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Recommended: Analysis of Piano Sonata by Beethoven
MUS 404: Keyboard Literature
June 22, 2010
Piano Sonata No. 3 in b minor, Op. 58 by Frédéric Chopin
Chopin’s third sonata is a masterwork filled with pianistic elements, daring harmonies, experimental form, and a wealth of expressivity. In this four-movement work, references to other Chopin compositions and influences from fellow composers are found. At the same time, there is a progressive element; it looks forward to the heights which would be achieved by Chopin and later composers.
Background
Chopin wrote the Sonata, Op. 58 in 1844, several months after the Berceuse, Op. 57. The Berceuse provides inspiration for the slow movement (Samson, Chopin 23). These works were written at a time when Chopin’s relationship with George Sand was coming to an end. These personal troubles, however, did not hamper his musical genius (Lederer 69). However, perhaps this turmoil is reflected in the ungraspable opening sections of the first movement and the tumultuousness of the final movement.
The sonata-allegro from was fathered by Haydn, mastered by Mozart, and experimented with by Beethoven. By the Romantic period, the sonata form was quite loose (Lederer 65 – 66). Chopin did not wish to be hampered by conventions; instead, he desired freedom in form. One of Chopin’s favorite of Beethoven sonatas is the Op. 26 in A-flat Major. He taught and played it quite often (Lederer 66). This sonata is highly unconventional. It begins with a set of theme and variations; not one of the movements is written a sonata-allegro form. It interchanges the middle movements; a scherzo precedes the slow movement, which happens to be a funeral march. Chopin’s two great sonatas (No. 2 in b-flat minor and No. 3 in b minor) are quite experimental with the sonata-al...
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...e mold of the sonata-allegro form; he is quite progressive with his harmonies, exploring distant keys and incorporating daring chromaticism. This sonata was written by Chopin at the height of his genius. It represents his triumph and mastery over form, harmonies, and the piano.
Bibliography
Huneker, James. Chopin: The Man and His Music. New York: Dover Publications, 1966. Print.
Lederer, Victor. Chopin: A Listener's Guide to the Master of the Piano. Pompton Plains, N.J.: Amadeus, 2006. Print.
"Piano Sonata No. 3 (Chopin)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 21 June 2010. .
Samson, Jim. Chopin. New York: Schirmer, 1996. Print.
Samson, Jim. The Music of Chopin. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. Print.
Whiteside, Abby. Mastering the Chopin Etudes and Other Essays. New York: Scribner, 1969. Print.
middle of paper ... ... e Awakening." 1899. The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Ed.
Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." The Norton Anthology of American Literature.. Gen. ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol. C. New York: Norton, 2012. 561-652. Print.
Chopin’s Impromptu arouses "the very passions ... within [Edna’s] soul"(p.34). The harmony, fluidity, subtle rhythm and poetic beauty of the Romantic composer make Edna loose herself in the music that stirs her emotions. The art completes, for her, what nature cannot bring to a finish. The exquisite, looping, and often fiery melodies of the Impromptu make a cut in Edna’s mind through the conventional beliefs about people and society. Because she is not a musician, her listening is based on intuition, allowing for a direct apprehension of the music by the soul and leading to a confrontation with the reality itself — the reality of "solitude, of hope, of longing, ... of despair"(p.34). This is the beginning of Edna’s awakening, for such emotions, especially despair, are not an end but a beginning because they take away the excuses and guilts, those toward herself, from which she suffers. This revelation of previously hidden conflicts gives birth to dramatic emotions within Edna. It is so powerful that Edna wonders if she "shall ever be stirred again as...Reisz’s playing moved" her that night (p.38).
Chopin, Kate. ?The Storm.? The Norton Anthology. Ed. Nina Baym, et al. New York: 1999. 1612-1615
Harris, Sharon M. "Kate Chopin." Magill’S Survey Of American Literature, Revised Edition (2006): 1-5. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Chopin, Kate. A. The Awakening. New York: Avon, 1972.
Chopin settled in France while he was composing this piece. He was unfortunately a refugee from Poland because of the politic...
Works Cited Chopin, Kate. A. The Awakening. New York: Avon, 1972. Print.
Seyersted, Per, and Emily Toth, eds. A Kate Chopin Miscellany. Natchitoches: Northwestern State University Press, 1979.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 535-625. Print.
Davis, Sara de Saussure. "Kate Chopin." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 12 pp. 59-71. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Central Lib. Fort Worth, TX. 11 Feb. 2003
Ludwig Van Beethoven, a German music prodigy, composed a variety of music, from symphonies to sonatas that are still popular to this day. Beethoven is famously known for the “Piano Sonata No.14 in C# minor ‘quasi una fantasia’”, or as others may know this piece as “Moonlight Sonata”. I am going to focus on the first movement in this piece that lasts for approximately six minutes, and discuss my opinions and findings. This homophonic piece as a whole has a steady tempo in quadruple meter, with the bass accompanying the main melody. Upon first listening to “Moonlight Sonata”, I felt sadness and despair, and after researching about this composition my thoughts for this piece did not change.
Kate Chopin was a woman and a writer far ahead of her time. She was a realistic fiction writer and one of the leaders and inspirational people in feminism. Her life was tragic and full of irregular events. In fact, this unusual life had an enormous effect on her writings and career. She depicted the lifestyle of her time in her works. In most of her stories, people would find an expansion of her life’s events. In her two stories “The Storm” and “The Story of One Hour” and some of her other works she denoted a lot of her life’s events. Kate Chopin is one of those writers who were influenced by their life and surrounded environment in their fiction writing, and this was very clear in most of her works.
Chopin, Kate. A. “The Story of an Hour.” Baym 1609-1611.
The exposition of Dussek’s Piano Sonata in G Major can be broken down into two primary themes, two secondary themes, and finally a transition into cadential extension. The first primary theme is made up in large by a parallel period. The antecedent begins on measure 1 and continues to measure 4. A 2:2:4 sentence connects the antecedent with the consequent, which begins on measure 12. Much like the antecedent, the consequent gives off an impression of statement and response; however, it is more apparent in the consequent due to the drastically changing dynamics. Overall bleeding into the continuation of the consequent which begins on measure 16. The continuation concludes with a sequence emphasizing the central theme of the piece. The silence within the figures of this theme bring attention that a change is about to take place, leading into the second primary theme. While it can be considered a transition due to the right hand primarily playing sixteenth note runs with a chromatic structure, measure 23 is the beginning of the second primary theme. The secondary theme can b...