Mel Powell’s 1948 string quartet Beethoven Analogs was an important step in the development of his compositional voice, and its borrowing of Beethoven should be read not as a modernist parody but as an exercise in apprenticeship. In his lectures, Powell frequently used Beethoven Analogs as an introduction to the topic of “formal analogs,” a compositional strategy in which a new composition derives its structure from functionally equivalent units from an older model. In Beethoven Analogs, this means adapting the tonal ideas of Beethoven’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1, to an atonal context. For example, the structural effects of antecedent and consequent phrases and of tonal cadences are recreated by Powell with techniques such as octave doubling, double stops, and dynamic shifts. In the first movement of Beethoven Analogs, Powell adapts the sonata form of Beethoven’s first movement using tempo and texture changes analogous to Beethoven’s primary and secondary themes. Powell’s development section is less directly modeled on Beethoven’s. Instead, Powell uses a theme-and-variations structure possibly imported from his jazz training. The recapitulation represents Powell’s most overt departure from Beethoven’s model and mentorship. Powell approximately reverses the order of events in the exposition, a technique that is rare in Classical and Romantic sonatas and absent in Op. 18, No. 1. Ultimately, Beethoven Analogs takes Beethoven’s quartet as a jumping off point to explore musical energetics, syntax, and formal rhetoric. Powell continued to develop formal and expressive analogs throughout his career using what he learned from Beethoven and the F major quartet in Beethoven Analogs.

Works: Mel Powell: Beethoven Analogs (496-527)

Sources: Beethoven: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1 (496-527)

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet