Beethoven’s bagatelle “Lustig-Traurig” is often translated as “Happy-Sad” or “Joyful-Sorrowful,” and it seems straightforward: Two sections, both in binary form, the first in C major, the second in C minor, the first repeated after the second. Major and minor — happy and sad.
#Beethoven250 Day 159
Bagatelle “Lustig-Traurig” (WoO 54), 1802?
This piece is popular among student pianists, such as this young woman, who also composes.
Oddly, the titles and keys of “Lustig-Traurig” don’t quite fit the mood of the music. Beethoven is subverting our expectations: The Happy part sounds somewhat sad, and the Sad part sounds a bit happy. Is he making a joke? Or giving us a lesson in the nonsense of titles?
#Beethoven250 Day 159
Bagatelle “Lustig-Traurig” (WoO 54), 1802?
In this performance by Russian-Ukrainian pianist Nataliya Tkachenko, once again the Happy and Sad parts don’t quite fit the simple binary divisions of emotion.
Major and minor keys do not necessarily imply happy and sad in such a simplistic manner. Melody, harmony, rhythm, and tempo all play roles in establishing a mood in music, and perhaps we should have been alerted at the outset of the irony implicit in the title “Lustig-Traurig.”
#Beethoven250 Day 159
Bagatelle “Lustig-Traurig” (WoO 54), 1802?
By going with what the music tells him rather than the titles, Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen discovers a deeper, quite beautiful, non-binary expression of emotion in this work.
Before Beethoven returned to Vienna from Heiligenstadt, he wrote a letter dated 6 and 10 October 1802 to his two brothers Carl and Johann. Although never sent, the Heiligenstadt Testament remains one of the most startling documents in the composer’s history. It begins:
Oh you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you. From childhood on, my heart and soul have been full of the tender feelings of goodwill, and I was ever inclined to accomplish great things. But, think that for six years now I have been hopelessly afflicted, made worse by senseless physicians, from year to year deceived with hopes of improvement, finally compelled to face the prospect of a lasting malady (whose cure will take years or, perhaps, be impossible). Though born with a fiery, active temperament, even susceptible to the diversions of society, I was soon compelled to withdraw myself, to live life alone. If at times I tried to forget all this, oh how harshly was I flung back by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing. Yet it was impossible for me to say to people, “Speak louder, shout, for I am deaf.”
To his brother Carl he says
Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience; this was what upheld me in time of misery. Thanks to it and to my art, I did not end my life by suicide.
From the depths of suicidal despair, Beethoven chose life, he chose virtue, and he chose salvation through the art of music.