LESSON NOTES AND RESOURCES: EXPLORING BEETHOVEN'S PIANO SONATAS

Lecture 6: Op 2, No. 1 and Op. 10, No. 2

Key points from the lectures, by Jonathan Biss
© 2015 Jonathan Biss

Note about terms: To find definitions of musical terms, visit a resource such as On Music Dictionary (http://dictionary.onmusic.org).
For more detailed definitions, visit your local library to check Oxford Music Online (http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com) or Grove's
Dictionary of Music and Musicians. To listen to the complete sonatas, go to http://www.IMSLP.org.
Note: Whenever a composer is not mentioned, the work is by Beethoven . –Curtis Teaching Staff

LECTURE 6: OP. 2, NO. 1 AND OP. 10, NO. 2 SONATA INFORMATION

Re-introduction
Although the sonatas’ quality is relentlessly sky-high,
Beethoven hardly ever repeats himself, and is constantly
reimagining the genre and its possibilities. This is first of
all a result of Beethoven’s personality, which was large
enough to encompass a fairly enormous range of interests:
each piece had not only a unique sound and shape and
character, but a unique reason for being. But it also was
only possible because the sonata turns out to be an
enormously flexible genre.

NOTES

Beethoven at 24: Style and Priorities

Haydn and Mozart had already created a body of truly
great music in the genres Beethoven most cared about—
sonata, quartet, and symphony above all.

Beethoven’s first published works are of extremely high

quality, and are fully in his “voice.”

One of the hallmarks of the F minor sonata (Op. 2, No. 1)

is the way in which it both nods to tradition and chafes
against it. The three sonatas of Op. 2 are dedicated to
Haydn, who was a profound influence on Beethoven.

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 6: Op 2, No. 1 and Op. 10, No. 2 Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 1 of 8
NOTES

OP. 2, NO. 1 SONATA INFORMATION

Wrestling with the Past Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1
The local orchestra in Mannheim was apparently virtuosic. I. Allegro
Stamitz and other creditable, but not great, composers II. Adagio
would write "rockets" for them: upward arpeggios that the III. Menuetto: Allegretto
orchestra would play while making a crescendo. IV. Prestissimo
Beethoven opens Op. 2, No. 1—and the first of the Op. 1
trios—with a Mannheim rocket, but I cannot think of Average Duration: 18 minutes
another occasion where he used it, unadorned, again. By Composition Year(s): 1793-95
1795 it was, if not dated, at least a very conscious
“reference” to a musical tradition.

Varying the phrase lengths—or the “periods," as they are

sometimes called—is one of the key sources of character
in Beethoven’s music. Lengthening the periods can create
a sense of spaciousness, or stasis, or in certain cases, of
being stuck, caught in a loop; shortening them, as here, is
generally a sign of excitement or turmoil.

An extended silence—which is what a rest with a fermata

is, really—is one thing if it follows a declarative sentence;
in that case, it functions as a period, or an exclamation
point, or maybe a paragraph break. When a silence
follows a question, the silence adds to the tension. A
musical question demands an answer just as a verbal one
does, and withholding that answer is a powerful way of
unsettling the listener.
Additional References
Three Trios, Op. 1; Three Piano Sonatas, Op. 10; Three Piano Sonatas, Op. 31; Three Sonatas for Piano and
Violin, Op. 12; Three Sonatas for Piano and Violin, Op. 30; Three String Quartets, Op. 59
Mozart’s D minor Piano Concerto, K. 466; G minor Symphony, K. 550, A minor Piano Sonata, K. 330

NOTES

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 6: Op 2, No. 1 and Op. 10, No. 2 Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 2 of 8
1st Mvt.: Mining his Materials Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1
Since Op. 2, No. 1 is in minor, the standard modulation is I. Allegro
to the relative major (F minor to A flat major).

Beethoven’s most remarkable qualities: his materials don’t

necessarily need to be beautiful, or even distinctive, to
function as tools out of which he can create anything he
wants. If Haydn was the composer with the most ideas,
Beethoven was the most resourceful composer ever.
Terms

Sforzando: An indication to perform a specific note or chord of a composition with strong, sudden emphasis.

NOTES

1st Mvt.: Sonata Form in the Minor Mode

In a minor key sonata, the second theme will mostly
typically appear in the relative major before coming back
in the tonic. This means that not only does it change key
from exposition to recap, it changes from the major mode
to the minor mode. This difference between major and
minor can make the appearance of the second theme in the
recap a moment of enormous significance.

Additional References
Mozart’s D minor Concerto, K. 466

NOTES

2nd Mvt.: Borrowing from Haydn, and Himself Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1
A sort of spirituality becomes ever more apparent in II. Adagio
Beethoven’s slow movements as time goes on. On the
evidence of the opening of the slow movement of Haydn’s
C major Sonata and that of Beethoven's Op. 2, No. 1, it
seems clear that this is an aspect of Beethoven’s music
that owes much to Haydn.

The theme of the second movement of Beethoven’s Op. 2,

No. 1 is lifted from his own C major Piano Quartet.
© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 6: Op 2, No. 1 and Op. 10, No. 2 Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 3 of 8
All four movements of this sonata have the same tonality:
F, major or minor. Therefore, the brief foray into D minor
provides a respite from the F “color” that we experience
throughout the piece, more-or-less nonstop. This
monochromatic nature is somewhat unusual for
Beethoven: Beethoven wrote 13 sonatas with four
movements, and this is only one of four in which no
movement moves away from the home tonality. This is
limiting, in a sense, since Beethoven was a great master of
creating character through the sonority of a given key.

Even early in life, Beethoven was deeply attuned to the

way the movements of a large-scale work were in
dialogue with one another, and the way in which they
balanced each other out.

Additional References
Mozart’s A major String Quartet, K. 464
Sonata Op. 101; String Quartet Op. 18, No. 5

Lecture 2, Op. 7

NOTES

3rd Mvt.: Adding Ambiguity to an Old Form Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1
This movement, which is back in the minor mode, is the III. Menuetto: Allegretto
third of four, and it is a menuet. This is an innovation,
because prior to Beethoven, sonatas had, at most, three
movements. The menuet is an addition to the structure, if
not an outright intrusion.

Beethoven was eager to establish, right off the bat, that for
him “sonata” meant a work of scope equal to that of a
symphony.

A menuet is a dance, and one of the fundamental features

of a dance is that the beats of the bar relate to one another
in a way that is regular and predictable. In the menuet, the
main stress is on one: ONE-two-three. More often than
not, when there is a menuet in an early sonata, Beethoven
places emphases on what should be weak beats. It seems
there was something about the form which struck him as
potentially staid, and which he wanted to upset.

Articulation is often a major source of character in music.

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 6: Op 2, No. 1 and Op. 10, No. 2 Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 4 of 8
Additional References
Mozart’s G minor Symphony, K. 550

Terms

Menuet: A dance form, originally French, performed in a moderate or slow triple meter. It was used as an
optional movement in Baroque suites, and frequently appeared in movements of late 18th-century multi-
movement forms such as the sonata, the string quartet, and the symphony.

NOTES

4th mvt.: Releasing the Shackles Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1
The fourth movement of Op. 2, No. 1 has very genuine IV. Prestissimo
fury about it. That’s a signature Beethoven quality, one
you don’t find in either Haydn or Mozart to anything like
the same degree: Beethoven can convey a sense of
profound dissatisfaction with the world.

[sturm und drang]

I cannot readily think of another example of this sort of

amalgam of the two different forms: rondo and sonata
allegro. That is part of the genius of Beethoven: his formal
innovations were never “just because”—he gave each
piece the form it needed.

One of the defining features of this sonata is that it is

mostly black and white, with very few shades of gray. The
only thing about it that is ambiguous is its relationship to
the musical past, which it borrows from and attempts to
move beyond in equal measure.

