For those of us who have studied theory in college, I think the information successfully reached us "at level." I'm not sure for the others that they have enough understanding of the terms related to form , much less sonata form - exposition, development, and recapitulation. (And sorry, I must argue that the ABA form DOES define Sonata form, at least in the big picture sense.) Same goes for understanding traditional harmonic progressions (some examples would be helpful) vs Beethoven's ....um...exploitation of unusual harmonic relationships.
Also, about Sonata form and the Pathetique in particular - did I miss discussion about the opening Grave (and it's reappearance) and how it doesn't quite fit into traditional Sonata form? I feel like we went from a very broad appreciation of Beethoven and his other works to the very specific details on Dr. Chapman's notes. Like we skipped a page...
I found that at the point of discussion about the "1 2 3 GO" (very cool concept) and the design of the note values (also cool), it would have been a better aid in comprehension to have Dr. Chapman's notes printed out in advance. Also, re: the notes - I would suggest some headers, or questions, or some relating text would make the notes more coherent and not just looking like a printer malfunction. 😉
Sadly, I could not find the SNL episodes of John Belushi impersonating Beethoven that I was referencing- they were absolute genious. He made a point of illustrating that Beethoven was the "bad boy" of classical composers, defiantly breaking the rules by exploring unusual harmonic progressions (Belushi's iconic eyebrow lift), and yes, occassionally lapsing into Ray Charles or Joe Cocker...😎
Was I the only one who had trouble printing the score? There's something about page 149 that made my printer balk. It took 3 attempts to get that page printed. A corrupted .pdf?
Looking forward to next week - Carol Wazlavek