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B eethoven's Piano Sonatas:
An Analysis o f Compositional Trends from 1795-1822

C helsea Bloomberg

Spring 2007

Dr. Gerald Berthiaume, Advisor

School o f Music

College o f Liberal Arts


Honors Thesis
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Precis
L udwig van B eethoven ( 1770-1827) is widely recognized as o ne o f the most
important c omposers in music history and histhirty-two piano sonatas are arguably the
most significant pieces in their genre. T here is an a udible d istinction between the first and
last sonatas, and curiosity a bout t he c ause o f this disparity, and a love for the music itself,
inspired the c onception o f t his study.
Research for this project was focused on analysis o f the written music, looking at
six specific sonatas c hosen from e ach o f the three periods into which B eethoven's m usic
is c ommonly d ivided. T his is a standard m ethod o f f inding out what events motivate a
musical work. However, e ven u sing a typical approach, the results reached by an analyst
m ay d iffer significantly from those o f o ther r esearchers, due to the subjectivity inherent
in music. In m usic, c hords ( three o r m ore n otes sounding s imultaneously) frequently
govern the forward motion o f the piece a nd the o rder o f c hords affects this motion; this
was the first aspect e xamined. T reatment o f m elody is a nother important part o f m usic
which was studied in detai1. T he o rder in which specific themes appear, referred to as
" form," a lso figures p romjnently in music and w as a nother emphasis o f the study.H armonic a nalysis p roved d ifficult in s ome s ections o f w orks where there are few
e xplicit c hord progressions. In these instances, the main motivator was determined to be
the relationship between individual, c oncurrent m elodic lines.
Upon c ompletion o f r esearch, it was determined that there are several differences
between the works o f e ach period, as well as specifictechniques that remain c onstant
t hroughout all o f his sonatas. Initially, the harmonies e mployed a re largely traditional but
o ver t ime they b ecome m ore a dventurous. B eethoven's t reatment o f m elody also c hanges

o ver Lime. In the first sonatas, the melodies tend to be lengthy, but by the last sonata the
melodic ideas are reduced to only a few notes. From the early sonatas Lo the latersonatas
therc is a noticeable shift in v olume and thickness o f s ound. W hen B eethoven began
writing, the piano w as a d elicate instrument, not nearly as powerful as the modern piano
and his first sonatas reflect this. As he continued writing, however, he demanded more
volume than the instruments could provide, inspiring changes in the instrument that
eventually resulted in t oday's piano. T hroughout all Lhirty-two sonatas, however,
Beethoven retains a highly logical ordering o f t hemes.
E very c omposer a fter Beethoven was s omehow a ffected by his works. Some, like
Johannes B rahms ( 1833-1897) c onsidered B eethoven the greatest master and sought to
continue in a similar style. Others, such as Frederic Chopin (] 810-1849) and Franz Liszt
(1811-1886), felt that theclassicism expressed in the music o f B eethoven had reached its
ultimate conclusion and thus broke from this style, creating a radical new ideal in their
own music. W ithout B eethoven's a djustments to harmony, melody, and texture, neither
o f t hese responses could have occurred and the music o f t oday would be markedly
different. T he potential methods for e xpanding this study are...