LESSON NOTES AND RESOURCES: EXPLORING BEETHOVEN'S PIANO SONATAS

Lecture 3: New Paths

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 3: NEW PATHS SONATA INFORMATION

Moving Beyond the Early Period Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-flat major, Op. 26
In 1802, Beethoven wrote a letter in which he said, “from Average Duration: 20 minutes
now on I am going to take a new path.”
Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major, Op. 27,
Once Beethoven began to question the foundations on No. 1 (“Sonata quasi una fantasia”)
which his early works were based, the history of music Average Duration: 15-16 minutes
itself changed course—this can be seeing as the beginning
of the more-than-century-long dismantling of first the Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27,
classical style, then the sonata form, and finally, the tonal No. 2 (“Moonlight”)
system itself. Average Duration: 15-16 minutes

The four sonatas Beethoven wrote immediately preceding Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28
the “new paths” remark strike me as being the ones that (“Pastoral”)
mark a clear break with the past. Average Duration: 23-24 minutes

The four sonatas that first find Beethoven veering off the Composition Year(s): 1800-02
path are the Sonata Op. 26, the two Sonatas quasi una
fantasia Op. 27, and the so-called “Pastoral” Sonata, Op.
28.

Op. 26 breaks ground in many ways, but the most obvious

thing is that for the first time Beethoven eschews sonata
form for the first movement—in fact, none of the four
movements is sonata form.

The cohesion of the work cannot be explained by

examining the structure, or fishing around for motivic
connections between the movements: there is simply an
emotional logic to the succession of events—another link
between this sonata and the romantic era, which
sometimes valued feeling over form.

Having abandoned the sonata form for the first movement

of Op. 26, Beethoven instead gives us a series of
variations.

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 3: New Paths Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 1 of 5

NOTES

Re-shaping the Sonata: Op. 26 Sonata No. 12 in A-flat major, Op. 26

The variation form is about as far from sonata form as one I. Andante con variazioni =Theme and
could possibly be. It’s an entirely novel notion for a variations
Beethoven first movement: that the narrative of the music II. Scherzo: Allegro molto
relies not on harmony, or on motivic development, but on
embroidery. III. Marcia funebre sulla morte d'un eroe
=Funeral march
Beethoven absolutely loved using the subito piano—he IV. Allegro
practically invented the idea.
The four movements are slow—fast—slow—fast,
For the second movement, Beethoven gives us a scherzo. reminiscent of Baroque sonatas.
Placing the scherzo (or minuet) second, and not third, is
pretty well unprecedented for Beethoven in 1801. Score and recordings: IMSLP

The third movement of Op. 26 is a funeral march. This is a

kind of “dress rehearsal” for the Funeral March from the
“Eroica” Symphony—written four years later, and one of
the most impressive, most iconic, and simply most
enormous movements from the middle period.

The funeral march from Op. 26 was played, in an

orchestrated version, at Beethoven’s own funeral.

Many of Beethoven’s innovations introduced in Op. 26

did indeed prove to be one-offs, but in total they represent
a new willingness to view the sonata as, if not a blank
canvas, at least an open-ended genre of terrific possibility.

NOTES

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 3: New Paths Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 2 of 5

Blurring the Lines Between Fantasy and Sonata: Op. Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major, Op. 27, No. 1
27, No. 1 I. Andante
Even the name of the two Sonatas Op. 27 breaks ground: II. Allegro molto e vivace
each is called “Sonata quasi una fantasia.” III. Adagio con espressione
IV. Allegro vivace
This title makes a bold statement, which Beethoven has
clearly been leading up to with Op. 26: that something The division of movements is blurred; there is no
other than sonata form, and the standard succession of break or pause to separate the movements.
movements, can be the glue that holds a sonata together.
Score: IMSLP
th
Again, this notion had an enormous impact on 19 -
century composers.

The Sonatas Op. 27 are utterly unlike anything Beethoven

had ever written—or really, like anything he would write
subsequently. The real innovation in Op. 27 number 1 is
that there are no breaks between the movements.

This is a work which not only helps redefine the role of

each movement within the sonata, it suggests that the
movements themselves cannot be truly separated out—a
radical notion.

No subsequent sonata links all of the movements—as

Beethoven goes along, he finds less literal but ultimately
more meaningful ways of uniting the movements of his
sonatas.

NOTES

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 3: New Paths Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 3 of 5

Psychological Extremity in Music: Op. 27, No. 2 Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2
Op. 27, No. 2 moves from energy suppressed to energy I. Adagio sostenuto
unleashed, from repression to the ruthless expression of II. Allegretto
something primal. Beethoven’s conception of the sonata III. Presto agitato
finale was ever in evolution; in the case of the
“Moonlight,” the last movement is the sonata’s terrifying Mvt. 1: Adagio sostenuto
id.  Sonata form, though not easily discerned
 Does not feature the contrasts in material
The first movement of Op. 27, No. 2 is a sonata form, and color one typically associates with
stripped down, radically. sonata movements.
o Triplet accompaniment is
A sonata form that doesn’t provide us with contrasts, with persistent.
oppositions, really doesn’t carry the normal weight of a o Sustain pedal is held throughout
sonata form. the entire movement.
 The movement is very compact—only 69
In the first movement of Op. 27, No. 2, Beethoven asks measures!
the pianist to hold the sustaining pedal down from start to  Very slow tempo
finish. Keeping it down for that long will inevitably lead Mvt. 2: Allegretto
to a serious haze of sound.  Performed without a break between
movements; immediately connected to the
By this point in time, Beethoven’s focus was much more end of Mvt. 1.
on the structure of the WORK than on the structure of the  Menuet and trio
MOVEMENT.
Mvt. 3: Presto agitato
 Sonata form
 Again, no contrast between themes

Score and recordings: IMSLP

NOTES

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 3: New Paths Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 4 of 5

Subtlety and Innovation: Op. 28 Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 (“Pastoral”)
Whereas Op. 26 and 27 seem out to break as many rules I. Allegro
as possible, Op. 28’s mission seems to be show just how II. Andante
much room there still is for innovation and imagination in III. Scherzo: Allegro assai
the old model. IV. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

Beethoven was content in the Sonata Op. 28 for the Follows the old model: sonata allegro, followed
harmonic content to unfold sometimes very slowly. by a slow movement, scherzo, and rondo.

In the development of the first movement of Op. 28,
Beethoven is using the construct of the sonata form to
maximum effect: he is playing with our expectations, and
in doing so, without any great fanfare, makes us feel
utterly lost.
Score and recording: IMSLP
A special video performance by a current Curtis
student of the first movement of Op. 28 is
available on Curtis Performs.

More than any composer before or since, he is able to

bring us into an altered state, an altered mode of
perception.

Never again, from this point on, was he to write a sonata

that did not, in one way or another, point the way forward.

NOTES

© 2015 Jonathan Biss Lecture 3: New Paths Updated: 05/31/2015 Page 5 of 5