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute 17, no. 1 (1986): 18.
38
Schmid, Beethovens Bachkenntnis, 7071; MacArdle, Bach Family, 35455.
39
40
41
Barber, Beethoven on Bach, 8.
42
John Harley, Beethovens Bach, Musical Times 96, no. 5 (1955): 248.
15
derived considerable instruction, but he found, as is evidenced in many of his later

worksa pattern for imitation.43
When composing fugally, Beethoven felt it important to not merely imitate old
models, but to also speak in his own compositional voice: It is no challenge to write a
fugue; in my student days I wrote dozens of them. But fantasy must also receive its due,
and nowadays a different and really poetic aspect must be brought to the venerable
form. 44 He was gifted in being able to intertwine the techniques of strict fugue with
free imagination. 45 Though Beethoven included fugal writing in works from throughout
his life, the fugal influence was most noticeable after 1810, 46 and in his sonatas after
1814 during his third style period he used expanded contrapuntal dimension. 47
43
Thayer, Life of Beethoven, 6667. Thayer goes on to write, In general, however, his
[Beethovens] model was not Bach but Mozart. This does not necessarily negate Bachs influence on
Beethoven, but rather states the obvious truth that Beethovens work is overall in a more Classical style,
rather than a Baroque one.
44
Kinderman, Bachian Affinities, 9394. Emended translation from Thayer, Life of Beethoven,
45
die Techniken der strengen Fuge mit der freien Fantasie. Kinderman, Rckblick nach
692.
vom, 143.
46
47
Ibid., 8990.
16
Examples of fugal writing in Beethovens works are too plentiful to mention more than a
few here, but I will consider some of the most prominent ones, especially those found in
the late piano sonatas, such as the fugue that appears as the last movement of Op. 101
(1816) (see Example 1.1).
Example 1.1 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 101, IV, mm. 96109.
17
Beethovens Op. 106 (181718) has a Bach reminiscent moment in the slow
introduction to the fourth movement fugal finale; 48 moreover, Czerny claimed that a
performer could play that finale properly only if he has previously well studied many
other fugues by Bach, Handel, etc. 49 (see Example 1.2).
Example 1.2 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 106, IV, mm. 34954.
48
William Kinderman, The Piano Music: Concertos, Sonatas, Variations, Small Forms, in The
Cambridge Companion to Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000),
120.
49
Carl Czerny, On the Proper Performance of All Beethovens Works for the Piano, ed. Paul
Badura-Skoda, trans. anonymous (1846; reprint, Bryn Mawr, PA: T. Presser, 1970), 55.
18
Meanwhile, Op. 110 (1821) contains two fugues in its third-movement finale, based on a
subject and its inversion, respectively (cf., Examples 1.3 and 1.4). 50
Example 1.3 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 110, III, mm. 2737.
50
For an excellent discussion of Beethovens use of fugue in Opp. 106 and 110, see Kinderman,
Bachian Affinities, 94100.
19
Op. 111 (182122) includes a fugato style, such as that found at the beginning of the
development of the first movement (see Example 1.5). 51
Example 1.5 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 111, I, mm. 7281.
As discussed by Ludwig Finscher, the String Quartets in B-Flat Major, Op. 130 (1825
26), C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 (1826) and the Grosse Fugue, Op. 133 (182526) all have
fugal elements even though they are stylistically very different (see Example 1.6). 52
51
For discussion of Baroque elements in Op. 111, see Hans-Werner Kthen, Quarendo
invenietis: Die Exegese eines Beethoven-Briefes an Haslinger vom 5. September 1823, in Musik, Edition,
Interpretation: Gedenkschrift Gnter Henle, ed. Martin Bente (Munich: Henle, 1980), 282313.
52
Ludwig Finscher, Bachs Posthumous Role in Music History, in Bach Perspectives III:
Creative Responses to Bach from Mozart to Hindemith, ed. Michael Marissen (Lincoln: University of
Nebraska, 1998), 14, 21.
20
Many other examples of Bach-like writing that are not strictly fugal abound in
Beethovens late works (for example, the Bach-like recitative style appears in sections of
Op. 110 (see Example 1.7)), as I will discuss in Op. 109.
Example 1.7 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 110, III, m. 4.
21
Certain scholars see Beethovens skill in synthesizing some of the best aspects of
the Baroque and Classical styles as placing him among the ranks of the preeminent
composers. Speaking of the Classical era in general, Charles Rosen wrote that it could
not produce a major style of its own until it had reabsorbed (partly transformed and partly
misunderstood) the work of Handel and Sebastian Bach. 53 Matthew Charles Dirst posits,
Beethoven is a superior composer because he evolved a highly personal style that adopts
the Festigkeit of Bach while adapting it to a radical new context shaped by the drama
inherent in the Classical style. 54 Finally, William Kinderman claims, In summary it can
be said that it was possible for Beethoven to unite the music of the classical period, as it
was taken from Haydn and Mozart to completion, with another, older tradition
especially embodied through the work of Sebastian Bach. 55 From these and other
scholarly opinions, it is clear that Bachs works had a tremendous effect on Beethovens
compositional output, especially in his third style period.
53
Charles Rosen, The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, rev. ed. (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 1998), 47.
54
Matthew Charles Dirst, Review of Bach Perspectives III: Creative Response to the Music of
J. S. Bach from Mozart to Hindemith, edited by Michael Marissen, Music and Letters 81, no. 1 (2000):
9798.
55
Zusammenfassend lsst sich sagen, dass es Beethoven gelang, die Musik der Klassik, wie sie
von Haydn und Mozart zur Vollendung gebracht worden war, mit einer anderen, lteren Traditionvor
allem durch das Werk Sebastian Bachs verkrpert wird, zu vereinen. Kinderman, Rckblick nach vom,
144.
22
Chapter Two
Beethoven and the Goldberg Variations
Evidence for Beethovens Encountering the Goldberg Variations

If one knew that Beethoven owned a copy of the Goldberg Variations, it would
make this studys premise that much easier to prove. Nevertheless, lacking this proof, one
can yet accrue confirmation from several sources that make it probable that Beethoven
owned, or at least had access to, a copy of the Goldberg Variations. According to
Walter Schenkman, While there is no hard evidence showing that Beethoven was
familiar with the Goldberg, the score itself appears to have been easily accessible in
Beethovens day, 1 and Martin Zenck suggests that it was a very well-known work in
Beethovens time. 2 Lewis Lockwood declares it highly probable that Beethoven knew
the Goldberg Variations, 3 while Wilfrid Mellers thinks that Beethoven probably
knew them. 4 Although we have no evidence that Beethoven possessed a copy of the
work, in Arnold Mnsters assessment, one can probably assume with high probability
that Beethoven knew the Goldberg Variations; a conclusive answer to this important
question, however, is not currently possible. 5
Walter Schenkman, Rethinking Diabellis Waltz in Relation to Beethovens Variations, AD

PARNASSUM, A Journal of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century Instrumental Music 4, no. 8 (2006): 7.
2
auerordentlich bekanntes Werk. Martin Zenck, Rezeption von Geschichte in Beethovens

Diabelli-Variationen: zur Vermittlung analytischer, asthetischer und historischer Kategorien, Archiv fr
Musikwissenschaft 37, no. 1 (1980): 73.
3
Lewis Lockwood, Beethoven: The Music and the Life (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005), 394.
Wilfrid Mellers, Beethoven and the Voice of God (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983),
220.
5
haben wir keinen Anhaltspunkt dafr, da Beethoven ein Exemplar des Werkes besessenkann
man wohl mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit annehmen, da Beethoven the Goldberg-Variationen gekannt hat,
23
From a slightly different perspective, Pianist Andrs Schiff states: Beethoven

must have known the Goldberg Variations intimately well, although there is no
evidence to this. Bachs music was not known and not performed in Beethovens time. If
somebody wanted to know Bach, one had to go to a library or to private collections, great
collectors and music lovers who had manuscripts or first editions of Bach, and Beethoven
must have seen this somewhere, because the structure of the final movement of Op. 109
is obviously modeled after the Goldberg Variations. 6 (Schiffs claim must be qualified
by the fact that Bachs works were not performed in public concerts at the time, but in
private concerts held in the homes of wealthy amateurs and patrons.) In any case, the
Goldberg Variations would have been accessible in a private rather than public setting,
either through privately circulated manuscript copies, 7 printed editions, or
performances. Therefore, serious musicians of Beethovens circle could plausibly have
had access to a manuscript copy or recent edition.
By the time Beethoven was composing Op. 109, the Goldberg Variations
already had a wide and varied publication history, making it probable that Beethoven
could have encountered any one of a number of different editions. The first was the
original printing during Bachs lifetime by Balthasar Schmid of Nuremberg in 1741. 8
Much later, Johann Breitkopf included the Goldberg Variations in his 1770 catalog of
eine schlussige Beantwortung dieser wichtigen Frage ist jedoch zur Zeit noch nicht mglich. Arnold
Mnster, Studien zu Beethovens Diabelli-Variationen (Munich: Henle, 1982), 213.
6
Andrs Schiff, Andras Schiff Lecture Recital: Beethovens Piano Sonata Op 109 no 30, The
Guardian Culture Podcast, December 20, 2006, accessed February 1, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts
/audio/2006/dec/20/culture1440.
7
Constance S. Jolly (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966), 394, editors note.
8
Peter Williams, Bach: The Goldberg Variations (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001),
7, 28.
24
music he offered for sale. 9 Then, the Vienna publisher Johann Traeg, who had been in a
close business relationship with Beethoven since 1796, listed the Goldberg
Variations in his catalog of 1799. 10 Subsequently, the Goldberg Variations were
published in a two-volume edition by Hoffmeister in 1803 in Vienna where Beethoven
lived, 11 followed by a reissue by Hoffmeisters partner Ambrosius Khnel under the firm
titled the Bureau de Musique in Leipzig in 1804 or 1806 12 as volumes twelve and
thirteen of the series titled Exercices pour le clavecin by Bach. 13 (As mentioned above,
Beethoven urged Hoffmeister more than once to send him all the music he was
publishing by Bach, and he subscribed to the 18011806 Leipzig series of the complete
works of Bach. 14 ) Finally, in 1809 the publisher Hans Georg Ngeli published an edition
of the Goldberg Variations in Zurich at the same time as he was in communication with
Beethoven concerning the publication of his Sonatas Op. 31. 15 Unfortunately, and
perhaps surprisingly, none of these editions is claimed to have been in Beethovens
possession at the time of his death. 16 Zenck explains the omission in this manner: On the
Ibid., 94.
10
enger Geschftsverbindung. Ernst Fritz Schmid, Beethovens Bachkenntnis, Neue

Beethoven-Jahrbuch 5 (1933): 7980; Zenck, Rezeption von Geschichte, 7374; idem, Bach der
Progressive, 29; Mnster, Beethovens Diabelli-Variationen, 203.
11
Williams, The Goldberg Variations, 95; Lockwood, Beethoven: The Music, 546, n. 47;
Schenkman, Rethinking Diabellis Waltz, 12.
12
13
Zenck, Bach der Progressive, 29; idem, Rezeption von Geschichte, 7374.
14
Zenck, Bach der Progressive, 29.
15
Ibid., 3031. According to Walter Schenkman, there is a possibility it may have been a pirated
edition. Schenkman, Rethinking Diabellis Waltz, 12.
16
As mentioned in Chapter One, even though Anton Schindler claimed that Beethoven owned
three volumes of the Clavierbung, this most likely did not include the Goldberg Variations, as the first
and early editions were never labeled Clavierbung IV. Schindler, Beethoven as I Knew Him, 380.
25
one hand, the estate is only a rough overview of what Beethoven has owned, and on the
other, books of Bachs output may be gone as well as lost. 17
Even if Beethoven may not have owned a manuscript copy or print edition of the
Goldberg Variations himself, he feasibly could have encountered them in the
possessions of a wealthy patron such as Baron van Swieten or the Archduke Rudolph,
whose libraries held numerous works of Bach. 18 I have already discussed Swietens
influence on Beethoven, but Archduke Rudolphs case requires further commentary.
Zenck claims that the Archduke had two copies of the Goldberg Variations in his
library, the Hoffmeister and Ngeli editions, which Beethoven could have borrowed. 19
That Beethoven did research on Bachs works in that library (including the Goldberg
Variations, in all likelihood) is evident from a letter he wrote to the Archduke on July
29, 1819:
I heard with deep regret of Y. R. H.s [Your Royal Highnesss] recent
indisposition, and having received no further reliable information on the subject, I
am extremely uneasy. I went to Vienna to search in Y. R. H.s library for what
was most suitable to me. The chief object must be to hit off our idea at once, and
in accordance with a high class of art, unless the object in view should require
different and more practical treatment. On this point the ancient composers offer
the best examples, as most of these possess real artistic value (though among them
the German Handel and Sebastian Bach can alone lay claim to genius); but
freedom and progress are our true aim in the world of art, just as in the great
creation at large; and if we moderns are not so far advanced as our forefathers in
17
Zenck, Bach der Progressive, 29. In addition to Swietens intellectual circle, another possible
source of transmission could have been through Beethovens teacher Neefe. Rolf Dammann, Johann
Sebastian Bachs Goldberg-Variationen (Mainz: Schott Mainz, 1986), 267.
18
Es ist aber mglich, da Beethoven sie in der Sammlung des Barons van Swieten oder der des
Erzherzogs Rudolph, die beide zahlreiche Werke Bachs enthielten, kennengelernt hat. Mnster,
Beethovens Diabelli-Variationen, 21213. In my opinion, Swieten could have obtained a copy of the
Goldberg Variations from C. P. E. Bach.
19
26
solidity, still the refinement of our ideas has contributed in many ways to their
enlargement. 20
One source where Beethoven almost certainly would have encountered an excerpt
of the Goldberg Variations was Johann Philipp Kirnbergers theory text Die Kunst des
reinen Satzes in der Musik (The Art of Strict Composition in Music) (1773/77), which
includes two brief excerpts from the Goldberg Variations. Die Kunst des reinen Satzes
was also republished in Vienna (1793) during Beethovens early years there. 21 He studied
this text to further his compositional training between 1800 and 1810 and also used it in
teaching as well. 22 Included in the text were the first sixteen measures of the ground bass
of the theme with the following description: On the following ground bass of an aria are
thirty variations, of which the canons are all in consistent intervals, in 2nds, 3rds, 4ths,
5ths, 6ths, 7ths, 8ths and 9ths, and even a four-part regular fugue. 23
Further indications that the Goldberg Variations were known by musicians of
Beethovens time were that they also appeared in Sir John Hawkinss (17191789)
History of Music (London, 1776), which included the aria, as well as the first and ninth
20
Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethovens Letters, ed. Arthur Eaglefield Hull and Alfred Christlieb
Kalischer, trans. John South Sheldock (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1926; reprint, New York: Courier
Dover Publications, 1972), 270.
21
Zenck, Bach der Progressive, 3132. In my opinion, Beethovens teacher Albrechtsberger

