performance practice
Ⅰ. Introduction
Beethoven was widely known as a classical period composer, but he also regarded as a great adventure and a predecessor to Romantic period. His compositional career is usually divided into Early, Middle, and Late periods and the late period was from about 1815 till his death, and also undoubtedly recognized as a transition period from Classical period to Romantic period. This is a magic period that Beethoven created a great transition, like what he did in his composition for the next generation.
I will take his middle-period piano sonata Op.81a as an example to talk about performance practice in this piece, such as form, harmony, articulation, ornamentation, and tempo. I will explore what inventions he created, how he changed and transited to a new period.
Ⅱ. The Background of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 81a in E-flat Major
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 81a in E-flat Major, known as the Les Adieux sonata, was written during the years 1809 and 1810. This sonata has three movements—“Das Lebewohl,” “Abwesenheit,” and “Das Wiedersehen” (“The Farewell,” “Absence,” and “The Reunion,” respectively).
The emotions represented by this sonata are not those of a love-story or a hero-worship story. The music is a monument to the friendship, deep as any friendship formed in schooldays and manly as Beethoven's ripest art. This is the first and only Sonata by Beethoven which has a definite programme to indicate its contents.
It was dedicated to Archduke Rudolph, the youngest son of Emperor LeopoldⅡ. Archduke Rudolf was also a musician who might have made a reputation as such if he had been cast adrift around the world. At the age of sixteen he became a pupil of Beethoven; and it is impossible not to recognize a special quality in the numerous important works that Beethoven dedicated to him—the present Sonata, the Eb Concerto, the last Violin Sonata, Op. 96, the last Trio, Op. 97, the Seventh Symphony, and the Missa Solemnis in D major. These were not even
Beethoven was widely known as a classical period composer, but he also regarded as a great adventure and a predecessor to Romantic period. His compositional career is usually divided into Early, Middle, and Late periods and the late period was from about 1815 till his death, and also undoubtedly recognized as a transition period from Classical period to Romantic period. This is a magic period that Beethoven created a great transition, like what he did in his composition for the next generation.
I will take his middle-period piano sonata Op.81a as an example to talk about performance practice in this piece, such as form, harmony, articulation, ornamentation, and tempo. I will explore what inventions he created, how he changed and transited to a new period.
Ⅱ. The Background of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 81a in E-flat Major
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 81a in E-flat Major, known as the Les Adieux sonata, was written during the years 1809 and 1810. This sonata has three movements—“Das Lebewohl,” “Abwesenheit,” and “Das Wiedersehen” (“The Farewell,” “Absence,” and “The Reunion,” respectively).
The emotions represented by this sonata are not those of a love-story or a hero-worship story. The music is a monument to the friendship, deep as any friendship formed in schooldays and manly as Beethoven's ripest art. This is the first and only Sonata by Beethoven which has a definite programme to indicate its contents.
It was dedicated to Archduke Rudolph, the youngest son of Emperor LeopoldⅡ. Archduke Rudolf was also a musician who might have made a reputation as such if he had been cast adrift around the world. At the age of sixteen he became a pupil of Beethoven; and it is impossible not to recognize a special quality in the numerous important works that Beethoven dedicated to him—the present Sonata, the Eb Concerto, the last Violin Sonata, Op. 96, the last Trio, Op. 97, the Seventh Symphony, and the Missa Solemnis in D major. These were not even