The Unusual Piano Sonata
The Beethoven’s №17 piano sonata in D minor — “Shakespeare’s” Tempest piano sonata
As the allegretto musical pieces are awakening the tempest, the piano illuminates the night.
As Beethoven said, “Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear” . Music is a crucial element of everyday life and a lot of people incorporate it in their daily activities. They use music to serve various functions from emotion regulation to self‐expression to socialize, to relax. This piano sonata is a magic journey in a storm of emotions, fiercely ascending in the dexterity of the fingers to an emotional outburst, descending suddenly to nothingness. The end of the third movement — the allegretto leaves the audience with sweet haunting sounds, yet thirsty for one more repetition in this dance.
The unusual piano sonata of Beethoven
The “Tempest” is unquestionably one of the greatest classical sonatas. Despite the fact of not being the most famous sonata of Beethoven’s works, it was unusual for the style of Beethoven till that period. It had an important place within Beethoven’s career. He is considered the towering figure in the history of the sonata, with his 32 piano sonatas he wrote between 1795 and 1822. Although they are not originally intended to be a meaningful whole, they are one of the most important music collections in music history and Hans von Bülow called them “The New Testament” of the piano literature, for they transformed music forever.
Why is this piano sonata called Tempest? Does it have anything to do with Shakespeare’s Tempest? Most probably, no. The name is given after a personal conversation of Beethoven’s secretary on how he interpreted it where he received the reply ‘’Read Shakespeare’s Tempest”. No further explanation was ever given. Tempest is one of the last Shakespeare’s mature plays, remarkable for its extraordinary breadth of imagination, steeped in magic and illusion that the spectacle is so abundant in the form of the tempest, the chaotic changes, even from the very beginning! It is one of Shakespeare’s most universal plays and is very much concerned with human behavior and emotion.
Why unusual? In his most personal musical statement — the Tempest sonata — Beethoven, chose the key of D minor. It is the only example of it in his sonatas with only one exception in No 3 sonata the sublime Largo e mesto from the Op 10. It meant something special for him when used, like for example in his 9th symphony. Although the D minor key is considered to be saddest compared to other minor keys, its key characteristics are that it: “expresses a subdued feeling of melancholy, grief, anxiety, and solemnity”, melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humors brood.
The first movement changes tempo markings and key scale several times, starting from largo to allegro for worry and haste and then to adagio playing with the listener’s excitement from rising, falling, becoming insistent to a sorrowful descending. The second movement, Adagio, is one of Beethoven’s most slow movements, it speaks with tenderness. And finally the third and final movement enters hauntingly, with a hypnotic theme that is much harder to play than it looks. It’s character is pathetic rather than energetic, disrupted by occasional frenzied outbursts’. The tragic feeling continues right to the end, with the music disappearing into the void, abruptly and dramatically lost.
A synopsis of the most important style components (harmony, rhythm, structure, texture, dynamics) which together contribute to the uniqueness of this sonata. The intensive transformation process into a multi-stage drama which eventually will be continued in the finale of this sonata.
Let me live here ever!
So rare a wondered father and a wise
Makes this place paradise.
…
Cheer up.Our music-and-dance spectacle is over.
excerpt from Shakespeare’s Tempest, Act 4 Scene 1
