Question about Pathetique 1st movement

[mrtom82]

I've been working on the 1st movement and I'm a little confused about the bass clef on the allegro part.  The first bar has 8th notes then the second bar has what looks like 8th notes but they aren't solid, they look like half notes. Right now, I'm practicing it as if each hand is playing quater notes.  Is this the right?

[jgallag]

It's a tremolo. They should be played like the first bar, alternating eighth notes. It's in cut time, so that's four eighth notes to a beat, quarter note = 144. Relax and simply rotate the forearm while holding the octave shape in the palm.

This question has been asked many times before. Please do a search before beginning a new topic. It saves time.

[aslanov]

in case you are not already aware, the right hand chords should be played at the same time as the lower note of the tremolo in the left hand. keep a rhythmic steady pulse in the left hand without much accent.

[terry_b]

I don't have an answer to the question, I've been studying this as well and had the same question. I have obviously missed something fundamental.  My sheet music lists the first measure as 8th notes, and then subsequent as half notes, but 4 per measure, which didn't make sense.  I can hear that it is all played as 8th notes.  Is this normal notation?  Do I need to take piano lessons again?   

[antichrist]

its rare but often seen in beethoven sonata

just play as 8 notes

[quantum]

It is just shortcut notation for writing out all 8th notes.  It's like saying "dozen" instead of twelve.

But why half notes?  So normally you can fit 2 halfs in a measure correct?  Imagine solid octaves instead of alternating ones.  2 solid octaves in half notes in one measure - still makes sense.  Now for tremolo notation, we want to break up that half note octave and alternate between bottom and top notes, and we want to do this in eighth notes.  We move the top half over to the right a bit and connect it with a beam (indicating 8th subdivision) to the bottom note.  Do the same to the other half of the measure. 

[pianist7]

I'm playing this too--just play them like the eighth notes. It's probably written like this to save ink.

[lostinidlewonder]

I'm playing this too--just play them like the eighth notes. It's probably written like this to save ink.

I also think that Beethoven wanted to demonstrate that the tremolo is a useful musical device to actually use to express music (he also demonstrated tremolo in many of his other compositions). I remember reading somewhere that Beethoven elevated the status of the use of the tremolo.

[iratior]

So what if this hasn't been commented on in 500 days.  It's still fun to see what was being discussed and add to it.  When I saw there was a question on the first movement of the Pathetique, I thought it was going to be this:  to do the indicated repeating, should one go all the way back to the beginning of the sonata, or just all the way back to the beginning of the allegro di molto e con brio?  Rudolf Serkin went all the way back to the beginning of the sonata, which is my preference too.  What do other people think?

[pianowolfi]

I prefer to repeat only the Allegro.

[nyonyo]

Since I need to meet certain time requirement for an amateur competition, I repeat all the way from the beginning. Otherwise, I prefer to repeat only the Allegro.