Music TheoryPrint

Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Sonata No. 16 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 16 in G major, Op. 31, No. 1, was composed between 1801 and 1802. Although it was numbered as the first piece in the trio of piano sonatas which were published

Music#

The sonata consists of three movements. A typical performance lasts about 20 minutes.

I. Allegro vivace#

The first movement begins in an animated fashion. The humorous main theme is littered with brisk, semiquaver passages, and chords written in a stuttering fashion, suggesting that the hands are unable to play in unison with one another. The second subject in the exposition alternates between B major and B minor; this tendency to alternate between keys became typical later in Beethoven’s career.

II. Adagio grazioso#

With long, drawn-out trills and reflective pauses, the second movement in C major is more sentimental. Apart from the Hammerklavier Sonatas Adagio sostenuto third movement and the 32nd sonata’s second movement, this is the longest slow movement in Beethoven’s piano sonatas, lasting around 11 minutes. According to many great pianists (e.g. Edwin Fischer and András Schiff), this movement is a parody of Italian opera and Beethoven’s contemporaries, who were much more popular than Beethoven at the beginning of the 19th century. Schiff explained this theory in a master class on this sonata; he said it is totally uncharacteristic of Beethoven because it is not economical, it is incredibly long, everything is too ornamented, it is filled with “show-off cadenzas … trying to make a cheap effect” and bel canto-like elements and rhythms. Schiff said, “it’s very beautiful, but it’s alien to Beethoven’s nature”.

III. Rondo#

The last movement is similar in character to the first: light, enthusiastic, and youthful. Here, a single simple theme is varied, ornamented, syncopated, and modulated throughout the piece. After a brief Adagio section, the piece ends with a Presto coda.

*A lecture by András Schiff on Beethoven’s piano sonata Op. 31, No. 1 *

Composer
Ludwig van Beethoven