Pathetique

• Baroque style


  Musical style that preceded the Classical period
• Classical period


  Musical period from around 1750 to 1825
• Piano


  Keyboard instrument that replaced the harpsichord, allowing for dynamic contrasts and effects
• Most important composers of the Classical period


  • Haydn
  • Mozart
  • Beethoven
  • Schubert
• Ludwig van Beethoven


  German composer born in Bonn in 1770, moved to Vienna and established a reputation as a virtuoso pianist
• Beethoven won the support of the Viennese nobility who funded him, and dedicated works to them
• In 1796, Beethoven first reported problems with his hearing that would eventually lead to his total deafness by about 1820
• Despite his deafness, Beethoven composed some of his finest works
• Beethoven's reputation spread quickly and by the age of 35 he was the most famous composer of instrumental music in Europe
• Piano sonata


  A work in three or four movements, each different in mood but related in key, written for piano alone
• Piano concerto


  A work performed in concert halls with orchestra, unlike simpler piano sonatas played in the home
• Beethoven wrote 32 piano sonatas, and No. 8 'Pathétique' was published in 1799
• Pathétique


  Passionate or emotional, reflecting the Romantic style that was emerging in Beethoven's music
• The 'Pathétique' Sonata was generally well received, although the violent energy, tragic passion and extreme contrasts in the music were dismissed as eccentric by some conservative musicians
• Pianos of Beethoven's day


  • Had wooden frames that could not support high tension strings, resulting in a lighter and less sonorous tone compared to modern grand pianos
• Range of the 'Pathétique' Sonata's first movement


  • Spans almost the entire 5-octave compass available on pianos of the day
• Beethoven's piano writing in the 'Pathétique' Sonata


  • Includes long and rapid descents, wide leaps, use of different registers, wide dynamic range, sudden contrasts, crescendo and decrescendo, forceful accents, need for right hand to cross over the left, wide separation of the hands, and thick, dense chords in the low register
• The 'Pathétique' Sonata has features that look forward to the Romantic style of the 19th century, including emotional outbursts, extreme contrasts in dynamics and adventurous choice of keys, and an unusual structure
• Sonata form


  The three-part structure of exposition, development, and recapitulation that was common in the first movements of sonatas and other multi-movement works during the Classical period
• Sonata form

  1. Exposition (introduces first and second subjects)

  2. Development (transforms ideas from exposition)

  3. Recapitulation (returns to music of exposition, altered to stay in tonic key)
• Transition


  The passage that links the first and second subjects in the exposition, modulating to the related key
• Codetta


  The closing section of the exposition that affirms the related key
• Coda


  The section that ends the movement by affirming the tonic key
• Often, the first subject is forceful and the second subject is more lyrical, but they can be very similar as the contrast in keys is the most important feature
• Sonata form can be thought of as a journey


  Someone leaves the tonic key, reaches a nearby destination (the related key), and then travels farther and farther away in the development, before safely returning for the recapitulation where everything settles into the security of the home key
• Beethoven is famed for his skill in creating music from short motifs in just the first eight bars of the slow introduction
• Motifs in the slow introduction


  • Used in sequence in bar 2
  • Has its last note reduced in length in bar 3 so that it can re-enter later in the same bar
  • Shortened to five notes by removing its first note
  • Gains a syncopated start and has its last two notes halved in length
  • Reduced to just a reminder of its dotted rhythm
  • Decreased to just four notes, with its last two notes now rising, and this new four-note version now treated in rising sequence
• The slow introduction also includes scale passages, as in bar 4, and it ends with a rapid descending chromatic scale in bar 10
• First subject


  • Formed from an ascending scale of C minor, with its second degree (D) omitted and the third degree raised by a semitone to Eb
  • Two bars repeated an octave higher
  • Balanced by four bars of longer notes (a 2+2+4-bar phrase structure)
  • Typical of the Classical style and creates an arch shape
• Transition


  • Rising and falling semitones alternate as they climb
  • Augmented (doubled in length) from bar 45 onward as the overall pitch descends
• Second subject


  • Wide compass but again consists of a pair of balanced four-bar phrases
  • Each starting on the second cratchet of a bar with four rising notes in the bass clef
  • First ends with an imperfect cadence
  • Second ends with a perfect cadence
  • Complementary cadences are very common with periodic phrasing
• Figuration in bars 93-98 (and in its repetition eight bars later)


  • Produces its exciting effect through the rising chromatic scale (again with a couple of small gaps) outlined by its top notes at the start of each minim beat
• Broken-chord patterns


  • Such as those in bars 29-30 (repeated four bars later)
• Ornaments used by Beethoven


  • Acciaccatura (printed as a small note with a slash through the stem, played as quickly as possible)
  • Mordent (marked w, played as a single rapid wiggle from the printed note to the note above and back)
  • Trill (marked tr, played as a rapid and continuous wiggle between the printed note and the note above)
• Simple quadruple metre


  Time signature C, same as 4/4, indicates four crotchet beats per bar
• Simple duple metre


  Time signature 2, same as 2/2, indicates two minim beats per bar
• Allegro di molto e con brio


  Very fast and with vigour
• Rhythm


  • Occasional syncopation
  • Dotted rhythms and very short notes in the introduction Allegro
  • Constant quaver octaves in long sections of the left-hand part create the effect of an ostinato
  • Persistent quavers in both hands to drive the music forward
• Tonality


  • Key of C minor with modulations to related keys (Eb, G minor) and remote keys (E minor)
  • 28 bars of dominant preparation for the recapitulation include a long dominant pedal on G in bars 167-187
• Harmony


  • Classical harmony sometimes very simple (I to V, V to I)
  • Interrupted cadence in bar 9 and perfect cadence at the end
  • Chromatic chords such as diminished 7th and augmented 6th