may have introduced him to Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in the early 1790s, since in spirit, he follows
Kirnberger, who in Die Kunst des reinen Satzes, Part I (1771), taught chords, progressions, and modulation,
and then presented simple counterpoint first in four, then in three, then two voices. Thomas Christensen,
ed., The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory, The Cambridge History of Music 3 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2002), 58284.
22
Williams, The Goldberg Variations, 94; Zenck, Bach der Progressive, 31; Leon Markiewicz,
Twrczosc polifoniczna klasykw wiedenskich w swietle okolicsnosci biograficznych, Zeszyty naukowe
Pnstwowej Wyzszej Szkoly Muzycznej w Katowicach 10 (1969): 82.
23
Ueber folgenden GrundBa einer Arie sind 30 Vernderungen, worunter Canones in allen
Intervallen sind, als im Einklang, in der 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 und 9, auch sogar eine vierstimmige regulaire
Fuge darber. Zenck, Bach der Progressive, 31.
27
variations. 24 Moreover, Bach biographer Nikolaus Forkel used the Goldberg Variations
as a model for imitation by writing his own variations on the theme. 25 Not only were the
Goldberg Variations discussed in books on music theory, composition, and history, but
also in books on aesthetics as well. 26 The German writer E. T. A. Hoffman gave the
Goldberg Variations a prominent role in his 1810 work Kreisleriana where it was
performed by the primary character, Johannes Kreisler, 27 and Beethovens works also
appeared in other Kreisler essays. We know that Beethoven was aware of Hoffmans
writings as a music critic because he thanked him for some reviews of his compositions,
24
Gnter Hartmann, BWV 988: Bergamasca-Variationen? oder Das aus dem Rahmen fallende
Quodlibet: Materialien zur Geschichte und Auflsung eines fundamentalen Irrtums ber Bachs sog.
Goldberg-Variationen (BWV 988) (Lahnstein: Gnter Hartmann, 1997), 8081; Zenck, Bach der
Progressive, 32.
25
Williams, The Goldberg Variations, 94.
26
Zenck, Bach der Progressive, 29, 31, 3435.
27
I shall leave figures and notes behind, and with true relish, like a recovered invalid who cannot
stop telling people how he has suffered, I shall record here in full detail the hellish torture of todays tea
party. Not for myself alone, of course; but for all those who may occasionally find pleasure and edification
here in my copy of Johann Sebastian Bachs keyboard variations published by Ngeli in Zurich, who find
my figures at the end of the thirtieth variation, and who, guided by the Latin VERTE in big letters (I will
write it in as soon as this account of my grievances is finished), turn the page and read. They will
immediately divine the true state of affairs.
But then the baron, my Titus-headed tenor, comes up to me and says Ah, my excellent
Kapellmeister, I gather you improvise fantasies quite divinely; oh do fantasise something for us, just a little,
I beg you! I reply somewhat coolly that my fantasy has all dried up today. But while we are talking, some
devil in the guise of a dandy with two waistcoats has nosed out the Bach variations under my hat in the
adjoining roomand demands that I rattle through them. I decline, whereupon they all fall on me in
protest. Right, I think to myself, you can listen and burst with boredom. I get down to work. During
Variation Three several ladies retire, followed by some Titus-heads. Because their teacher is playing, the
Miss Rderleins hold out until Variation Twelve, though not without distress. Variation Fifteen puts the
two-waistcoat man to flight. Out of exaggerated courtesy the baron remains until Variation Thirty,
consuming large amounts of the punch which Gottlieb has placed on the piano for me. I would now be
happy to stop, but this Variation Thirty, the theme, urges me irresistibly onward. The quarto pages
suddenly expand to an elephant-folio, containing a thousand imitations and elaborations of the theme which
I am forced to play. The notes come to life and flutter and dance around me; electric sparks flow through
my finger-tips into the keys; the spirit generating them overtakes my thoughts. The whole room is filled by
a thick fog, in which the candles burn more and more dimly; now a nose appears, now a pair of eyes, but
then they immediately disappear again. So it is that I continue sitting alone with my Sebastian Bach, with
Gottlieb waiting upon me like a spiritu familiari. I drink. E. T. A. Hoffmann, E. T. A. Hoffmanns Musical
Writings: Kreisleriana; The Poet and the Composer; Music Criticism, ed. David Charlton, trans. Martyn
Clarke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 81, 8485.
28
making this yet another connection to the Goldberg Variations, which one should not
overlook. 28
Beethovens pupil Czerny provides use with several clues that the composer
likely knew the Goldberg Variations. When Czerny mentioned that the third movement
of Op. 109 was in the style of Bach, he very well may have been thinking of the
Goldberg Variations. 29 Moreover, when C. F. Peters reissued the Goldberg
Variations in Leipzig in 1840, Czerny was in charge of re-fingering the edition. 30 Walter
Schenkman thinks it is significant that Czerny edited the work, because in the preface,
Czerny said he had been intimate with the Goldberg Variations for over thirty years,
and he meanwhile had also been a close acquaintance of Beethovens. 31 Furthermore, in
his instructions on improvising, Czerny designated the Goldberg Variations as role
models for Beethovens Opp. 35 and 120. 32
Czerny is not the only one to find connections between Beethovens compositions
and the Goldberg Variations. Gnter Hartmann claims that the thirty Eroica
Variations, Op. 35 are linked to the Goldberg Variations. 33 Speaking of the slow
movement of the Archduke Trio, Op. 97, Stephen Rumph writes that it seems to pay
28
Zenck, Bach der Progressive, 3234; idem, Rezeption von Geschichte, 7374.
29
Wiesbaden, 1986), 227.
30
31
32
Zenck, Rezeption von Geschichte, 7374.
33
Hartmann, BWV 988: Bergamasca-Variationen?, 8081. For mention of how the Eroica
Variations final fugue relates to the Goldberg Variations, see Michael Heinemann, Paradigma Fuge:
Bach und das Erbe des Kontrapunkts, in Bach und die Nachwelt I: 17501850, ed. Michael Heinemann
and Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1997), 134.
29
tribute to the Goldberg Variations, with a sarabande theme whose intact return and
systematic diminution foreshadow the finale of the Piano Sonata in E major, Op. 109. 34
Moreover, Elaine Sisman connects the slow movement of Op. 101 to the Goldberg
Variations twenty-fifth variation (cf., Examples 2.1 and 2.2). 35 However, the work by
Beethoven which scholars have spent the most time comparing to the Goldberg
Variations is none other than the Diabelli Variations.
Example 2.1 J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 25, mm. 2124.
34
Stephen Rumph, Beethoven after Napoleon: Political Romanticism in the Late Works (Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 2004), 257, n. 11.
35
Elaine Sisman, Memory and Invention at the Threshold of Beethovens Late Style, in
Beethoven and His World, ed. Scott G. Burnham and Michael P. Steinberg (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
30
The Goldberg Variations and the Diabelli Variations

At first, discussion of the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 may seem a digression
from the topic at hand, but it provides important supporting evidence to the claim that
Beethoven knew the Goldberg Variations and used them as compositional inspiration
for more than one work. The Diabelli Variations and Op. 109 are directly related in
terms of their period, for Beethoven started composing the Diabelli Variations before
the Opp. 109111 sonata set and finished them after the set was complete. 36 By early
1820, Beethoven had composed the first nineteen Diabelli Variations before he began
Op. 109. 37 According to Rumph, Beethoven composed Op. 109 while working on the
Diabelli Variations, whose homage to Bach seems to extend beyond the Goldberg
Variations to The Well-Tempered Clavier. 38 The affinity between Op. 109 and the
Diabelli Variations even extends to Beethovens having worked on sketches for the
variation set in the same Wittgenstein Sketchbook SV 154 (folios 3v9r, 11r) at the same
time as some sketches for the first movement of Op. 109 (these Op. 109 sketches can be
found in sketch folios JM, or Grasnick 20b, folios 36, which are leaves that scholars
believe were originally part of the Wittgenstein sketchbook). 39 Because of the Diabelli
36
William Drabkin, The Sketches for Beethovens Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus 111 (PhD
diss., Princeton University, 1977), 278, 287.
37
Ibid.
38
Rumph, Beethoven after Napoleon, 114.
39
Douglas P. Johnson, Alan Tyson, and Robert Winter, The Beethoven Sketchbooks: History,
Reconstruction, Inventory, ed. by Douglas Johnson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 256
58. Some of the Diabelli Variation sketches from Wittgenstein SV 154 are also believe to be missing
from the original sketchbook and can be found in Paris Ms 77, pages 58.
31
Variations compositional proximity to Op. 109, any association of the Goldberg

Variations with the Diabelli Variations is relevant to the discussion at hand. 40
From the time of their publication to the present, the Diabelli Variations have
been compared to the Goldberg Variations, as can be seen in Anton Diabellis (1781
1858) publication announcement, which reads a great and important masterpiece worthy
to be ranked with the imperishable creations of the old Classics.All these variations
will entitle the work to a place beside Sebastian Bachs masterpiece in the same form
[i.e., the Goldberg Variations]. 41 The fact that the man who commissioned the
variations that bear his name compares them to a set of Bachs variations seems to
indicate that there are indeed some connections between the works. 42 Kinderman agrees:
Whether Beethoven was aware of the Goldberg Variations is not recorded, but the notice
of the publication of Op. 120 by Diabelli already suggests the comparability of
works.And similarities in the melody and the structure suggest Beethovens knowledge
of Bachs Goldberg Variations, although the relationship of the two works can be thought
less an imitation than an homage to Bach. 43 Zenck claims that the Goldberg
40
Barry Cooper and Erica Buurman contend that both the Goldberg Variations and the Diabelli
Variations were influenced by Wolfgang Ebners Ferdinand Variations. Barry Cooper and Erica
Buurman, The Influence of Wolfgang Ebners Ferdinand Variations on Bach, Beethoven, and Others,
The Musical Times 153, no. 1921 (2012): 1728.
41
Donald Francis Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis: Chamber Music, vol. 7, Essays in Musical
Analysis (London: Oxford University Press, 1944), 124. There is a possibility that Diabelli was referring to
the Canonic Variations on Von Himmel Hoch, but the sources I have read emphasize the Goldberg
Variations as the ones to which Diabelli referred.
42
43
Ob Beethoven die Goldberg-Variationen gekannt hat, ist nicht berliefert, aber die
Vorankndigung der Publikation von op. 120 durch Diabelli suggeriert schon die Vergleichbarkeit der
Werke.Auch hnlichkeiten in der Melodik und im Tonsatz lassen Beethovens Kenntnis der Bachschen
Goldberg-Variationen vermuten, wenngleich die Beziehung der beiden Werke zueinander weniger an eine
Nachahmung denn an eine Hommage auf Bach denken lt. William Kinderman, Bach und Beethoven,
in Bach und die Nachwelt I: 17501850, ed. Michael Heinemann and Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen (Laaber:
Laaber-Verlag, 1997), 367.
32
Variations were a model (Muster) for the Diabelli Variations, 44 Ludwig Finscher
believes they are closely related, 45 and Donald Francis Tovey claims that Beethoven
knew the Goldberg Variations, and they influenced the Diabelli Variations. 46 In
Wilfrid Mellerss opinion, The parallel with the Goldberg Variations is closethe
relationship between the two sets of variations complements that between the B minor
Mass [BWV 232 by J. S. Bach] and the Missa Solemnis. 47 Within his book on the
Diabelli Variations, Arnold Mnster compares and contrasts the two works multiple
times. 48
The correlations between the Diabelli Variations and Goldberg Variations do
not remain at the level of generalities, but often include specifics. Rolf Dammann thinks
that the 3/4 rhythm of the waltz theme of the Diabelli Variations is related to the
3/4 rhythm of the Goldberg Variations sarabande theme. 49 Zenck points out
similarities between Bachs Var. 11 and Beethovens Var. 27, 50 while Tovey compares
Bachs Var. 25 and Beethovens Var. 28. 51 An imitation of the ornamented minor
44
45
Ludwig Finscher, Bachs Posthumous Role in Music History, in Bach Perspectives III:
Creative Responses to Bach from Mozart to Hindemith, ed. Michael Marissen (Lincoln: University of
Nebraska, 1998), 15.
46
Tovey, Chamber Music, 7475.
47
Mellers, Beethoven and the Voice of God, 377.
48
Mnster, Beethovens Diabelli-Variationen, 26, 42, 51, 58, 6263, 13031, 135, 16061, 172,
183, 199, 202, 21214.
49
Dammann, Bachs Goldberg-Variationen, 267.
50
Zenck, Rezeption von Geschichte, 73.
51
33
variation of the Goldberg, is how Rosen describes Diabelli Var. 31, 52 corroborated by
Zenck, who thinks that Beethovens Var. 31 and Bachs Var. 13 and 25 are related,
mentioning an explicit reference to Bach 53 (cf., Examples 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5). As further
proof, Kinderman believes that based on the melodic and textural similarities of
Beethovens Var. 31 to the Goldberg Variations, it is difficult not to assume
Beethovens familiarity with the Goldberg Variations, 54 and he refers to Var. 31 as an
elaborate aria reminiscent of the decorated minor variation of Bachs Goldberg set. 55
52
Charles Rosen, The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, rev. ed. (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 1998), 439.
53
expliziten Verweis auf Bach. Zenck, Rezeption von Geschichte, 6972.
54

