Metronome Parody Poem by gershon hepner

If not of metronomes a parody,
what makes the Eight’s great second movement tick?
Beethoven, without barbarity,
commands the baton like a Bolshevik
to control beats’ regularity,
like laxatives when they control your bowels,
and generates a clarity
like that of consonants that clash with vowels.
Inspired by the second movement of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony.
There is a widespread belief that this movement is an affectionate parody of the metronome, which had only recently been invented (or more accurately, merely improved) by Beethoven's friend Johann Maelzel. This view has been called into question recently, however. Machine-created rhythm had already been parodied by Joseph Haydn in his 'Clock' Symphony; Beethoven pursued the same impulse for the faster rhythm of the new metronome.
The metronome parody starts at the very beginning of the movement with even staccato chords in 16th notes (semiquavers) played by the wind instruments, and a basic 16th-note rhythm continues fairly steadily through the piece. The tempo is unusually fast for a symphonic 'slow movement'. The key is B flat major, the subdominant of F, and the organization is what Charles Rosen has called 'slow movement sonata form'; that is, at the end of the exposition there is no development section, but only a simple modulation back to B flat for the recapitulation; this also may be described as sonatina form. The second subject includes a motif of very rapid 64th notes (hemidemisemiquavers) , suggesting perhaps a rapidly unwinding spring in a not-quite-perfected metronome. This motif is played by the whole orchestra at the end of the coda.

1/12/10