Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Part 5

1 Assignment

• Final Quiz – Op. 27, No. 1 Quiz

9 Videos

• The “Moonlight’s” Unjustly Neglected Sibling
• Bridging the Gap Between Fantasy and Sonata
• 1st Movement: Unusual Form; Unusual Harmonic Stability
• 1st Movement: A Joyous Disturbance of the Peace
• 2nd Movement: A Scherzo of Extreme Economy and Drama
• 2nd and 3rd Movements: A Magical “attacca” Transition
• 3rd Movement: Less a Movement than a Setting of the Stage
• 4th Movement: The Rondo the Sonata Has Been Heading Towards
• 4th Movement: Further Blurring the Lines Between the Movements

1 Assignment

• Final Quiz – Op. 31, No. 1 Quiz

11 Videos

• Humor and Harmonic Innovation
• 1st Movement: Playing Poor Coordination for Laughs
• 1st Movement: A Radical Move to the Mediant
• 1st Movement: Obsessing Over his own Joke…
• 1st Movement: …And Milking it for All It’s Worth
• 2nd Movement: An Affectionate Wink at Italian Opera
• 2nd Movement: Embellishment as Parody
• 2nd Movement: From Parody to Profundity
• 3rd Movement: Rondo as Riddle
• 3rd Movement: Inspiring Schubert
• 3rd Movement: A Coda filled with Surprise

1 Assignment

• Final Quiz – Op. 106 Part 1 Quiz

11 Videos

• A Work of Astonishing, Unprecedented Scope
• Putting the “Hammer” in “Hammerklavier”
• A Massive Work Unified by Two Motivic Fixations
• 1st Movement: An Exposition that Establishes the Work’s Scope and its Principal Concerns
• 1st Movement: A Fugal Development and a Return that Breaks Every Rule
• 1st Movement: The Work’s B/B flat Conflict, Front and Center
• 1st Movement: A Titanic Coda for a Titanic Movement
• 2nd Movement: A Compact, At Times Riotous Scherzo
• 2nd Movement: The Thirds Fixation, at its Most Concise
• 2nd Movement: A Trio that Moves from Mysterious to Maniacal…
• 2nd Movement: …and a Coda that is Yet More Maniacal

1 Assignment

• Final Quiz – Op. 106 Part 2 Quiz

13 Videos

• 3rd Movement: Tragedy on an Unequaled Scale
• 3rd Movement: Setting the Scene with One Measure – and One Third
• 3rd Movement: Giving the Work’s Main Ideas a Tragic Affect
• 3rd Movement: Moments of Consolation amidst Despair
• 3rd Movement: A Short, Loaded Development; A Return that Embellishes and Further Intensifies the Opening
• 3rd Movement: Not Hope, but the End of Hope
• 4th Movement: A Half-Step as a Way Forward
• 4th Movement: Finding the Way to Order by way of Chaos
• 4th Movement: A Labyrinthine Subject for a Dizzyingly Complex Fugue
• 4th Movement: Turning the Subject Stubborn through Augmentation
• 4th Movement: More Madness; Another Prominent Half-Step; The Subject in Retrograde
• 4th Movement: A Brief Oasis of Calm
• 4th Movement: Craggy, Ambiguous and Defiant to the End

1 Readings

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