1998), 101.
55
William Kinderman, Beethoven (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 285.
34
Example 2.5 Ludwig van Beethoven, Diabelli Variations, Var. 31.
35
Finally, speaking of Diabelli Var. 33, Tovey postulates:

It is profoundly characteristic of the way in which (as Diabelli himself seems
partly to have grasped) this work develops and enlarges the great aesthetic
principles of balance and climax embodied in the Goldberg Variations, that it
ends quietly. The freedom necessary for an ordinary climax on modern lines was
secured already in the great fugue, placed, as it was, in a foreign key; and now
Beethoven, like Bach, rounds off his work by a peaceful return homea home
that seems far removed from those stormy experiences through which alone such
ethereal calm can be attained. 56
Thus, through exploring scholars opinions coupling the Goldberg Variations with
Beethovens Diabelli Variations, we can conclude that he was indeed familiar with the
Goldberg Variations and found them worthy material inspiration for several of his
works, including the variation movement of Op. 109.
56
36
Chapter Three
Compositional History
Prior to beginning a discussion of the specific thematic connections between

Beethovens Piano Sonata, Op. 109 and Bachs Goldberg Variations, I will discuss the
historical background and form of both works.
History of the Goldberg Variations

In Nikolaus Forkels 1802 biography of J. S. Bach, he explains the origins of the
Goldberg Variations through the following anecdote:
We owe them to Count Kaiserling [also spelled Keyserlingk], formerly Russian
Ambassador at the Saxon Electoral Court, who frequently visited Leipzig with
Goldberg, already mentioned among Bachs pupils. The Count was a great invalid
and suffered from insomnia. Goldberg lived in the Ambassadors house, and slept
in an adjoining room, to be ready to play to him when he was wakeful. One day
the Count asked Bach to write for Goldberg some Clavier music of a soothing and
cheerful character, that would relieve the tedium of sleepless nights. Bach thought
a set of Variations most likely to fulfil the Counts needs, though, on account of
the recurrence of the same basic harmony throughout, it was a form to which he
had hitherto paid little attention. [] The Count always called them my
Variations and was never weary of hearing them. For long afterwards, when he
could not sleep, he would say, Play me one of my Variations, Goldberg.
Perhaps Bach was never so well rewarded for any composition as for this. The
Count gave him a golden goblet containing one hundred louis dors, though, as a
work of art, Bach would not have been overpaid had the present been a thousand
times as large. It may be observed, that in the engraved copy of the Variations
there are serious mistakes, which the composer has corrected in his own copy. 1
Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work, ed. Charles Sanford
Terry, trans. anonymous (1802; New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, 1920), 11920. Vincent
Dequevauviller speculates that Bach invented the legend to point to the hidden numerological significance
of the Goldberg Variations name hidden in the music, because he thinks that the fourteen-year-old
Goldberg would have been too young to actually play the variations. Vincent Dequevauviller, Des
Concertos Brandebourgeois aux Variations Goldberg: Jeux de lettres et de chiffres dans les uvres de
Bach, Revue de Musicologie 86 (2000): 27080, 28688. Nonetheless, based on my interactions with
teenage keyboard prodigies, I think it entirely plausible that a fourteen-year-old could have competently
played the Goldberg Variations.
37
Whether or not this story is factual is unclear; what we do know is that in

Dresden, in 1741, Hermann Carl, Reichsgraf von Keyserlingk hired the fourteen-year-old
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who was a pupil of J. S. Bach. It is possible that the aria may
have been composed years before the rest of the work, as it appears in the Anna
Magdalena Bach Book (1725) as No. 26, Aria in G Major, 2 but this is a matter of debate.
David Schulenberg explains: Anna Magdalena Bachs copy of the aria in the 1725
Clavier-Bchlein was once assumed to date from long before the variations and thus to
constitute evidence that the aria, like other pieces in the manuscript, had been borrowed
from another, anonymous composer, possibly French. But the handwriting is now thought
to date from near the time of the works publication, and thus has no bearing on the
authorship of the aria. 3
As to when Bach penned the remainder of the Goldberg Variations, Peter
Williams thinks they were probably composed in 173940 for Bachs son Wilhelm
Friedemann and later given as a gift to the count. 4 They were published in 1741, 5 titled
Keyboard Practice, consisting of an aria with diverse variations for the two-manual
2
Ibid., 119, n. 239.
David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, rev. 2nd ed. (New York: Taylor & Francis
Group, 2006), 373. According to Frederick Neumann, a few scholars think that Bach did not write it
himself. Fredrick Neumann, Bach: Progressive or Conservative, in New Essays on Performance
Practice, ed. George J. Buelow, Studies in Music Series 108 (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989),
195219. Erwin Bodky points out the surprising similarities between Bachs Aria and certain variations
with a Ground by Henry Purcell and wonders if it was a germ for Bachs work. Erwin Bodky, The
Interpretation of Bachs Keyboard Works (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 32829. Yet
Bowman believes it is good enough to have been written by him [Bach]. David Bowman, Corelli,
Couperin, Bach, Music Teacher 76, no. 3 (1997): 28. For the intents and purposes of this paper, I will not
engage in this debate, since I believe it is irrelevant. The Aria was published as part of the variations in
Bachs name, and I think that Beethoven would have accepted it as having been composed by Bach, and in
emulating the Aria in Op. 109, he may have been paying homage to Bach.
4
Ibid., 7, 28.
5.
38
harpsichord, and dedicated to music-lovers. 6 It is now considered to be Part IV of

Bachs Clavierbung series, 7 although the title page does not include the term
Clavierbung. The other parts of this series include I. the Six Partitas (17261731);
II. the Italian Concerto and French Overture (1735); and III. the German Organ Mass
(1739). 8
Formal Structure of the Goldberg Variations

For the purposes of this study, I will present an overview of the formal structure
of the Goldberg Variations. The intricacies of the Goldberg Variations have been the
subject of much scholarly investigation and discussionhistorical, theoretical,
numerological, and even esoteric; much of this is beyond the topic of this document, so I
will confine myself to details which seem to relate to Beethovens Piano Sonata, Op. 109.
The Goldberg Variations comprise an aria and thirty variations, with a da capo
return of the aria at the end, forming a total of thirty-two movements (see Example 3.1).
Clavier bung bestehend in einer Aria mit verschiedenen Veraenderungen vors Clavicimbal
mit 2 Manualen Music-lovers in German is Liebhabern.
7
Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, 369; Williams, The Goldberg Variations, 5.
Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, 321, 347, 365.
39
Example 3.1 J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria, mm. 18.
Many scholars believe the aria, or theme of the variations, stems from the
passacaglia 9 or chaconne (ciaccona), 10 which were variations over descending groundbass patterns characteristic of the Baroque era. A comparison of a typical passacaglia
bass line to a harmonic reduction of the Goldberg Variations highlights the similarities
between the two (cf., Examples 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4).
Bowman, Corelli, Couperin, Bach, 28. See also Carolyn Byrd Christie, A Detailed Analysis
of Bachs Goldberg Variations and Beethovens Diabelli Variations (BM thesis, Arthur Jordan
Conservatory of Music, 1945), 45; Edmund Schmid, Form und Vortrag der Goldbergvariationen,
Musica 4, nos. 78 (1950): 283; Williams, The Goldberg Variations, 3739; Johannes Brahms, Johannes
Brahms, Life and Letters, selected and annotated by Styra Avins, trans. Josef Eisinger and Styra Avins
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 38384; Gnter Hartmann, BWV 988: BergamascaVariationen? oder Das aus dem Rahmen fallende Quodlibet: Materialien zur Geschichte und Auflsung
eines fundamentalen Irrtums ber Bachs sog. Goldberg-Variationen (BWV 988) (Lahnstein: Gnter
Hartmann, 1997), 1314.
10
Williams, The Goldberg Variations, 3739; Walter Schenkman, The Establishment of Tempo
in Bachs Goldberg Variations, BACH, Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute 6, no. 3 (1975): 3.
40
Example 3.2 Girolamo Frescobaldi, Cento partite (1637), Bass Line. 11
Example 3.3 Johann Kaspar Kerll, Passacaglia for harpsichord (c. 1670), Bass Line. 12
Ex. 3.4 J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria Bass Line, mm. 18.
The harmonic pattern and outline of the bass remain constant throughout the variations,
but the melodic material shows Bach utilizing his creative freedom.
In addition to a general resemblance to the passacaglia and chaconne ground-bass
patterns, Williams also believes the Goldberg Variations may be linked to the
following musical predecessors: 1. Johann Christoph Bach (J. S. Bachs first cousin once
removed, who lived 16421703), Sarabande. Duodecies variat. (12 Variations);
2. George Frideric Handel, Chaconne from Suite in G Major, HWV 442 and 435 (1733);
3. Gottlieb Muffat (16901770), Ciacona from Componimenti musicali (1739); 4. Henry
Purcell (16591695), Ground in Gamut, Z 645; and 5. Purcell, Let each gallant heart,
11
Alexander Silbiger, Passacaglia, Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online (Oxford
University Press) accessed June 7, 2013, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu
/subscriber/article/grove/music/21024. Used with permission.
12
Ibid. Used with permission.
41
Z 390 (1683). 13 Moreover, David Bowman notes its similarities to Franois Couperins
Les Sentimentes, the second sarabande in the first suite (ordre) of Couperins first book
of harpsichord pieces published in 1713. 14 Finally, Barry Cooper and Erica Buurman
believe that Wolfgang Ebners (161265) Ferdinand Variations (1648) are also related
to the Goldberg Variations. 15 Regardless of whether there is a case of influence
between any of these pieces and the Goldberg Variations, Bach was probably honoring
the music of the past as he composed them. At the same time, Bach was also featuring
characteristics of the new style galant in the theme of the Goldberg Variations:
1. melody plus accompaniment, 2. diatonic harmony, 3. slow harmonic rhythm,
4. ornamentation of the melody with appoggiaturas, and 5. periodic phrasing.
Bach made every third variation (Variations 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 27)
a canon at increasing intervals (i.e. unison, major second, major third, perfect fourth,
perfect fifth, minor sixth, major seventh, octave, and major ninth). 16 Variation 30
fractures the structural mold, as it is not the expected canon at the tenth but rather a
quodlibet, contrapuntally incorporating five German popular tunes of Bachs time.
Interspersed between the canonic variations are the other variations which can be
classified in various ways: free variations, duet variations, dance variations, and technical
13
Williams, The Goldberg Variations, 3739. Brahms also noted the Goldberg Variations
similarities to the works by Handel and Muffat. Brahms, Johannes Brahms, 38384. See also Hartmann,
BWV 988: Bergamasca-Variationen?, 1314.
14
Bowman, Corelli, Couperin, Bach, 26.
15
Barry Cooper and Erica Buurman, The Influence of Wolfgang Ebners Ferdinand Variations on
Bach, Beethoven, and others, The Musical Times 153, no. 1921 (2012): 17, 2122, 2728.
16
As mentioned before, the variations are on the harmonic pattern and outline of the bass, meaning
that the canonic parts are not variations on the original melody.
42
variations. 17 In addition to dividing into units of three marked by the canons, the
variations also neatly divide into two parts, with Variation 16 acting as the opening of the
second half of the work; its dotted rhythms and rapid scales imitate an orchestral French
Overture, commonly used as an introductory movement in the Baroque era. Within the
second half of the Goldberg Variations, Bach gradually builds up the technical
brilliancy of the work, including some of his most dazzling displays before the entrance
of the light-hearted quodlibet and the final return of the serene theme.
Genesis of Op. 109

