Sonata 27 op 90 beethoven biography

It was written in the summer of , more than four years after Les Adieux, the previous sonata. Maybe the long gap was caused by the difficulties Beethoven was facing: his hearing had deteriorated, there were financial problems and he had to take care of his nephew Carl after his brother had died. Or Beethoven may have thought Italian words were not sufficient to express his thoughts.

Beethoven himself described this movement as a battle between the head and the heart. The contrasts are not just dynamic, but also harmonic and melodic. The first 24 bars constitute the backbone of the whole movement.

Beethoven sonata op 81a analysis

The first phrase of 8 bars is symphonic and vertical. The second 8 bars are completely different: melodic and horizontal. The third phrase of 8 bars is very different again and has this huge leap of and octave and a seventh. The exposition is not repeated. The development is a beautiful fantasy on melodic, harmonic and rhythmic aspects of the exposition.

The whole movement stays in minor.