Late Beethoven slow movement themes

[skryabyn]

Does it seem to anyone else like the meter is displaced on the themes for the late variations? So like, the Arietta is a chorale in 3, and the first note, although written as beat 3 in the movement, is actually beat 1 of the "source" chorale. Then he displaced it to be the pickup beat, and harmonized the newly displaced theme to have strong downbeats in the new meter. Which gives it that floaty, rhythmically ambiguous quality - the theme and most of the harmonies pull towards beat 3 as the downbeat, but the new harmonizations of the new downbeats also pull towards beat 1 being the downbeat.

Same with Op. 109 - the first note would actually be the pickup note of the "source" chorale, but he harmonized it to be beat 1. It's especially noticeable in bars 9-12 of this one.

Anyway practicing them by counting in your head both ways might help you hear the dual rhythmic quality of these movements.

[skryabyn]

Sorry, I'm using the word meter wrong. What I mean is that it's in the same meter, but the barlines are displaced by a beat. It's then reharmonized to pull towards the new downbeats. So the natural pull of the melody and most harmonies are still the old downbeat of the "source" chorale. You end up with 2 downbeats in a row which confuses our brains into hearing it as sort of a timeless, free flowing idea with no really strong downbeat. Anyway, that's what I think is going on. Pretty cool.