Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Part 6

1 Assignment

• Final Quiz - Opp. 14 and 49 - Quiz

11 Videos

• "The Sonatas Op. 49 and 14: The Exceptions that Prove the Rule of Beethoven's Ambition"
• Op. 49 No. 2, 1st movement
• Op. 49 No. 2, 2nd movement
• Op. 49 No. 1, 1st movement
• Op. 49 No. 1, 2nd movement
• Op. 14 No. 1, 1st movement
• Op. 14 No. 1, 2nd movement
• Op. 14 No. 1, 3rd movement
• Op. 14 No. 2, 1st movement
• Op. 14 No. 2, 2nd movement
• Op. 14 No. 2, 3rd movement

1 Assignment

• Final Quiz - Op. 31 No. 3 - Quiz

10 Videos

• The Most Subtle Work in its Opus
• 1st mvt: An Opening that is Ambiguous, Wistful, and Mercurial
• 1st mvt: A Constant Dialogue between Seriousness and Play
• 1st mvt: A Return – and an Entire Movement – with an Emotional Question Mark
• 2nd mvt: A Modified Scherzo from the World of Opera
• 2nd mvt: Comedy and a bit of Melodrama
• 3nd mvt: A Menuet Playing the Role of a Slow Movement
• 4th mvt: A Joyous Depiction of a Hunt
• 4th mvt: Drama and Comedy, Butting Heads
• 4th mvt: A Coda That Revisits Many of the Work’s Concerns

1 Assignment

• Final Quiz - Op. 54 - Quiz

10 Videos

• The Odd Cousin in a Family of 32
• In the Middle of the Heroic Middle Period, a Work of High Quirkiness
• A Sonata of Two Movements – One More Irregular than the Other
• 1st mvt: A Menuet that is a bit Foursquare…
• 1st mvt: …and a Trio that Goes Hog-wild…
• 1st mvt: …and Finally, a Coda that Gives the Movement Emotional Heft
• 2nd mvt: A Slow-moving Perpetual Motion
• 2nd mvt: Rock-steady Motion; Peculiar Harmonic and Rhythmic Detail
• 2nd mvt: A Second Repeat Highlighting this Work’s Sly Strangeness
• 2nd mvt: The Movement’s Potential Energy, Thrillingly Unleashed

1 Assignment

• Final Quiz - Op. 11 - Quiz

12 Videos

• Beethoven’s Farewell to the Piano Sonata, in Two Movements Without Real Precedent
• 1st mvt: Beginning in Mid-sentence, and in Extreme Emotional Distress
• 1st mvt: A Stark, Unison Theme That Dominates the Movement
• 1st mvt: Music of Extreme, Nearly Uninterrupted, Rigor and Fury
• 1st mvt: A Development even more Compact and Airless than the Exposition
• 1st mvt: A Major Key Ending that Brings No Hope
• 2nd mvt: A Wondrous, Wide-Eyed Answer to the 1st Movement’s Rage
• 2nd mvt: Three Variations, Moving the Theme Towards Ecstasy…
• 2nd mvt: …and a Fourth, Making it Otherworldly
• 2nd mvt: Beyond C Major; Beyond Variation; Beyond the Possible
• 2nd mvt: The Absence of a Continuation
• 2nd mvt: Beethoven, and Life’s Most Profound and Universal Experience

1 Readings

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