Thayer neatly packages the history of Op. 109 in a few sentences: The Sonata in
E belongs unquestionably to the year 1820. The first theme of the first movement is
found in the Conversation Book of April; the work was sketched in part before he began
the Benedictus of the Missa Solemnis, in part while he was at work on this section, the
Credo, the Agnus Dei, and the Bagatelles [Op. 119, Nos. 711] for Starke. It was
dedicated to Maximiliane Brentano, and published in November, 1821, by Schlesinger in
Berlin. 18 Notwithstanding this compact explanation, the history of the sonata appears to
be a bit more complicated than Thayer thought.
Many scholars agree that Beethoven first conceived the first movement of
Op. 109 as an independent piece in 1820, and only later did he decide to add more
movements to make it into a sonata. 19 However, they differ on exactly when and why
17
Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, 37088.
18
Alexander Wheelock Thayer, Thayers Life of Beethoven, rev. ed. Elliott Forbes (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1970), 76263.
19
16; Nicholas Marston, The Origins of Beethovens Op. 109: Further Thoughts, Musical Times 127
43
Beethoven composed the work. William Meredith provides a detailed description of

when the sonata was composed, especially the first movement, based on sketchbooks,
letters, and conversation books. He estimates that Beethoven may have started working
on the first movement as early as February 1820 and decided to make it part of a sonata
in April 1820. 20 However, Nicholas Marston claims that Beethoven did not begin work
on Op. 109 until March 1820. 21 In the opinions of Douglas Johnson, Alan Tyson, and
Robert Winter, Beethoven had conceived this Sonata by April 1820, for the opening
motive was entered in a conversation book at some point between the eleventh and
thirteenth of that month.This is conveniently contemporary with a letter to him from
the publisher Adolf Martin Schlesinger (17691838), written on 11 April and requesting
Sonatas...work on the Sonata could have begun as early as March. 22 Barry Cooper
places the beginning of Beethovens work on the sonata not earlier than April, with the
impetus being Schlesingers commission. 23 It is probable that from April onwards
Beethoven was conceptualizing the Op. 109 Sonata as being part of a set of three
(1986): 199201; William Kinderman, Thematic Contrast and Parenthetical Enclosure in the Piano
Sonatas, op. 109 and 111, in Zu Beethoven: Aufstze und Dokumente III, ed. Harry Goldschmidt and
Georg Knepler (Berlin: Verlag Neue Musik, 1988), 46; Kevin Bazzana, The First Movement of
Beethovens Opus 109: Compositional Genesis and Structural Dialectic, Revue de musique des universits
canadiennes 12, no. 1 (1992): 7, n. 12. In contrast to the sketch evidence which places Beethovens
beginning of work on Op. 109 in 1820, Czerny thought that the composer began work on Opp. 10911 in
1817. Barry Cooper, The Compositional Act: Sketches and Autographs, in The Cambridge Companion to
Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 41.
20
Meredith, Origins of Op. 109, 71316.
21
Marston, Origins of Op. 109, 199201.
22
Reconstruction, Inventory, ed. Douglas Johnson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 258.
23
Cooper, The Compositional Act, 3839.
44
(Opp. 109, 110, and 111), since he responded to Schlesinger, Hence a work consisting
of three sonatas would cost 120 ducats. 24
Beethoven continued work on Op. 109 into the summer of 1820. Meredith
maintains that he devoted time to the second and third movements in June, but he doubts
that the sonata was finished by the end of the month, even though Beethoven claimed this
in a letter. 25 According to Marston, most likely Beethoven began work on the third
movement in mid-June 1820. 26 Johnson, Tyson, and Winter claim, The center of the
sketchbook [Artaria 195], pages 3578, is filled by the second and third movements of
the Sonata in E major, Opus 109. 27 (The Artaria sketchbook will become important in
this study when I compare Beethovens Op. 109 sketches to the Goldberg Variations.)
Much like dating the beginning of Beethovens work on Op. 109, determining the
completion of the sonata is also a bit nebulous. He wrote to Schlesinger on September 20,
1820:
Only persistently poor health has prevented me from finishing sooner the
proofreading of the copies of the songs [Op. 108]Everything will go more
quickly in the case of the three sonatasThe first is quite ready save for
correcting the copy [bis zur Korrekturhe presumably meant the copyists
score to be sent as a Stichvorlage] 28 , and I am working uninterruptedly at the
other twoMy health is completely restored and I will make every effort to fulfill
my obligations to you as soon as possible. 29
24
Ludwig van Beethoven, The Letters of Beethoven, ed. Emily Anderson (London: Macmillan,
1961), 893. See also William Drabkin, The Sketches for Beethovens Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus 111
(PhD diss., Princeton University, 1977), 258.
25
Meredith, Origins of Op. 109, 71316.
26
1995), 31, 3741.
27
Johnson, Tyson, Winter, Beethoven Sketchbooks, 26263.
28
Ibid.
29
Beethoven, The Letters of Beethoven, 1033.
45
Albeit Beethoven claimed that the first sonata was quite ready, some scholars believe
that he was overestimating the completion of Op. 109. According to Johnson, Tyson, and
Winter, There is indirect evidence that he was exaggerating his progress, however, for
he goes on in the same letter to claim that he was working uninterruptedly on the other
two [sonatas], that is, on Opus 110 and Opus 111, though the earliest surviving sketches
for Opus 110 were made nearly a year later, in the summer of 1821. 30 Marston suggests
that Beethoven may have basically finished the entire sonata by late September of
1820. 31 He may or may not have completed the Op. 109 sketches by September, but it is
safe to say that he did not write any more sketches after December 1820. 32 (Work on
the sonata was much slower than Beethoven had originally projected, as he had planned
to complete not only Op. 109, but also Opp. 110 and 111 by the end of September. 33 )
Months passed before Beethoven wrote the following letter to Schlesinger on
March 7, 1821, concerning the title and dedication of Op. 109:
But as to the sonata [Op. 109] which you must have received a long time ago, I
request that you add the following title, together with the dedication, namely,
Sonata for the Hammerklavier
Composed and dedicated to
Frulein Maximiliane Brentano
By Ludwig von Beethoven
Opus 109
Would you agree to add the year as well? I have often wanted this but no
publisher would do it. The other two sonatas will soon follow. 34
30
Johnson, Tyson, and Winter, Beethoven Sketchbooks, 258, 26263, 258, 374.
31
Marston, Beethovens Piano Sonata in E, 31, 3741.
32
Johnson, Tyson, and Winter, Beethoven Sketchbooks, 26263.
33
Drabkin, Beethovens Piano Sonata in C minor, 25859.
34
Beethoven, The Letters of Beethoven, 1050. See also Johnson, Tyson, and Winter, Beethoven
Sketchbooks, 26263. Unfortunately, Schlesinger did not honor Beethovens publication directions. Glenn
46
Finally, in November 1821, Balthasar Schmid published the sonata (as to when the
autograph score was completed, it is undated). 35
Form of Op. 109

In discussing the form of Op. 109, we should remember that in Beethovens last
three piano sonatas, Opp. 109, 110, and 111, he showed a radical departure, above all in
his later music, from the conventional number and sequence of movementsalso his
challenge to the autonomy of the individual movement itself. 36 Unlike the typical threemovement Classical sonatas of Haydn or Mozart, which place the structural weight of the
piece on the first movement, Op. 109s first two movements are a structural path leading
us to the apotheosis of the third movement. Because of this documents emphasis on
Op. 109s third movement connection to the Goldberg Variations, I will only touch
lightly on the form of the first two movements.
Like the first movements of most sonatas, the first movement of Op. 109 follows
some large-scale sonata-form principles, outlining the move from the tonic (E major) to
the dominant (B major), but it differs drastically in other ways from Classical sonata
form. First, parts of the form are truncated, with the exposition lasting only fifteen
measures (with a primary theme of eight measures and a secondary theme of seven
measures). Second, the primary theme texturally sounds almost as a prelude or
Stanley, Voices and Their Rhythms in the First Movement of Beethovens Piano Sonata Op. 109: Some
Thoughts on the Performance and Analysis of a Late-style Work, in Beethoven and His World, ed. Scott
G. Burnham and Michael P. Steinberg (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 110.
35
Johnson, Tyson, and Winter, Beethoven Sketchbooks, 26263.
36
Nicholas Marston, The Sense of an Ending: Goal-Directedness in Beethovens Music, in

The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2000), 94.
47
introduction, consisting of arpeggiated chords over a descending bass line, whereas the
secondary theme appears as a recitative or fantasy in style (see Example 3.5). These
formal and textural ambiguities are hallmarks of Beethovens third style period.
48
In contrast to Op. 109s first movement, the second movement is highly

contrapuntal and rhythmic, reminiscent of J. S. Bachs late style. 37 In most threemovement Classical sonatas, the second movement would be slow, lyrical, and piano, but
Beethoven labeled this movement prestissimo and marcato, with dramatic contrasts
within a broad dynamic range (see Example 3.6).
Example 3.6 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, II, mm. 116.
37
William Kinderman, Beethovens Diabelli Variations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987),
1067.
49
Its tonal structure follows typical sonata-allegro form, though of a somewhat

condensed length and with intriguing harmonic features (see Example 3.7). This
movement is in E minor, the parallel minor of the first movements tonic E major, rather
than in a more typical A major (subdominant key) or C-sharp minor (relative minor) as
Beethovens predecessors might have preferred.
Example 3.7 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, II, mm. 4149.
50
The third movement of Op. 109 is a theme and six variations in the tonic E major,
marked Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung / Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo
(see Example 3.8). Beethoven used a theme and variations form as the last movement in
only one other late sonata, Op. 111. 38 Structurally, the third movement of Op. 109 is the
heart of the sonata 39 and is proportionally the weightiest of the three movements.
Marston affirms: Thus, the distinctively, Beethovenian end-weighted sonata design
might be thought almost endemic to the variation genre. 40
38
Udo Zilkens, Beethovens Finalstze in den Klaviersonaten: Allgemeine Strukturen und

individuelle GestaltungVergleichende Analysen als Einblick in Kompositionsweise BeethovensSkizzen
und Autographe als Schlssel zum Kompositionsprozess (Cologne: Tolger Kln, 1994), 21.
39
Jrgen Uhde, Beethovens Klaviermusik, iii: Sonaten 1632, rev. 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Reclam
Verlag, 1974), 465.
40
Marston, The Sense of an Ending, 91.
51
The relationship of the third movement to the first two is closer than appears at
first blush. Kevin Bazzana asserts, The first and second movements as wholes act in a
kind of thesis-antithesis relationship, to which the third movements song-like theme and
variations act as a resolving synthesis both motivically and tonally. 41 Leaving out
mention of the second movement, Marston claims, It is perhaps not an exaggeration to
say that the third-movement theme is in a sense a recomposition of the first movement of
op. 109. 42 As Zenck points out, all three movements are variations on same baselinea
descending scalar chaconne bass in first two, balanced with a rising scalar bass in the last
movement (see Examples 3.93.11). 43 (This is not a trifling connection, as I shall
demonstrate in the next chapter.)
Example 3.9 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, I, Bass Line.
Example 3.10 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, II, Bass Line.
Example 3.11 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Bass Line.
41
Bazzana, The First Movement, 24. See also Arnold Whittall, Resisting Tonality: Tippett,
Beethoven and the Sarabande, Music Analysis 9 (1990): 273; Kevin Korsyn, Integration in Works of
Beethovens Final Period (PhD diss., Yale University, 1983), 213.
42
Sonata in E, op. 109, 19th-century Music 10 (1986): 35.
43
Wiesbaden, 1986), 22023. Used with permission.
52
As compared to Beethovens early years, when he composed many independent

variation sets, in his late works, he preferred to place variations within a sonata, rather
than writing stand-alone variations (the Diabelli Variations being the one notable
exception), and Op. 109 fits within that pattern. 44 In most variations, one sees gradual
increase in elaborationproportional diminution of note values: the progressive increase
in the surface rhythmic figuration created the effect of a gradual acceleration in tempo,
and a real increase in the level of virtuosity, while the underlying harmonic rhythm
remain[s] constant. 45 Op. 109s third movement does not follow this pattern exactly,
since the first variation is, if anything, more rhythmically static than the theme, but the
second variation restores the pattern of increasing elaboration, almost as if it were the
true first variation. 46 Kinderman describes the variations thus: In a sense, then, the
variations concluding op. 109 embody two cycles of transformation: the first five
variations recast the theme and develop its structure and character in a variety of
expressive contexts, while the sixth initiates a new series of changes compressed into a
single continuous process that is guided by the logical unfolding of rhythmic
development. 47 In building up to reprise of the theme in the sixth and last variation,
Beethoven places a fugue in the variation immediately preceding, a strategy that likewise
worked well for him in the Diabelli Variations. 48 Igor Kriz has described Op. 109 as
44
45
Ibid., 90.
46
Ibid.
47
William Kinderman, Beethoven (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 245.
48
53
variations within variations within variations, 49 and this is especially true of the last
variation, which uses rhythmic diminution within the variation to continually develop the
theme into a glorious climax, which then subsides into the written-out reprise of the
theme (see Example 3.12).
Ex. 3.12 Op. 109, III, Var. 6, mm. 16.
Thus, one can recognize that the structural weight of the piece lies not only in the last
movement, but in the last variation and reprise of the theme, sustaining the dramatic
tension to the very close of Op. 109.
After surveying the history and form of Bachs Goldberg Variations and
Beethovens Op. 109, it is now time to probe the formal congruencies between them in
the succeeding chapters. I will demonstrate that although these works initially may
appear quite disparate, upon further investigation they share some striking parallels.
49
/109.pdf, 1.
54
Chapter Four
Analytical Comparison of Op. 109 with the Goldberg Variations
Comparison of Op. 109 to the Goldberg Variations: Structure

