Heitor Marques Marangoni

500 words for Written Assignment #3

Advanced Seminar

A Comparison between Beethoven`s Bagatelles Op. 119 and Op. 126: An Evolution of the
Style

Beethoven has composed a massive amount of important works for piano such as sonatas,

piano concertos and chamber music with piano. However, he also composed many small works

for piano such as variations, small independent works and the Bagatelles. On this paper I will

focus on Beethoven Bagatelles op. 119 and Op. 126 and I will support my thesis statement that

the Bagatelles Op. 126 are a Pre-Romantic cyclic compositional style.

Bagatelle is a popular style of composition on the classical and romantic period that

corresponds to a short unpretentious instrumental composition, with a light and a graceful

character, typically composed for the piano. The term bagatelle literally means something cheap

and superficially.

The cyclic form is a technique of musical composition that involves many movements

and sections that are unified by some thematic material through the entire set. Usually, especially

in the piano music, the cyclic composition are made by a big amount of short movements or

sections. This style of composition was explored since the renaissance and was very well

explored in the Romantic style for composers such as Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssonh and

Franz Liszt, for instance.

As we can see, these sets of Bagatelles were composed on Beethoven`s late style and

after his last piano sonata Op. 111. Beethoven’s late style is characterized by more deeper
feelings and meaning, more intellectual, less Galant characteristic and the presence of baroque

elements such as counterpoint. An interesting point that I will try to explore on this paper is that

how Beethoven explored a style of composition such as Bagatelles in his late style. In another

words, how does he composed a superficially style of composition on his compositional period

characterized by the presence of deeper feelings and more intellectual ideas.

To achieve the goals I will follow the next steps:

1. Motivic Analysis;
2. Texture Analyses;
3. Harmonic Analysis;
4. Verify Correspondences between the pieces on each set of Bagatelles;
5. Compare the results between each set of Bagatelles;
6. Compare these findings with the bibliography about cyclic pieces based on many
character pieces together.

The bagatelles Op. 119 are a set of 11 short pieces. At a first glance we can see the strong

presence of the Galant style

Bibliography

Arndt, Matthew. The Two Deaths in Beethoven's Bagatelle Op. 126 No. 4. Music Theory and
Analysis (MTA) 4, no. 1 (2017): 91-99.

Asmus, B. Formal strategies in Beethoven's bagatelles, Op. 119, 11 and Op. 126, 1. 6. 5-12.
(2002). Accessed November 19, 2017 <
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/295213923_Formal_strategies_in_Beethoven%
27s_bagatelles_Op_119_11_and_Op_126_1>
Cooper, Barry. Beethoven's Portfolio of Bagatelles. Journal of the Royal Musical Association
112, no. 2 (1987): 208-228.

Marston, Nicholas. Trifles or a Multi-Trifle? Beethoven's Bagatelles, Op. 119, Nos 7-11. Music
Analysis 5, no. 2/3 (1986): 193-206.

Schmalfeldt, Janet. On the Relation of Analysis to Performance: Beethoven's "Bagatelles" Op.

126, Nos. 2 and 5. Journal of Music Theory 29, no. 1 (1985): 1-31.

Smyth, David. Beethoven's Last Bagatelle. Intégral 13. (1999): 117-142.

Timbrell, Charles. Beethoven: Bagatelles, “Fur Elise”, and Other Piano Pieces/Andante Favori.
The Beethoven Journal 28, no. 2 (2013). Accessed November 18, 2017 <
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-3365659511/beethoven-bagatelles-f-r-elise-
and-other-piano>

Tyson, Alan. The First Edition of Beethoven's Op. 119 Bagatelles. The Musical Quarterly 49,
no. 3 (1963): 331-338.