Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)
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Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, opus 106, known as the Hammerklavier, is widely considered to be one of the defining works of the composer's third period and one of the great piano sonatas. It is considered Beethoven's single most difficult composition for the piano, with the possible exception of the Diabelli Variations, and it remains one of the most challenging solo works in the entire piano repertoire to this day.
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[edit] Composition
The sonata was written primarily from the summer of 1817 to the late autumn of 1818, towards the end of a fallow period in Beethoven's compositional career, and represents the spectacular emergence of many of the themes that were to recur in Beethoven's late period: the reinvention of traditional forms, such as sonata form; a brusque humor; and a return to pre-classical compositional traditions, including an exploration of modal harmony and reinventions of the fugue within classical forms.
The Hammerklavier also set precedents for the length of solo compositions; while orchestral works such as symphonies and concerti had often contained movements of 15 or even 20 minutes for many years, few single movements in solo literature had such a span before the Hammerklavier's Adagio sostenuto.
The sonata's name comes from Beethoven's insistence on using German rather than Italian words for musical terminology (Hammerklavier literally means "hammer-keyboard" while pianoforte means "soft-loud") . It comes from the title page of the work, which says "Große Sonate für das Hammerklavier", i.e. "Grand sonata for piano". While it does not represent Beethoven's own title (the more sedate Sonata Op. 101 in A has the same description), the imposing title fits well with the titanic character of the work, and the name has stuck.
[edit] Structure
The piece contains a rather unconventional four movements for a typical piano sonata (most sonatas had three) and plays for an average of 45 minutes. In addition to the thematic connections within the movements and the use of traditional Romantic formal structures, Charles Rosen has described how much of the piece is organized around the motif of a descending third (major or minor). It is perhaps the first major piano work (if not work of any instrumentation) to so thoroughly incorporate a baroque contrapuntal style (the fugue) within an originally Classical structure (the sonata form) (see fourth movement).
[edit] Allegro
Duration of roughtly 10 minutes.
The first movement opens with a series of fortissimo B-flat major chords, which form much of the basis of the first subject. Another series of the same chords ushers in the more lyrical second subject, in the submediant (that is, a minor third below the tonic), G Major. The development section opens with a fughetta subject that descends continuously by thirds. The recapitulation, in keeping with Beethoven's exploration of the potentials of sonata form, avoids a full harmonic return to B-flat until long after the return to the first theme. The movement ends with a coda, the final notes one of the rare fortississimo passages in Beethoven's work.
[edit] Scherzo: Assai vivace
Duration of nearly 3 minutes.
The brief second movement includes a great variety of harmonic and thematic material. The scherzo's theme - which has been described as a parody of the first movement's first subject - is at once playful, lively, and pleasant. The trio, marked "semplice", visits the minor, but the effect is more shadowy than dramatic. Following this dark interlude, Beethoven inserts a more intense presto section in 2/4 meter, which eventually segues back to the scherzo. This time around, it is followed by a coda (with another meter change), before dying away into the third movement.
[edit] Adagio sostenuto
Duration of between 14 and 20 minutes.
The sonata-form slow movement, centred on F-sharp minor, has been called, among other things, a "mausoleum of collective sorrow", and is notable for its ethereality and great length as a slow movement. In "The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection"<ref>The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection. Ted Libbey. ISBN 0761104879</ref>, Ted Libbey writes, "An entire line of development...springs from this music."
[edit] Introduzione - Fuga: Allegro risoluto
Duration of roughly 12 minutes.
The movement begins with a slow introduction that serves to transition from the third movement; to do so, it modulates from D Minor to B Major to A Major, which modulates to B-flat major for the fugue. Dominated by falling thirds in the baseline, the music three times pauses on a pedal and engages in speculative contrapuntal experimentations, in a manner somewhat similar to the quotations from the first three movements of the ninth symphony in the opening of the fourth movement of that work. After a final modulation to B-flat major, the main substance of the movement appears: a titanic three-voice fugue in triple meter. Marked "with occasional license" ("con alcune licenze"), the fugue (one of Beethoven's greatest contrapuntal achievements, as well as making incredible demands on the performer) moves through a number of contrasting sections, including such "learned" contrapuntal devices as inversion of the fugue subject and a retrograde passage in which the original subject is played backwards note-for-note. These devices and others place the movement alongside the "Große Fuge" for string quartet, Op. 133, and the "Et Vitam Venturi" fugue in the Missa Solemnis as Beethoven's most daring and extensive late explorations of the contrapuntal art. The work ends with a lengthy coda in B-flat.
[edit] Influence
The Hammerklavier has inspired many pieces over the following two centuries. Pierre Boulez's Piano Sonata No. 2 applies a serial syntax to the playing style of Beethoven's piano sonata.
[edit] Reference
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[edit] Further reading
Extensive discussion and analysis is given in Charles Rosen's book The Classical Style (2nd ed., 1997, New York: Norton): ISBN 0393317129).
[edit] External link
The William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University School of Music has posted the score for the sonata.
| Piano Sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven |
|---|
| Op. 2 No. 1 | Op. 2 No. 2 | Op. 2 No. 3 | Op. 7 | Op. 10 No. 1 | Op. 10 No. 2 | Op. 10 No. 3 | Op. 13 (Pathetique) | Op. 14 No. 1 | Op. 14 No. 2 | Op. 22 | Op. 26 | Op. 27 No. 1 (Quasi una fantasia) | Op. 27 No. 2 (Quasi una fantasia — Moonlight) | Op. 28 (Pastoral) | Op. 31 No. 1 | Op. 31 No. 2 (Tempest) | Op. 31 No. 3 | Op. 49 Nos. 1 and 2 | Op. 53 (Waldstein) | Op. 54 | Op. 57 (Appassionata) | Op. 78 | Op. 79 | Op. 81a (Les adieux) | Op. 90 | Op. 101 | Op. 106 (Hammerklavier) | Op. 109 | Op. 110 | Op. 111 |
es:Sonata para piano nº 29 (Beethoven) fr:Sonate pour piano n° 29 (Beethoven) ja:ピアノソナタ第29番 (ベートーヴェン) fi:Pianosonaatti 29 (Beethoven)