To better understand this chapters comparison of Ludwig van Beethovens
Op. 109 with J. S. Bachs Goldberg Variations, one must realize that it falls under the
topic of Bach reception history. As described by Zenck, Reception history [] pertains
to instances where Bachs works are no longer seen within the context of that tradition,
but instead are, at least partly, fundamentally changed within the understanding and
interpretation of a particular compositional and performing environment. The goal is not
the reproductionafter all imaginaryof the original, but rather a transformation which
always views Bach through the lens of new developments in music. 1
In the practice of using music from earlier composers, Beethoven may have been
imitating Bach himself in his later years. As mature composers, both Bach and Beethoven
were able to successfully synthesize the styles of their day with new, fresh musical ideas
that adumbrated the future. According to Kinderman: An enhanced historical
consciousness is characteristic of the later music of both composers [.] What sustains
the late style of these composers is no passive response to current trends but a strong
conviction about artistic synthesisKunstvereinigung, in Beethovens phrasewhereby
older artistic forms assume new shapes. 2 Elaine Sisman contends that Beethovens late
style places great emphasis on memory and recollection, not only by recalling themes at
1
Martin Zenck, Bach Reception: Some Concepts and Parameters, in The Cambridge
Companion to Bach, ed. John Butt (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 219.
2

1998), 104, 108.
55
the end of pieces, but also by recalling musical styles and ideas from past composers such
as Bach and Handel. 3 As discussed above, Bach was perhaps paying homage to music of
the past when he composed the Goldberg Variations. 4 In a similar manner, Beethoven
honors past music by being among later composers in whose keyboard works the echo
of the Goldberg Variations may be found. 5
Many commentators have noted the similarities between Op. 109 variations and
the Goldberg Variations, going so far as to say they could almost be called
Beethovens Goldberg Variations. 6 In Christopher Taylors opinion, The harmonies
and rhythms of the theme along with correspondences between certain variations suggest
that Bachs Goldberg Variations must have been on Beethovens mind as he wrote. 7
Rumph declares, The finale of Op. 109 itself pays no small tribute to the Goldberg
Variations, with the four-square sarabande theme, the fluctuating meters and characters
of the variations, and the return of the intact theme. 8 Both variation sets contain
pointillistic two-part harmony, canons, and a fughetta [] both alternate strict and free
Elaine Sisman, Memory and Invention at the Threshold of Beethovens Late Style, in
Beethoven and His World, ed. Scott G. Burnham and Michael P. Steinberg (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
4
3739.
5
Francis Elaine Cole, Bachs Goldberg Variations: A Descriptive Study and Analysis (EdD
diss., Columbia University, 1966), 34.
6
Robert Silverman, Beethoven Piano Sonatas: Liner Notes, Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109,
AudioHigh.org Music and Home Theater Systems: Upcoming Events, accessed February 1, 2013,
http://www.audiohigh.org/upcoming-events/beethoven-notes/sonata-30-in-e-major-op-109.
7
Christopher Taylor, Christopher Taylors Program Notes, Wisconsin Public Radio, accessed
February 1, 2013, http://www.wpr.org/music/special/CTBeethoven.cfm.
8
Stephen Rumph, Beethoven After Napoleon: Political Romanticism in the Late Works (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2004), 114.
56
canonic imitation, 9 as well as including copious use of imitative counterpoint. 10

Joining the chorus, Marston describes the Op. 109 Variations as beyond a near homage
to Bachs Goldberg Variations, 11 and Igor Kriz claims Op. 109 offers glimpses of the
Goldberg Variations. 12
Even with a cursory comparison of the two works, one noteworthy characteristic
is obviousboth variation sets end with a reprise of the original theme. 13 Often, variation
sets do not return to the original theme, so the fact that both of these works end with a
reprise is yet another similarity. (Marston names it Beethovens only variation work to
end with literal repeat of theme, save for the omission of the repeats and a few grace
notes, and some added octave doublings. 14 ) In Matthew Saunderss estimation,
Bringing the theme back at the end is a clear homage to the Goldberg Variations. 15
Schulenberg points out that the moment of the return of the Goldberg aria inevitably
reminds modern listeners of the da capo at the end of the variations in Beethovens piano
sonata Op. 109. But no retransition prepares the return of the opening theme as in the
Beethoven work....Although the [Goldberg] aria reappears at the end, the variations do
9
Nathan Carterette, Beethoven Sonatas 29 and 30, Nathan Carterette: Essays and Other Writing,
accessed February 1, 2013, http://nathancarterette.com/files/essays/BeethovenOp109Op110Notes
.pdf, 1.
10
Silverman, Beethoven Piano Sonatas.
11
Nicholas Marston, The Sense of an Ending: Goal-Directedness in Beethovens Music, in

The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2000), 91.
12
/109.pdf, 3.
13
Carterette, Beethoven Sonatas 29 and 30, 1.
14
15
Matthew Saunders, Op. 109, Matthew Saunders Blog, accessed February 1, 2013,
http://martiandances.com/blog/?p=81.
57
not progressively move away from and then return to it (as they do in op. 109). 16
Kinderman highlights the main difference between the returns of the themes: In this
context it is also worth noting that the return of the Sarabande in Op. 109, in contrast to
Bachs Goldberg Variations, has no literal da capo recapitulation. 17
More than one musician has pondered the psychological and architectural
qualities of the themes return. Andrs Schiff states that in both Op. 109 and the
Goldberg Variations, the theme returns in great simplicity and completes a circle
where beginning and end meet, also claiming that in both works the theme represents a
wonderful homecoming. 18 Zenck describes it in this manner: Concerning the
demonstrated similarities between different variations of Opus 109 and the Goldberg
Variations, there is the greatest affinity for both works in the respective resumption of the
theme, the cyclical system of the whole, and of the symmetrical architecture of the
form. 19 The almost verbatim restatement of the theme allow[s] us a few extra
moments to reflect on how many changes the themes and we have undergone since their
16
David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, rev. 2nd ed. (New York: Taylor &
Francis Group, 2006), 37273.
17
In diesem Zusammenhang ist auch bemerkenswert, dass die Wiederkehr der Sarabande in op.
109, anders als in Bachs Goldberg-Variationen, keine wrtliche da-capo-Reprise ist. William Kinderman,
Rckblick nach vorn, Beethovens Kunstvereinigung und das Erbe Bachs, in Beethoven und die Rezeption
der Alten Musik: Die hohe Schule der berlieferung, ed. Hans-Werner Kthen, Internationales BeethovenSymposion, 2000 (Bonn: Verlag Beethoven-Haus, 2002), 137.
18
Andras Schiff, Andras Schiff Lecture Recital: Beethovens Piano Sonata Op 109 no 30, The
Guardian Culture Podcast, accessed February 1, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/audio/2006/dec/20
/culture1440.
19
ber die aufgezeigten hnlichkeiten zwischen einzelnen Variationen von op. 109 und den
Goldberg-Variationen hinaus besteht die grte Affinitt beider Werke in der jeweiligen Wiederaufnahme
des Themas, der zyklischen Anlage des Ganzen und der symmetrischen Architektonik der Form. Martin
Zenck, Die Bach-Rezeption des spten Beethoven: zum Verhltnis von Musikhistoriographie und
Rezeptionsgeschichtsschreibung der Klassik (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1986), 23031; see
also ibid., 227.
58
initial occurrence. 20 Mellers surmises, In any case the da capo of the aria, in both Bach
and Beethoven, sounds like a microcosm of the macrocosm, though in Beethoven the
process is more psychologically inward. 21
Both sets of variations use the harmonic structure of the theme as a unifying
technique. 22 Toveys comments on the harmonic groundwork of the Goldberg
Variations could, in certain ways, apply to Op. 109 as well: Bach, in the Goldberg
Variations, by depriving himself of all resources that come from taking the melody of the
theme as a guiding principle, gained a complete independence in melodic matter which
enabled him to attain far more variety and expanse than would be possible in variations
that depend as frequently on the melodic surface of the theme as on its harmonies. 23
However, Beethoven also used melodic material from his theme in the Op. 109
variations, whereas in Bachs Goldberg Variations, no material from the aria, other
than the bass, [has] recurred substantially in the variations. 24 The descending bass line
that appears in the Goldberg Variations aria was in use until Beethovens time, 25 and
20
Silverman, Beethoven Piano Sonatas.
21
Wilfrid Mellers, Beethoven and the Voice of God (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983),
22021.
22
Marilynn J. Truchan, Four Sets of Variations for Keyboard Instruments: The Goldberg
Variations by Bach; The Diabelli Variations by Beethoven; Symphonic Etudes in Form of Variations by
Schumann; Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel by Brahms (MA thesis, University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara, c. 19601969), 45.
23
Donald Francis Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis: Chamber Music, vol. 7, Essays in Musical
Analysis (London: Oxford University Press, 1944), 126.
24
Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, 372.
25
Laria iniziale segue un giro armonico standard, supportato da una figura del basso (una
gagliarda p secondo Alberto Basso), comunissima allepoca e che resister addirittura fino a Beethoven.
Emmanuele Ferrari, Analisi musicale e giudizio critico, ANALISI, Rivista di Teoria e Pedagogia
musicale 10 (1999): 22.
59
the bass line of the Op. 109 Variations theme appears to be a modified inversion of that
same bass line (cf., Examples 4.1 and 4.2). 26
Example 4.1 J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria Bass Line, mm. 18.
Example 4.2 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Bass Line, mm. 18.
Comparison of Op. 109 to the Goldberg Variations: Themes

The similarities between the themes of the two variation sets are numerousthe
first and most obvious being that they both are in a major key in 3/4 meter. In and of
itself, this is merely a superficial resemblance, but when accounted with other correlating
factors, it adds weight to the supposition that the Goldberg Variations inspired
Beethovens Op. 109. Bach designated the Goldberg Variations theme as an Aria,
which describes its song-like quality. Similarly, in Beethovens autograph of the third
movement of Op. 109, he labeled it as Gesang mit innigster Empfindung; again, with
the word Gesang, a song-like quality is evoked. In the first edition of Op. 109,
Gesang (song) was changed to Gesangvoll (song-full), but the vocal connection
26
Further connections between the two can be found in the first two movements of Op. 109, which
also have a descending scalar bass line similar to the Goldberg Variations bass line, meaning that the
bass line of the Op. 109 third movement variations not only is an inversion of the previous two movements
(as discussed in Chapter Three) but also may be a loosely modified inversion of the Goldberg Variations
bass line. Zenck speaks of the connections between the Goldberg Variations and the first and second
movements of Op. 109. Zenck, Bach-Rezeption, 22022. In discussing the bass line of Op. 109s
movements, he was influenced by the sketch studies of Allen Forte, The Compositional Matrix: Analytic
Studies of the Beethovens Sketches (1961; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1974), 30, 57, 62 and 67.
60
remains. 27 Might not this imply that he first was identifying his theme as a song much as
the Goldberg Variations theme is an aria? Perhaps later he wished to play down the
similarities between the two, but the musical connection remains. Kriz asserts that the
theme of Op. 109 immediately brings the Goldberg Variations to mind by the melodys
nature and ornamentation. 28
Both themes place the rhythmic stress on the second beat of the measure in the
manner of a sarabande (see Example 4.3).
Example 4.3 Sarabande Rhythm of J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations and Ludwig van
Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Theme.
27
Glenn Stanley, Voices and Their Rhythms in the First Movement of Beethovens Piano Sonata
Op. 109: Some Thoughts on the Performance and Analysis of a Late-Style Work, in Beethoven and His
World, ed. Scott G. Burnham and Michael P. Steinberg (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000),
107; Johannes Fischer, Eine neue Quelle von Beethovens Klaviersonate Op. 109, E-dur, Melos/ Neue
Zeitschrift fr Musik 2 (1976): 29.
28
Kriz, On Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, 23.
61
Bach, in mastering the French suite as he had many other genres, had written many
sarabandes, and the Goldberg Variations aria has the character of a sublime,
sarabande-like theme. 29 Williams describes aspects of the sarabande tendre, which he
applies to the Goldberg Variations aria: leisurely pulse, slow harmonic rhythm,
harmonies made from the full triads, various emphases on the second beat of the bar, a
singing melody, no upbeat. 30 Is this not directly applicable to the theme of the Op. 109
variations as well? Many scholars concur that the sarabande-like aspects of Op. 109 were
inspired by the Goldberg Variations. 31 (On a side note, the arpeggiated chords in
Op. 109, III, mm. 5, 13, and 14 could be seen as a harkening back to the Baroque
compositional practice of style bris. 32 In Bachs aria, the left-hand part often consists of
slowly broken chords, and in m. 11, the composer includes an arpeggiated chord in the
right-hand part as well 33 ) (cf., Examples 4.4 and 4.5).
29
William Kinderman, The Piano Music: Concertos, Sonatas, Variations, Small Forms, in The
Cambridge Companion to Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000),
121.
30
Williams, The Goldberg Variations, 41, 54.
31
Zenck, Bach Rezeption, 227; Schiff, Lecture Recital; Silverman, Beethoven Piano Sonatas:
Liner Notes. See also Mellers, Beethoven and the Voice of God, 211.
32
The first edition of Op. 109 has arpeggiated chords in the reprise, but according to one corrected
manuscript, the reprise should not have arpeggiation. Fischer, Eine neue Quelle, 29.
33
62
Example 4.5 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Theme, mm. 1314.
In comparing the harmonic motion of the two themes, there are further
similarities. The first measure of each theme is based on the tonic, followed by a move to
the dominant. The next two measures use a first inversion chord with a dominant function
(Bach uses vii6/V, Beethoven uses V6/V) to tonicize a dominant in the fourth measure.
Both composers then proceed to change the dominant to a V4/2 chord, using a passing
fourth scale degree eighth note in the bass to move to a I6 chord in the fifth measure.
Moreover, the first eight measures of Beethovens theme employ a 2+2+4 phrase
pattern, 34 the same as the first eight measures of Bachs aria (cf., Examples 4.6 and 4.7).
Finally, both themes are thirty-two measures long. 35
34
Bruce Archibald, Three, International Journal of Musicology 4 (1995): 84.
35
What is probably more than mere coincidence is that the Goldberg Variations consist of
thirty-two divisions, if one counts the thirty variations and two appearances of the aria.
63
Example 4.7 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Theme, mm. 18.
64
However, there are a few scholars who downplay the connection between the two
works. Kinderman thinks there is only a generalized relation between the two themes, 36
while Williams surmises that a connection is doubtful, since in Beethovens time there
were other variations in circulation with sarabande themes, including ones by Handel
(albeit, Williams does not specify to which of Handels works he is referring). 37 There
does seem to be a Handelian influence on the Op. 109 variations, 38 with no less an
authority than Czerny claiming that the whole movement is in the style of Handel and
Seb. Bach. 39 In Zencks opinion, Op. 109 is related to Handels Suite in E Major,
HWV 430 (especially the fourth movement, a set of five variations on the tune The
Harmonious Blacksmith), and the Sarabande from the E-minor Suite, HWV 438. 40 From
my point of view, this Handelian effect does not detract from the influence of the
Goldberg Variations on Op. 109, but rather it enriches it; Handels influence does not
preclude also that of Bach.
36
Kinderman, Bachian Affinities, 8889. He also thinks the theme may have ties to Archduke
Trio in Bb Major, Op. 97 (1811).
37
38
Alfred Brendel, Music Sounded Out (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990), 68.
39
der ganze Satz im Style Handels und Seb. Bachs. Carl Czerny, On the Proper Performance of
All Beethovens Works for the Piano, ed. Paul Badura-Skoda, trans. anonymous (1846; reprint, Bryn Mawr,
PA: T. Presser, 1970), 56.
40
Zenck, Bach-Rezeption, 22627.
65
Comparison of Op. 109 to the Goldberg Variations: Variations

