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and here once more we encounter the same restless hurrying already spoken of. The first division is not repeated, as usual, Beethoven doubtless having an eye to the unusual length which his Finale was to stretch to. So he makes a transition, in his own wonderful way from B-flat to A, draws a double bar through the score, restores the signature to one flat, and proceeds at once with the working-out. And now we see how nobly this great composer and poet could treat a subject after his own heart. Surely there is nothing in the whole range of music more noble than the effect of this great theme sweeping down through its simple natural intervals from top to bottom of the scale, and met by the equally simple pizzicato Bass, which is in fact only the theme itself in reversed order. The A-flat which Beethoven has added to the phrase on its second and also its third occurrence[1]—
- ↑ This group stands as above in the printed scores. But it surely ought to be B, A, A, like the others. At the repetition of the passage (in E-flat), after the working-out, another variation is given in the new edition, namely, E, D, E.
