Piano Sonata No. 11

Piano Sonata No. 11 may refer to:

Piano Sonata No. 11 (Beethoven)

Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-flat major, Op. 22, was composed in 1800, and published two years later. Beethoven regarded it as the best of his early sonatas, though some of its companions in the cycle have been at least as popular with the public.

Prominent musicologist Donald Francis Tovey has called this work the crowning achievement and culmination of Beethoven's early "grand" piano sonatas. Subsequent sonatas find Beethoven experimenting more with form and concept.

Structure

The sonata has 4 movements:

A typical performance lasts 25-30 minutes.

First Movement

The first movement is in typical sonata form. The exposition starts in the tonic key and transitions into the dominant key as the second theme begins. The development plays around with the closing measures of the exposition before making the right hand play arpeggios as the bass line slowly descends chromatically. The theme of the closing octaves from the exposition comes back again in the bass, leading into a chromatic scale resolving in an FMm7 chord (dominant function of the sonata), which sets up the recapitulation. The recapitulation is at first the same as the exposition, but has some changes, with a deviation that sets the rest of the movement to stay in the tonic key.

Piano Sonata No. 11 (Prokofiev)

Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 11, Op. 138 (1953) (unrealised) was to be a sonata for solo piano.

Movements

References

External links

Piano sonata

A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement (Scarlatti, Scriabin, Medtner), two movements (Haydn), five (Brahms' Third Piano Sonata) or even more movements. The first movement is generally composed in sonata form.

The Baroque keyboard sonata

In the Baroque era, the use of the term "sonata" generally referred to either the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) or sonata da camera (chamber sonata), both of which were sonatas for various instruments (usually one or more violins plus basso continuo). The keyboard sonata was relatively neglected by most composers.

The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (of which there are over 500) were the hallmark of the Baroque keyboard sonata, though they were for the most part unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime. The majority of these sonatas are in one-movement binary form, both sections being in the same tempo and utilizing the same thematic material. These sonatas are prized for both their technical difficulty and their musical and formal ingenuity. The influence of Spanish folk music is evident in Scarlatti's sonatas.

Piano Sonata (Berg)

Alban Berg's Piano Sonata (German: Klaviersonate), Op. 1, was published in 1910, but the exact date of composition is unknown; sources suggest that it was written in 1909. The Sonata is Berg's only piano work to which he gave an opus number.

History

Berg first studied under Arnold Schoenberg in the autumn of 1904, taking lessons in harmony and counterpoint. Later, in autumn 1907, he returned to begin studies in composition, which ended with the study of sonata movements. Several draft sketches of sonata movements date from this period and it is thought that Op. 1 followed from these drafts. The exact date of composition is unknown; although the second reissue of the score bears the date 1908, sources suggest that the Sonata was not composed until the spring or summer of 1909 (Scheideler, 2006). The premiere of the Piano Sonata, Op. 1 was given in Vienna on 24 April 1911 by Etta Werndorff. Other works by Berg and Anton Webern were also played at that concert. Pianist Léo-Pol Morin notably performed the work for its Parisian premiere in 1922.

Piano Sonata in G major (Tchaikovsky)

The Grand Piano Sonata in G major, Op. 37, was written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1878. Though initially received with critical acclaim, the sonata has struggled to maintain a solid position in the modern repertoire. Nevertheless, the sonata has been recorded numerous times and is recognized as one of the composer's masterworks. It is dedicated to Karl Klindworth.

History

The sonata was composed at Clarens and Kamenka between March and April 1878, around the same time as the famous Violin Concerto in D. In a letter to his younger brother Anatolii, Tchaikovsky complains about the difficulties he faced in writing his sonata:

When Tchaikovsky's violinist friend Iosif Kotek arrived at Clarens, the composer's efforts quickly became focused on his Violin Concerto, and work on the sonata was discontinued. He resumed work on the sonata in mid-April and completed it before the month's end. It was premiered in a concert of the Russian Musical Society by pianist Nikolai Rubinstein, much to the composer's delight: