Listen to one of the nine Beethoven sonatas discussed in the course. Imagining that you lived when it was a new work, write a review of the piece (NOT the performance), preferably incorporating some of the historical and stylistic questions discussed in the course. If you listened online, include a link to the source.
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All the links will start from the exact moment I want and will open in a new window. There are no scores. Just feel free to click on them : )
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I have chosen the Piano Sonata in A-flat major (Op. 26).
And I recommend this link: http://youtu.be/8WZkyksbNOE
If I lived in the year of this work, then I wouldn't know the fact, which is well-known today, that Beethoven had declared in an earlier letter that he "would take a new path" from then on; Neither would I know that Op. 26 would be one of the two sonatas he would have ever composed in his life in A-flat major (the other one was Op. 110, part of his greatest legacy at the piano, specially its final Adagio and Fugue); And naturally, neither would I know that, years later, the slow movement of the work would be performed at the composer's own funeral.
However, I would know, already in the year 1801, that this sonata was published with the same dedication (Prince Karl von Lichnowsky) as Beethoven's Op. 1 (three Piano Trios) and Op. 13 (sonata "Pathétique"), both as emblematic works of his early period. So a first relevance here was that Op. 26 would not be any random composition.
The first movement recalls the form Mozart once used (and for only once) in his Piano Sonata in A major KV 331: theme and variations. But apart from the fact that both themes are in three beats (3/8 and 6/8), the two movements have nothing to do with each other. For example, Mozart wrote the two parts of the theme with repeats and also in their respective variations, while Beethoven didn't apply here this conventional sub-form. Neither did he wrote to amuse people. The first variation kept the calm and certain remote atmosphere of the theme; the short arpeggio is quite similar to the third variation of his WoO 70. The second variation is more animated in spirit. And the third one shifts from A-flat major to A-flat minor (with 7 accidentals, actually the same pitch as G-sharp minor for keyboard instruments, but only it would make sense here to write under A-flat minor). The fourth variation is back to A-flat major, which jumps freely but neither going too far. And the last one is in a the "dolce" mood, which Beethoven used to use in the closing variation (e.g. here) in his early period. Here we also presence very evidently his qualities in Polyphony and legato - which probably came from his organ experience in the youth. The whole movement is in Andante tempo, nothing of Allegro and creates long-breath melodies in general. All of these features differ from the expectation for an opening movement of a sonata in the early 19th, but it maintains well the main issue of tonality.
Now, the second movement would be where the real surprise starts. If the audience was left with some doubts after the first movement, now they were poured over their head a glass of cold water, which could cause physical response and also woke them up! Because we are listening to a Scherzo in a second (in stead of in the third) movement of a sonata , which, however, does follow the A-B-A ternary form.
Moving to the third movement, now we feel in the most identifiable part of the work: A solemn marcia funebre. And forgive me that I cannot stay in 1801 but look forward until 38 years later - It became one of the keys to receive Chopin's 2nd sonata (Op. 35), which is also well-known by its "Funeral March" movement. We have in both marches the repeated bell-like bass, and also a fortissimo tremolo to let the heroism stand out (Beethoven's tremolo here, as B for A-B-A; Chopin' trill here, as A for A-B-A). Chopin wrote a tender and poetic B section full of Romanticism which did not appear in Beethoven's funeral march, but the relation between the two works is firmly established by the frame of the unusual structure, specially in the 2nd, 3rd and last movement, where they are identical. It is quite exceptional for Chopin who generally had nothing to do with Beethoven.
Once a pianist told me that sometimes when the recital program includes works of many different composers, then there would be a need of a final release, for example, in the encore(s), to play a completely different thing. Now this fourth movement is like a resolution of that sense to me. Of course, it is NOT the tonic-dominant-tonic resolution, for there is no such thing in the whole sonata. It is like an improvisation, again with the natural polyphony, and out of the place, floating like clouds, right there but you don't need to reach. It ends in nothing. Edwin Fischer described it as "the night has fallen". Actually, the first time we listen to it we might not be sure if it is finished. And that small moment of silence would be the best aftertaste for our hearing! Again, if we compare to Chopin's 2nd sonata, his last movement is as free as Beethoven's and more mysterious (which generates numerous ways of interpretation). However, it ends in a fortissimo chord (very Chopin) with a clear sense of finishing.
To a contemporary audience of the early 19th (when Haydn still lived, image that!), such free exploration like we have experienced in the A-flat major sonata of Beethoven would be not easy to understand and perhaps too strange to accept. Only open-minded attitude would permit such genius instinct to explore the unknown and to find his own.
PS. I don't like the "nick-name culture" which popularizes classical pieces many times in a wrong or, at least, false direction, so I have avoid referring to this work as "the sonata Funeral March". It is not. It only has a Funeral March movement. And even in this movement it is used rather as a style name than as a content description.
A last point I would like to mention, though not requested by the assignment, is the relation between the theme of the first movement of Beethoven Op. 26 and the opening phrase of an impromptu by Schubert. Hope you enjoy it at the end of the course ^^
Thank you for reading!
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