Beethoven was uniquely strict in composing Op. 109, since all the variations
are in the principal key of the theme and have the same proportions, 41 much as Bach laid
out the Goldberg Variations. Additionally, Bach picked genres without anacruses
(sarabande, minuet, polonaise, gavotte, gigue) to use as some of the Goldberg
Variations, 42 and Beethoven similarly avoids upbeats in most of his Op. 109 variations.
However, unlike the Goldberg variationseach variation contain[s] a subtle transition
to the next. 43 Another difference is that Beethoven includes varied reprises, meaning
repetitions that are themselves variations (Vars. 2, 3, 5, and 6), 44 whereas Bachs repeats
are identical on the page (yet Baroque keyboardists would have undoubtedly improvised
ornaments to vary the repeats).
The overall layout of both sets of variations gradually builds to a brilliant climax
using rhythmic diminution before the return of theme, which is the eventual goal of both
the Goldberg Variations and Op. 109 (Goldberg Variations Vars. 29 and 30 are
character variations, so they do not fit into the overall pattern of rhythmic diminution
found in the second part of the set). 45 Beethovens sixth variation, a double variation by
continuous development, 46 has a special role to play as it encapsulates the return of the
41
42
43
44
Craig Cummings, Large-scale Coherence in Selected Nineteenth-century Piano Variations

(PhD diss., Indiana University, 1991), 96; Donald Francis Tovey, A Companion to Beethovens Pianoforte
Sonatas: A Bar-by-Bar Analysis of Beethovens 32 Pianoforte Sonatas (London: Associated Board of the
R.A.M. and the R.C.M., 1951), 253.
45
46
Tovey, Beethovens Pianoforte Sonatas, 254.
66
theme not once, but twice. The first return of the theme is transformed by rhythmic
acceleration, 47 before the second verbatim return of the theme, the real return in a
sense. In addition, a fugal section appears in a position preceding the return of the theme,
meaning that in the Goldberg Variations, Var. 30, the Quodlibet, is heard immediately
before the return of the theme, whereas in Op. 109, Variation 5, a fughetta, is heard
before the last variation.
OP. 109: VARIATION 1

The first variation of Op. 109 hearkens back to certain aspects of the Goldberg
Variations theme, as the trills, turns, and appoggiaturas of Bachs work are transformed
by Beethoven into nineteenth-century ornaments fitting the pianos resonance and almost
adumbrating the ornamental style of Chopin. At times, the mostly stepwise motion of
Bachs ornaments becomes leaps of an octave or more in Beethovens melody. Leaps of
this distance, while unidiomatic to the harpsichord, are suited to the piano, which can
capture their resonance with the damper pedal, showing how Beethoven takes Bachs
ideas and employs them to capture the potential of his instrument. Note also that the
descending stepwise motion in Beethovens melody hearkens back to the Goldberg
Variations Aria (cf., Examples 4.8 and 4.9).
47
rhythmischen Beschleunigung. William Kinderman, Klaviersonate E-dur op. 109, in

Beethoven: Interpretationen seiner Werke, vol. 2, ed. Albrecht Riethmller, Carl Dahlhaus, and Alexander
L. Ringer (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1994), 167.
67
Example 4.8 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 1, mm. 56.
68
Certain affinities can also be detected between Beethovens Var. 1 and Bachs Var. 13, in
the shape of melodic turns and a descending two-note pattern interrupted by pauses
(cf., Examples 4.10, 4.11, 4.12, and 4.13).
69

Beethovens Variation 2 melds aspects of Bachs Vars. 14 and 29. These
variations use sets of two or three notes alternated between the hands to create a
monophonic melody which defines the harmony as well. This technique is one that Bach
mastered in many works, such as his solo suites for cello. So it is only fitting that
Beethoven, in Op. 109, Var. 2, pays tribute to Bachs use of this style in his Var. 29 48
(cf., Examples 4.14, 4.15, and 4.16).
48
70
Alternating chords between hands a semitone apart appear in Op. 109, Var. 2 and in
Goldberg Variations Var. 29 (cf., Examples 4.17 and 4.18).
71
A more tenuous connection might be found between the trills in Beethovens Var. 2 and
Bachs Var. 14 (cf., Examples 4.19 and 4.20).
72

Op. 109s third variation could be considered an academic exercise 49 in the
technique known as double counterpoint, 50 or invertible counterpoint. 51 According to
Zenck, the vocal exchange and rhythmic diminution of subject are similar to that found in
Handels Suite in E Major, HWV 430. 52 I believe that thematically this variation is more
closely related to Handels suite than to the Goldberg Variations, yet it contains some
similar elements to the Goldberg Variations. Beethovens Var. 3 may have been
inspired by Bachs bravura Var. 1 in its use of invertible counterpoint, 53 as well as
Bachs Var. 27 (cf., Examples 4.21 4.22, and 4.22). Other Bach variations which include
modified invertible counterpoint are Vars. 14, 20, and 30 (the Quodlibet), suggesting that
Beethoven may have observed this technique in the Goldberg Variations and may have
wished to prove his facility in the same technique.
49
Rumph, Beethoven after Napoleon, 115.
50
51
Archibald, Three, 83, n. 8; Kinderman, Klaviersonate, 167.
52
Zenck, Bach-Rezeption, 128, 231.
53
73
Example 4.21 J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 27, mm. 13 and 1719.
74

Beethovens fourth variation is a circular canonic variation similar to Bachs
Var. 3, 54 both in a pastoral sounding compound meter (Beethoven uses 9/8, Bach 12/8).
Bachs variation is a canon at the unison, the upper voices intertwining, alternating
between sets of sixteenth notes, dotted quarter notes, and groupings of three eighth notes.
Meanwhile, the bass line supports the upper voices by a steady stream of eighth and
sixteenth notes. Beethoven does not compose a strict canon, but free imitative
polyphony 55 (at times expanding to four voices but mostly limiting himself to three as
Bach does), making his voices intertwine and cross multiple times, in the manner of
Bachs canon. The part of Bachs work most similar to Beethovens can be found in mm.
1314, where Beethoven employs a motivic fragment of a repeated ascending scalar third
found in all voices (cf., Examples 4.23, 4.24, and 4.25). 56
54
Die vierte Variation ist mit der dritten Variation Bachs motivisch verwandt. Kinderman,
Rckblick, 136. See also Kriz, On Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, 3.
55
56
Zenck, Bach-Rezeption, 22728; Hans-Werner Kthen, Quarendo invenietis: Die Exegese

eines Beethoven-Briefes an Haslinger vom 5. September 1823, in Musik, Edition, Interpretation:
Gedenkschrift Gnter Henle, ed. Martin Bente (Munich: Henle, 1980), 303.
75
Near the end of both of their variations (Beethovens Var. 4, and Bachs Var. 3), each
composer inserts descending scalar thirds as inversions of the ascending scalar thirds
(cf., Examples 4.26 and 4.27).
76
Example 4.27 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 4, m. 17.
Yet another connection appears in the contrary-motion scale patterns in Bachs Var. 23
and Beethovens Var. 4 (cf., Examples 4.28 and 4.29).
77

The fifth variation of Op. 109, a Bachian fugato, 57 has ties to several of the
Goldberg Variations. Kinderman perceives that the fugal Alla breve variation 5 shows
a marked similarity with rhythmic variation 22 of the Goldberg Variations, especially at
the beginning of the variation. 58 In Zencks assessment, both Goldberg Variations
Var. 22 and Beethovens fifth variation have a stretto layering of the subject in fugato
style. 59 Note how both variations feature half notes tied across the bar line to quarter
notes, followed by two eighth notes, and then two quarter notes (cf., Examples 4.30, 4.31,
and 4.32).
57
Schiff, Lecture Recital. See also Zenck, Bach-Rezeption, 231.
58
die fugierte Alla-breve-Variation 5 zeigt eine ausgepragte rhythmische hnlichkeit mit

Variation 22 der Goldberg-Variationen auf, besonders zu Beginn der Variation. Kinderman, Rckblick,
13637.
59
78
Example 4.30 Opening Rhythms of J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 22 and

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 5. 60
60
Ibid.
79
Another variation that is somewhat comparable is Bachs Var. 18, which features similar
rhythms and suspensions (see Example 4.33).
80
Later in Op. 109, Var. 5, a running eighth-note pattern in the bass could be considered
superficially reminiscent of the Goldberg Variations Var. 10 61 (cf., Examples 4.34
and 4.35).
61
81
An additional similarity between the Goldberg Variations and Op. 109 is the scales of
parallel thirds and sixths found in the latter half of Bachs Var. 23. Indeed, Williams
rightly terms them prophetic of later music 62 (cf., Examples 4.36, 4.37, and 4.38).
Example 4.36 J. S. Bach Goldberg Variations, Var. 23, mm. 2526.
62
82

The similarities between the trills in Bachs Var. 28 and Beethovens Var. 6, and
other late works of Beethoven, such as Op. 111, have been commented on by scholars
and performers alike. 63 Mellers observes, Bachs virtuosic keyboard techniques,
especially in the use of trills, seem to be echoed in the exploratory pianism of the opus
109 variations. 64 (Along with Op. 109, III, Var. 3, this is another variation in which
Beethoven owes not only a debt to Bach but also to Handel, but here Bachs influence is
even more pronounced.) 65 Beethoven imitates Bachs different permutations of the trill,
such as placing the melody above or below the trill, or moving it up to a high treble
register (cf., Examples 4.39, 4.40, 4.41, 4.42, 4.43, and 4.44).
63
John Harley, The Trill in Beethovens Later Music, Musical Times 95, no. 2 (1954): 6973;
Kriz, On Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, 4; Stuart Isacoff, Feature: Bachs Night MusicPianist
Murray Perahia on the Goldberg Variations, Piano Today 21, no. 1 (2001): 12; Gerard McBurney,
Discovering Music: The Anatomy of a Musical MasterpieceGerard McBurney on Bach: Goldberg
Variations, BBC Music Magazine 9, no. 5 (2001): 58; Tovey, Chamber Music, 70.
64
Mellers, Beethoven and the Voice of God, 22021.
65
83
84
85
One other of Bachs variations that somewhat resembles Beethovens Var. 6 is Var. 26, 66
because it displays a slow-moving melody decorated by rapid filigree-like figurations
(see Example 4.45).
Summary of Similarities
One of these affinities, or even several, would not be grounds to conclude that
Beethoven had been influenced by Bachs Goldberg Variations in composing his
Op. 109 variations. However, when one considers the number of commonalities between
the two works, one can safely conclude that this was not mere coincidence, but
Beethoven actively seeking to emulate Bachs great work.
66
86
Chapter Five
Comparison of the Op. 109 Sketches to the Goldberg Variations
Beethovens Sketch Process

