Page 178 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

Listening Cue
Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata, Opus 13, the “Pathétique” Sonata (1799) Download 30 First movement, Grave; Allegro di molto e con brio (grave; very fast and with gusto)
Genre: Sonata
Form: Sonata–allegro
what to listen for: The drama created not only within the opening chords, but also between the chords and the racing main theme (at 1:24). Here contrast is the name of the game: loud against soft, slow against fast, high against low.
ReAD . . . a detailed Listening Guide of this selection online.
LiSTeN TO . . . this selection streaming online.
WATCH . . . an Active Listening Guide of this selection online.
DO . . . Listening Exercise 10.1, Beethoven, “Pathétique” Sonata, online.
watch . . . “This Night” online.
second movement
Eyewitnesses who heard Beethoven at the piano remarked on the “legato” (long and lyrical) style of his playing and contrasted it with Mozart’s staccato (light and detached) style. Beethoven himself remarked in 1796 that “one can sing on the piano, so long as one has feeling.” We can hear Beethoven sing through the legato melodic line that dominates the slow second movement of the “Pathétique” Sonata. Indeed, the expression mark he gave to the movement is cantabile (songful). The singing quality of the melody seems to have appealed to classically trained pop star Billy Joel, who borrowed this theme for the chorus (refrain) of his song “This Night” on the album Innocent Man.
third movement
A comparison of the second and third movements of the “Pathétique” Sonata will show that musical form does not determine musical mood. Although both the Adagio and the fast finale are in rondo form, the first is a lyrical hymn, and the latter a passionate, but slightly comical, chase. The finale has hints of the crash- ing chords and stark contrasts of the first movement, but the earlier violence and impetuosity have been softened into a mood of impassioned playfulness.
The eighteenth-century piano sonata had been essentially private music of a modest sort—music that a composer-teacher like Mozart or Haydn would write for a talented amateur pupil to be played as entertainment in the home. Beethoven took the modest, private piano sonata and infused it with the tech- nical dazzle of the public stage. The louder sound, wider range, and greater length of Beethoven’s thirty-two piano sonatas made them appropriate for the increasingly large concert halls—and pianos—of the nineteenth century. Begin- ning in the Romantic period, Beethoven’s piano sonatas became a staple of the
watch . . . a musical animation (with both graphics and an active keyboard) of one of
the most virtuosic of all of Beethoven’s works for piano, the finale of the “Moonlight” Sonata , online.
156 chapter ten beethoven: bridge to romanticism
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