Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor), WoO 59

7.4 Resolve the diminished seventh

Study Beethoven’s Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59). Find its diminished-seventh chords, the most tense sound in the piece, and hear where each resolves. The Phrygian-half-cadence card (iv6–V with the bass falling a semitone) prepares Baroque slow movements to come; Für Elise has none. At the keyboard: resolve a diminished seventh in two ways.

Ideas

• The diminished seventh chord

Theory cards

• The diminished seventh chord
• The Phrygian half cadence

Technique

• A harmonic minor scale, hands together, 2 octaves
• A melodic minor scale, hands together, 2 octaves