The purpose of this chapter is to provide additional evidence that Beethoven was
influenced by the Goldberg Variations when he composed the Op. 109 Variations. To
the best of my knowledge, the comparisons made in this chapter between the Op. 109
sketches and the Goldberg Variations have not been discussed before and provide a
fresh perspective on the topic. My analysis falls under the general heading of sketch
studies. Beethoven scholars have debated the value of sketch studies and whether they
fall best under the heading of biography or analysis, 1 yet I concur with William Drabkin
that sketch studies can have value in supporting analytical claims based on the completed
score of a work. 2 My analysis falls under the category of suggestive as described by
Philip Gossett: Sketches provide evidence for compositional intent with respect to
relationships which, while present, we may have overlooked or undervalued. 3
Since this study is not primarily a sketch study, I will provide only a brief
overview of Beethovens sketch process as a background to my analysis. According to
Barry Cooper, Beethoven would normally compose in the following manner:
Douglas Johnson, Comment and Chronicle: Reply to Richard A. Kramer, 19th-century Music 3
(1979): 18788.
1
Sieghard Brandenburg, William Drabkin, and Douglas Johnson, On Beethoven Scholars and
Beethovens Sketches,19th-century Music 2, no. 3 (1979): 27079.
3
Philip Gossett, Beethovens Sixth Symphony: Sketches for the First Movement, Journal of the
American Musicological Society 27 (1974): 263.
87
Often the genre of a new work would be determined by some commission he

received from a patron or publisher. On other occasions he chose a particular
genre of his own volition. Once the genre was chosen, a few brief ideas would be
jotted down, fixing the key and something of the character of the work. The key
signature normally appeared with the initial sketch, since this helped to define the
work, but it was usually omitted from subsequent sketches once the key was
established firmly in his mind. These preliminary sketches are normally referred
to as concept sketches, although there is no precise definition of this term and it
sometimes embraces any short new idea.Once the initial concepts were down
on paper, Beethoven turned his attention to the form of the work or movement. If
the movement was to have a regular form such as sonata form, there is generally
no indication in the early stages, except perhaps for a word such as Rondo or
Minuet. If he was planning some innovative form, however, as in the finale of
the Eroica, he usually sketched a kind of synopsis of either the movement or the
work (or sometimes a group of movements) at an early stage. 4
Alan Tyson gives some more details concerning Beethovens compositional procedures:
Beethoven carried on working away in his sketchbook until he came to a point at
which he felt he was ready and able to write out a formal score. This was the
score that we call the autograph.Once he had committed himself to writing out
the autograph he seems to have started at the beginning and carried on to the end.
In general we probably underrate the amount of composing that Beethoven did
within the autograph scores.Again and again when we examine the relation
between the sketches for one of Beethovens compositions and the autograph of
that work we wing the same thing: that Beethoven was prepared to cover a great
many sheets of music paper with sketches, but that once he had started to write
out the autograph he was determined to bring the work to fruition upon those very
pages. 5
From these descriptions, we can see that the sketches were integral to Beethovens
compositional process.
Schindler claimed of the majority of the late piano sonatas, While composing
music for the pianoforte, the master [Beethoven] would often go to the instrument and try
Barry Cooper, The Compositional Act: Sketches and Autographs, in The Cambridge
Companion to Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 37.
5
Alan Tyson, Stages in the Composition of Beethovens Piano Trio, Op. 70, no. 1, Proceedings
of the Royal Musical Association 97 (197071): 119.
88
certain passages, especially those that might present special difficulties in performance.6
Beethoven, in describing his typical compositional process, claimed he would jot down
certain ideas as I used to do, and when I have completed the whole in my head,
everything is written down, but only once. 7 This is not to say that he never did
preliminary sketches or continuity sketches, but the complete draft, also known as the
holograph or autograph score, was normally only written down only once. 8 Over his
lifetime he generated thousands of pages of sketches and drafts, 9 filled with ideas that
he later either honed into finished compositions or discarded.
The Op. 109 Sketches

The two primary sketch sources for Op. 109 are known as Artaria 195 and the
Wittgenstein sketchbook. 10 In addition, Artaria 197 has a sketch for the sixth variation
of Op. 109. 11 In his book on the Op. 109 sonata, Marston offers the following details
about the third movement sketches:
Sketches for the third movement theme occur on p. 36 [of Artaria 195] and the
bottom three staves of p. 37, below early work on the second movement. The final
sketch for the theme occurs on p. 53, interrupting the main sketching for the
variations, which begins at the bottom of p. 50 and continues to p. 73. Further
isolated variation sketches occur on pp. 36, 75, and 78.Two further manuscripts
6
Constance S. Jolly (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966), 270.
7
Ludwig van Beethoven, The Letters of Beethoven, ed. Emily Anderson (London: Macmillan,
1961), 92728.
8
Barry Cooper, Beethoven and the Creative Process (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 4.
William Kinderman, Artaria 195: Beethovens Sketchbook for the Missa Solemnis and the Piano
Sonata in E Major, Opus 109 (Champaign-Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003), 4.
10
Cooper, Beethoven and the Creative Process, 4.
11
89
contain sketches for the third-movement variations: Berlin, Staatsbibliothek

Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Artaria 197 (SV 12), p. 1 contains a sketch for the last
variation, and detailed drafts of variations 2 and 3 are to be found in Vienna,
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, A 47 (SV 277). In addition, the autograph of the
third movement contains numerous revisions and corrections, particularly for
variations 3 and 4. 12
Other sketches for the Op. 109 variations may yet exist, since a pocket sketchbook for
the last two movements of Opus 109, used during the summer months, has presumably
been lost. 13 Perhaps these sketches would provide us with more evidence that Op. 109
and the Goldberg Variations are related, but this is speculation. Fortunately for this
analysis, the variation movement of Op. 109 is still the most extensively documented
movement in Artaria 195. 14
Before examining individual sketches, I will summarize the scholarship on
Beethovens procedures in sketching out variations. According to Kinderman, In
composing a set of variations, Beethoven would often devise a considerable number of
ideas for variations that could be further revised, discarded, transformed, combined, or
tentatively grouped together into larger continuities. 15 Elsewhere, Kinderman writes of
Op. 109, Many sketched variations were not used, and some early ideas can be found
12
Sonata in E, op. 109, 19th-century Music 10 (1986): 37. See also Johnson, Tyson, Winter, Beethoven
Sketchbooks, 263.
13
Johnson, Tyson, Winter, Beethoven Sketchbooks, 374.
14
William Drabkin, Review of Artaria 195: Beethovens Sketchbook for the Missa Solemnis and
the Piano Sonata in E Major, Opus 109, by Ludwig van Beethoven and William Kinderman, Eighteenthcentury Music 1 (2004): 323.
15
Kinderman, Artaria 195, 82.
90
combined again in later completed variations. 16 William Meredith describes of the

variation sketch process as follows:
Generally the process seems to have followed three steps. First Beethoven worked
on the theme, if it was one that was being newly composed.Very few sketches
have survived for the Gesang of Opus 109.The second stage proceeds in a
particularly winsome and creative way. The method is simple. Beethoven would
often draw all the necessary barlines of the variation before beginning sketching.
All the sketches have incipits, but they are often blank till a decisive moment
Once the governing idea of the variation had been entered in the incipit, shorthand
sufficed.After he felt that enough material had been essayed for a set, he would
begin to organize the material. There were at least three ways to proceed in this
third stage. The easiest was simply to go through the sketches and number certain
ones as a set. On occasion more than sequence of numbers is found, indicating
later passes through the material. The proportion of variations used in the set to
those rejected varies considerably from one work to another. For Opus 109the
number of ideas for variations not used far exceeds the number of ideas for
variations he did select. A second method was to compile a sort of continuity draft
of incipits. A third option was to recopy and revise the sketches considered most
useful in another location.The three approaches to organization were not
mutually exclusive. 17
In this study, I will be analyzing small-scale sketches, which Lewis Lockwood defines as
sketches either for works in progress or those to be worked out in the future, for
example, motifs, fragments, jottings, concept sketches, and similar entries. 18
16
Viele skizzierte Variationen blieben unbenutzt; einige frhe Einflle finden sich in spter
beendeten Variationen kombiniert wieder. William Kinderman, Klaviersonate E-dur op. 109, in
Beethoven: Interpretationen seiner Werke, vol. 2, ed. Albrecht Riethmller, Carl Dahlhaus, Alexander L.
Ringer (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1994), 166.
17
William Rhea Meredith, The Sources for Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, Opus 109
(PhD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1958), 37879.
18
Lewis Lockwood, The Beethoven Sketchbooks and the General State of Beethoven Research,
in Beethovens Compositional Process, ed. William Kinderman, International Beethoven Symposium, 1986
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press in association with the American Beethoven Society and Ira F.
Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jos State University, 1991), 8.
91
Concerning these sketches, many are mostly fragmentary sketches of possible

variations. 19
Of the various authors who have studied the Op. 109 sketches in depth (Nicholas
Marston, 20 William Meredith, 21 and William Kinderman 22 ), each has a slightly different
approach to aspects such as transcribing of Beethovens original sketches, organizing the
sketches into categories, and even in determining which sketches actually belong to
Op. 109. Because of the brevity of this discussion, I will avoid going into detail about the
differences. One aspect of Merediths approach is very helpfulhis classification of the
variation sketches into five categories:
1. Eighteen sketches for variations that were not used in the final set and that are
shorter than eight measures
2. Seventeen sketches for variations not used in the final set that are longer than
eight measures
3. Eight sketches for variations used in the final set (both short and long)
4. Nine sketches that were numbered as a set in Beethovens first organization of the
material
5. Eight incipits for variations found in the continuity draft 23
19
Udo Zilkens, Beethovens Finalstze in den Klaviersonaten: Allgemeine Strukturen und

individuelle GestaltungVergleichende Analysen als Einblick in Kompositionsweise BeethovensSkizzen
und Autographe als Schlssel zum Kompositionsprozess (Cologne: Tolger Kln, 1994), 22627.
20
1995); idem, The Origins of Beethovens Op. 109: Further Thoughts, Musical Times 127 (1986): 199
201; idem, Schenker and Forte Reconsidered, 2442.
21
16; idem., The Sources for Beethovens Piano Sonata.
22
William Kinderman, Thematic Contrast and Parenthetical Enclosure in the Piano Sonatas,
op. 109 and 111, in Zu Beethoven: Aufstze und Dokumente III, ed. Harry Goldschmidt and Georg
Knepler (Berlin: Verlag Neue Musik, 1988), 4359; idem, Klaviersonate E-dur op. 109; idem, Artaria
195.
23
Meredith, The Sources for Beethovens Piano Sonata, 373. A continuity draft was a
compositional stage in between individual sketches and an autograph copy, allowing Beethoven to see
larger scale structure, but not locking him into the final details. According to Marston, Beethovens
92
Meredith goes on to give some more description concerning these classifications:

Only two of the eight incipits in group 5 and two of the sketches in group 4 are for
variations included in the final set (two of the sketches in group 4 are included in
group 3); forty-five of the fifty variation ideas (90%) are for variations not
incorporated in the final set. Moreover, only four of the eight sketches for variations
included in the final set are substantive. The group of sketches numbered as a set and
the continuity draft for the movement are both quite distant from the final version.24
Thus, what this means for my analysis is that there are many variation sketches to choose
from in analyzing the connections between the Goldbergs and Op. 109sketches that
may offer new perspectives since they do not necessarily resemble the final variations.
Relation of the Op. 109 Sketches to the Goldberg Variations

My study is not meant to be exhaustive, rather, its purpose is to support to my
primary thesis that Beethoven was influenced by the Goldberg Variations in composing
the Op. 109 sonata. I will mostly be focusing on variation sketches that are dissimilar to
the completed variations, since I have already analyzed the variations in Chapter Four.
Instead, I will demonstrate that Beethoven probably had the Goldberg Variations in
mind when composing the variation movement, even as he sketched variations that he
eventually rejected. Marston writes, What stands out particularly is the fact that during
the most sustained period of activity, that represented by the sketching up to an including
page 69, Beethoven was concerned less with writing variations than with establishing a
coherent variation set; the character and details of individual members of the set seem to
continuity draft for the Op. 109 variation set appears to be more detailed than he normally would make it,
though later it appears only a small part of it survived. Marston, Beethovens Piano Sonata in E, 4041.
24
Meredith, The Sources for Beethovens Piano Sonata, 373.
93
have been less important to him than the shape of the whole. 25 In my analysis, I will
follow Marston, whom Weber-Bockholdt describes as try[ing] to understand the
sketches as potential answers that are almost equal footing with the shape of the finished
work, rather than treating them as wrong answers, in a sense. 26
To most musicians, Beethovens sketches appear nearly impossible to decipher.
Kinderman explains the reason in this manner:
Since Beethoven was writing for himself alone, he could afford to be highly
pragmatic and idiosyncratic. Much is assumed in the sketches. In addition to using
a variety of abbreviationshe often omits whatever could be taken for granted or
committed to memory as he wrote, sometimes quite rapidly, no doubt. Beethoven
often leaves out clefs, meters, and key signatures, and sometimes rests, ties,
accidentals, and ledger lines. Once a pattern is established, brace lines, dots, and
other commonplaces of the musical language disappear for extended passages.
There are often serious difficulties in even reading the right notes, since their
placement can be ambiguous and imprecise. Surely Beethoven knew which notes
he meant, but sometimes we can only guess. 27
Because of the sketches indecipherability in manuscript form, I have chosen to rely on