Additional References
Mozart’s C minor Piano Sonata, K. 457

Lecture 5, Op. 109

Terms

Rondo: A form of composition in which the first section recurs after the second section is performed in an
A-B-A style.

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 6: Op 2, No. 1 and Op. 10, No. 2 Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 5 of 8
NOTES

OP. 10, NO. 2 SONATA INFORMATION

Beethoven’s Humor! Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10, No. 2
Beethoven’s sense of humor is one of his most essential I. Allegro (F major)
qualities. It is one of the qualities that enlivens and II. Allegretto (F minor)
humanizes his music: it exists right alongside his loftiest III. Presto (F major)
music. Beethoven’s humor is also highly varied. In the
case of Op. 10, No. 2, the humor is generally on the gentle Average duration: 14 minutes
side, and most often comes from Beethoven’s refusal to do Composition Year(s): 1796-98
what is expected.

NOTES

1st Mvt.: Subverting Expectations Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10, No. 2
As we saw with the opening of Op. 2, No. 1, character is I. Allegro (F major)
drawn, to a great extent, from the lengths of the periods
(phrase lengths). Of course, it’s an entirely different
character in this case.

The most interesting and surprising harmonic event in the

exposition occurs when Beethoven interrupts the harmonic
progression of tonic (1) to dominant (5) by seeming to
prepare for the mediant (3). It turns out to be nothing more
than a red herring, the classical music equivalent of
saying, "Fooled you!"—after a brief silence, he gives us
the dominant.

NOTES

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1st Mvt.: Beethoven as Stubborn Child
In repeating this three-note idea over and over, to the
exclusion of all else and sometimes in a quite forceful
manner, Beethoven is playing the role of the willful,
stubborn child to perfection.

The end of the development is also a joke. It is a full,

nearly unaltered reiteration of the opening of the piece—in
the wrong key. We never get a proper return, an arrival
back at the opening of the piece, in the correct tonality.
Beethoven’s idea of “splitting” the moment of return—
first we get the material, then later we get the right key—
is an entirely original one, and it is simultaneously witty
and moving.

In early-period works, the first movements tend to be the

most innovative, richly detailed, and substantial.

NOTES

2nd Mvt.: The Menuet/Slow Movement Hybrid Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10, No. 2
The second movement of this sonata bridges the gap II. Allegretto (F minor)
between the menuet and the slow movement.
Its minor mode, and its misterioso character—here almost
entirely devoid of the humor that is so central to the rest of
the piece—set it dramatically apart.

The form is not arbitrary or theoretical: rather, it is

designed to do what the piece needs it to do.

The menuet/slow movement was to become a rather

influential idea. Beethoven himself reappropriated it for
his E major Sonata, Op. 14, No. 1. And Brahms was to
take the idea of blending slow movement and menuet (or
scherzo). The lines between different forms, so firmly
drawn in the time of Mozart, get more and more blurry as
we move into the romantic era.

The menuet does have a trio—a middle section—which

moves into D-flat, and the contrast in tonality is instantly
noticeable and quite moving.

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 6: Op 2, No. 1 and Op. 10, No. 2 Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 7 of 8
NOTES

3rd Mvt.: The Non-fugue Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10, No. 2
This movement is a fugue that isn’t a fugue. The finale of III. Presto (F major)
Op. 10, No. 2 is a concise, but fully fleshed-out sonata
form, which has fun dressing up in a fugue’s clothing.
Beethoven likes the fugal sonority, it seems, but he
doesn’t trouble himself with the pesky business of actually
writing a fugue. When it suits him, he goes back to writing
counterpoint (melody and accompaniment), but only when
it suits him.

The specifics of the jokes in this piece are all different

from one another, but they spring from the same source:
the fact that Beethoven is confounding our expectations,
and enjoying himself immensely in the process.

NOTES

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 6: Op 2, No. 1 and Op. 10, No. 2 Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 8 of 8