The early and middle sonatas

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) wrote 32 piano sonatas classified into the following three types through his life.

There are 12 early sonatas from opus 2-1 to opus 26. There are 15 middle sonatas from opus 27 to opus 90. There are 5 late sonatas that are opus 101, 106、109、110 and 111.

The early sonatas have the form of the classical style which he had improved on through trial and error. In this period (Ludwig’s younger days), every time the opus number becomes bigger, his originality grows. (The opus numbers show when the composer wrote the works. Opus 1 is the first public piece of the composer.)

A lot of Beethoven’s masterpieces including the ones for other instruments were composed when middle sonatas were written. He enlarged and developed the traditional classical forms adding his personal emotions to them.

The composer fundamentally had had the three ideas toward his music – passionate, lyrical, rational.

As writing about late sonatas need many lines, I will post it in another blog.

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