Marstons transcriptions of the Op. 109 variation sketches for my comparison with the
Goldberg Variations.
25
Marston, Beethovens Piano Sonata in E, 182.
26
Er versucht vielmehr, die Skizzen als mogliche Antworten zu verstehen, die so gut wie
gleichberechtigt neben der fertigen Werkgestalt stehen. Petra Weber-Bockholdt, Besprechungen:
Beethovens Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109, (Studies in Musical Genesis and Structure) von Nicholas
Marston, Musiktheorie 11, no. 2 (1996): 167.
27
Kinderman, Artaria 195, ix.
94
In comparing the Goldberg Variations aria and Var. 1 to the sketch Artaria
195, p. 57, st. 1/2, all three consist of running sixteenth notes in the right hand supported
by an eighth-note accompaniment (cf., Examples 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3).
Example 5.3 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches: Artaria 195, p. 57, st. 1/2. 28
28
Sketch transcription by Nicholas Marston. Marston, Beethovens Piano Sonata in E, 173. Used
with permission.
95
If we accept the premise that at times in these variations Beethoven was composing in a
neo-Baroque style, one would not be surprise to find this in his sketches as well. Note
how he integrates common Baroque textures and rhythms in the sketches, as in the
following examples based on a pastoral-sounding compound meter (cf., Examples 5.4,
5.5, and 5.6).
29
96
In another sketch Beethoven emphasizes the same rhythmic pattern in the treble staff as
the first variation of Bachs Goldberg Variations (cf., Examples 5.7 and 5.8).
Example 5.8 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches: Artaria 195, p. 50, st. 16. 30
30
Ibid., 186. Used with permission.
97
The following sketch by Beethoven displays similar rhythms and texture to Bachs
twentieth variation, with triplet sixteenths in the right hand accompanied by a steady
eighth-note pattern (cf., Examples 5.9 and 5.10).
Example 5.9 J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 20, m. 13.
31
98
Beethoven emphasized trills in one of his sketches similar to Var. 14 and Var. 23 of the
Goldberg Variations (cf., Examples 5.11 and 5.12).
Example 5.12 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches, Artaria 195, p. 53, st. 1/2. 32
32
99
In the next sketch, Beethoven employed a slower-moving right hand part over a lively
triplet bass pattern similar to Bachs Vars. 2 and 20 (cf., Examples 5.13, 5.14, and 5.15).
Example 5.15 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches: Artaria 195, p. 62,
st. 13/14. 33
33
100
Dotted rhythms and rapidly descending thirty-second notes appear in Beethovens next
sketch, which might have been inspired by Bachs Var. 16 (cf., Examples 5.16 and 5.17).
34
101
This Beethoven sketch displays sixteenth-note patterns of ascending or descending sixths

in the treble, similar to Var. 17 of the Goldberg Variations (cf., Examples 5.18 and
5.19).
Example 5.19 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches: Artaria 195, p. 68, st. 4/5
and 7/8. 35
35
102
In yet another sketch, Beethoven utilized thirty-second note descending scalar patterns as
Bach had in his thirteenth variation (cf., Examples 5.20 and 5.21).
Example 5.21 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches: Artaria 195, p. 68,
st. 10/11. 36
36
103
Swiftly ascending scales in parallel tenths appear in one of Beethovens sketches similar
to Bachs Var. 23 (cf., Examples 5.22 and 5.23).
The next Beethoven sketch excerpt draws upon two different elements from the
Goldberg Variationsa descending two note sigh pattern found in Bachs Var. 15
and a hocket-like texture of notes alternating between two hands, as found in Bachs
Var. 20 (cf., Examples 5.24, 5.25, and 5.26).
37
104
Example 5.24 J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 15, mm. 1 and 17.
Example 5.26 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches: Artaria 195, p. 6869, st.
15/16. 38
38
105
Finally, in this sketch, Beethoven inserted an ascending sixteenth-note pattern in tenths

and thirds as Bach had done in Var. 17 (cf., Examples 5.27 and 5.28).
Example 5.28 Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III Sketches: Artaria 195, p. 59, st.
15/16. 39
These parallels between the sketches for Op. 109 and the Goldberg Variations,
when considered with the published Op. 109 variation movement and Bachs work, make
an even stronger case for Beethoven having been influenced by Bach when he was
composing Op. 109. I must reiterate that one correlation, or even several, would not be
enough proof for my thesis, much as one swallow does not a summer make, 40 but when
examined together, the similarities between the two works indeed point to Beethovens
emulation of Bachs work. Beethovens weaving of elements of the Goldberg
Variations into Op. 109 created an intensely satisfying work that is a masterpiece in its
own right.
39
40
Aristotle (384 BC322 BC).
106
Chapter Six
Epilogue
Beethoven captured the imagination of his successors as few composers have, and
the years after his death were marked by his compositional influence on composers such
as Schubert, Liszt, R. Schumann, Brahms, and Mahler. A corresponding interest in
Beethoven occurred among composers and authors such as Carl Czerny, Anton
Schindler, Alexander Wheelock Thayer, and Gustav Nottebohm, who began the long
tradition of Beethoven scholarship. 1 The sheer amount of research in existence is
daunting, and the young scholar at times is hard pressed to find an area of discussion that
has not already been repeatedly examined.
The influence of J. S. Bachs compositional legacy on Beethovens music has
been canvassed many times, and although my study summarizes some of the highlights of
this research, it settles within a mostly unexplored niche of Beethoven/Bach studies,
namely the connections between Beethovens Op. 109 Variations and Bachs Goldberg
Variations. By building upon Zencks work in this area, 2 a richer hue is added to the
readers impression of both works.
My fifth chapter discussion of Beethovens sketches for Op. 109 fills a different
role than that of the previous chapters. Beethoven sketch studies began with Thayers and
1
Carl Czerny, On the Proper Performance of All Beethovens Works for the Piano, ed. Paul
Badura-Skoda, trans. anonymous (1846; reprint, Bryn Mawr, PA: T. Presser, 1970); Anton Felix Schindler,
Beethoven as I Knew Him: A Biography, ed. Donald W. MacArdle, trans. Constance S. Jolly (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1966); Alexander Wheelock Thayer, Thayers Life of Beethoven, rev.
and ed. Elliott Forbes (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970); Gustav Nottebohm, Beethovens
Studien: Beethovens Unterricht bei J. Haydn, Albrechtsberger und Salieri (Leipzig: J. Rieter-Biedermann,
1873).
2
Wiesbaden, 1986).
107
Nottebohms research published in the 1860s and 1870s and were decades later a subject
of interest to scholars such as Heinrich Schenker (18681935) and his disciples, 3 but they
did not really come into full flower until the latter half of the twentieth century, when the
sketches were the subject of much inquiry and debate. 4 But now, interest in the sketches
appears to be gradually tapering off, meaning that my work in this area is not forwardlooking, but rather a retrospective glance at a heritage of scholarly inquiry into the
compositional process of one of Western historys greatest composers.
In writing this document, my hope is to have addressed a lucana in Beethoven
scholarship, specifically within the topic of Beethovens knowledge of Bach and the
4
16; idem, The Sources for Beethovens Piano Sonata in E Major, Opus 109 (PhD diss., University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1958); idem, Beethovens Creativity: His Views on the Creative Process,
The Beethoven Newsletter 2 (1987): 812; Barry Cooper, The Compositional Act: Sketches and
Autographs, in The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven, ed. Glenn Stanley (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2000), 3242, 310; idem, Beethoven and the Creative Process (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1990); William Drabkin, The Sketches for Beethovens Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus
111 (PhD diss., Princeton University, 1977); Johnson, Tyson, and Winter, The Beethoven Sketchbooks.
See also Kevin Bazzana, The First Movement of Beethovens Opus 109: Compositional Genesis and
Structural Dialectic, Revue de musique des universits canadiennes 12, no. 1 (1992): 136; Sieghard
Brandenburg, William Drabkin, and Douglas Johnson, On Beethoven Scholars and Beethovens
Sketches,19th-century Music 2, no. 3 (1979): 27079; William Drabkin, Beethovens Understanding of
Sonata Form: The Evidence of the Sketchbooks, in Beethovens Compositional Process, ed. William
Kinderman (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press in association with the American Beethoven Society
and Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jos State University, 1991), 1419; Allen Forte, The
Compositional Matrix: Analytic Studies of the Beethovens Sketches (1961; reprint, New York: Da Capo
Press, 1974); Philip Gossett, Beethovens Sixth Symphony: Sketches for the First Movement, Journal of
the American Musicological Society 27 (1974), 24884; Douglas Porter Johnson, Beethoven Scholars and
Beethovens Sketches, 19th-century Music 2 (1978): 317; Lewis Lockwood, The Beethoven
Sketchbooks and the General State of Beethoven Research, in Beethovens Compositional Process, ed.
William Kinderman (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991), 1113; Paul Mies and Doris L.
Mackinnon, Beethovens Sketches: An Analysis of His Style Based on a Study of His Sketch-Books (New
York: Dover Publications, 1974); Alan Tyson, Stages in the Composition of Beethovens Piano Trio, Op.
70, No. 1, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 97 (197071): 119; Udo Zilkens, Beethovens
Finalstze in den Klaviersonaten: Allgemeine Strukturen und individuelle GestaltungVergleichende
Analysen als Einblick in Kompositionsweise BeethovensSkizzen und Autographe als Schlssel zum
Kompositions-prozess (Cologne: Tolger Kln, 1994).
108
inspiration for the Op. 109 variation movement. Thus, may a modest new leaf of
knowledge sprout from the imposing trunk and deep roots of Beethoven scholarship.
109
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An Analytical Comparison of the Variation Movement from Ludwig van Beethovens

A document submitted to the

Doctor of Musical Arts

in the Keyboard Studies Division

Eliana Maria Murphy

BM, University of Colorado-Boulder, 2003

Committee Chair: bruce d. mcclung, PhD

The correlations between J. S. Bachs Aria mit verschiedenen Vernderungen,

Copyright 2013 by Eliana Maria Murphy.

my greatest musical role-model, and I am so thankful that my university studies on the

List of Musical Examples ................................................................................................ xi

Beethoven and Bach...................................................................................6

Beethoven and the Goldberg Variations............................................23

Analytical Comparison of the Goldberg Variations

Comparison of Op. 109 to the Goldberg Variations:

Comparison of the Op. 109 Sketches to the

List of Musical Examples

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 101, IV, mm. 96109...............................................17

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 106, IV, mm. 34954...............................................18

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 110, III, mm. 2737 .................................................19

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 110, III, mm. 13649 ...............................................19

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 111, I, mm. 7281....................................................20

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 131, I, mm. 117......................................................21

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 110, III, m. 4 ............................................................21

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 25, mm. 2124 .......................................30

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 101, III, mm. 2124 .................................................30

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 13, mm. 2832 .......................................34

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 25, mm. 3033 .......................................35

Ludwig van Beethoven, Diabelli Variations, Var. 31 ........................................35

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria, mm. 18................................................40

Girolamo Frescobaldi, Cento partite (1637), Bass Line........................................41

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria Bass Line, mm. 18 ...............................41

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, I, mm. 112......................................................48

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, II, mm. 116 ....................................................49

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, II, mm. 4149 ..................................................50

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, mm. 116 ...................................................51

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, I, Bass Line ......................................................52

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, II, Bass Line.....................................................52

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Bass Line ...................................................52

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 6, mm. 16 .........................................54

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria Bass Line, mm. 18 ...............................60

Sarabande Rhythm of J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations and Ludwig van

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria, mm. 1112............................................63

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria, mm. 18................................................64

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Theme, mm. 18 ........................................64

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 1, mm. 56 .........................................68

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Aria, mm. 18................................................68

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 13, mm. 12 ...........................................69

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 1, mm. 14 .........................................69

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 13, mm. 910 .........................................69

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 29, mm. 914 .........................................70

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 2, mm. 18 .........................................70

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 29, mm. 18 ...........................................71

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 14, mm. 14 ...........................................72

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 1, mm. 18 .............................................74

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 27, mm. 13 and 1719 .........................74

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 3, mm. 18 .........................................74

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 3, mm. 1316 .........................................75

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 4, mm. 47 .........................................76

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 3, mm. 1516 .........................................77

Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 109, III, Var. 4, m. 17 ..............................................77

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 23, mm. 2123 .......................................77

Opening Rhythms of J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 22 and

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Var. 22, mm. 18 ...........................................79