Thomas and Beethoven: Darkness to Light

Thomas Cole’s “Lake with Dead Trees” reminds me of Beethoven’s idea of “darkness to light”. In this painting, the part closer to us is mostly about darkness or death. We see lots of dead trees. The woods look dark, although the trees in it are supposed to be live. The clouds are dark and low. As we look further, the darkness is gradually lightened up. Further from us, there are mountains covered by green forests, a bit of the blue sky, and rosy clouds. Thus, Thomas shows the process from darkness to light by changing colors and objects. How does Beethoven show this process in his music? He often starts a piece with a minor mode, which depicts darkness, and ends it with a major mode, which depicts light. For example, the 3^rd movement of his Piano Sonata 110 starts with in melancholic B minor and ends triumphantly in A major mode.

Interestingly, Beethoven often marks the moment of triumph with religious elements, such as a fugue and a holy chorale. In the 3^rd movement of his Piano Sonata 110, a fugue appears twice (each time in a different key), and the movement finally ends with it. I guess Beethoven marks the achievement of light in this way, because he believes we transcend our misery through religious thinking.

Human being needs help to conquer the darkness, (maybe because the darkness in human world is “mind-forg’d manacles.”) But as we can see in the painting, natural creatures go from darkness to light naturally—trees die and grow; the sky covered by dark clouds will appear blue. Do natural creatures have a privilege? Or are they telling us a truth, that after dark comes light?

Here is a link to Pollini's performance of the 3rd movement of Beethoven Piano Sonata 110.