Six Three Movement Sonatas example essay topic

I. Haydn Haydn has a special preference for writing music in a bundle of six. Each of the six pieces has its individuality while sharing many common features at the same time. Haydn's solo keyboard sonatas show striking diversity in type and style. They often could be categorized by their style periods and each of them reflects a corresponding social background.

Sonatas composed from 1773 to 1784 were intended as "public" works from the very beginning, with a clear conception of the taste, preferences, and instruments available to the musical public of Vienna. The Sonata in F Major, Hob. XVI: 23; L 38 written in 1773 for solo harpsichord is the best known and most virtuosic of his set of six sonatas (Hob. XVI: 21-6). Haydn wrote the six sonatas for Prince Nicklaus Ester h " any and they strictly follow the court-style. Sonata in F has three movements: Allegro moderato, Adagio (Larghetto) and Presto.

The contrasting tempo and the fast motion between the fingers allow the player to give a virtuoso impression without acquiring over-demanding technique. In the opening movement, demanding 32nd-note passages create an improvisatory flavor. Haydn intentionally inserted a sequence of diminished 7th chords to make an unusual tonal appearance. The unique middle movement in F minor portrays a Baroque flavor. The finale is well-organized and filled with contrapuntal passages.

Nearly a decade later, Haydn wrote another six three-movement sonatas named the Auenbrugger sonatas. The composer himself had become acquainted with some talented Viennese amateur musicians. The Sonata in G Major, Hob. XVI: 29; L 52 was written in 1780 and with the rest of the set was dedicated to the Auenbrugger sisters. Although the sonata piece is in Haydn's usual three movement style, he has secretly added in a number of new ingredients in each movement. The sonata begins with the Allegro con brio with lighthearted rondo variations.

The most interesting aspect of this movements is that Haydn intentionally returned to the theme of the Sonata in C-sharp Minor, Hob. XVI: 36. However, the new movement includes two independent episodes, one in the tonic and the other in its relative minor. The Adagio movement is rich in ornamentation. A written-out cadenza is designed to for the trio.

The finale Prestissimo returns to sonata form in a rocking 6/8 meter which is rare with Haydn. Overall, the sonata has shown a new Haydn who was interested in experimenting and non-repetitive from his previous works. II. Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had endless ideas for writing piano sonatas and like his other works, his sonata style has evolved dramatically over the years.

His early works have been constantly compared with other well-known composers at the time. For example, it has been suggested that Haydn's F Major Sonata, Hob. XVI: 23 as a model for Mozart's K. 280 in the same key. The C Major Sonata, K. 309 was written on November 8, 1777 for the fifteen-year-old Rosa Connabich who was the daughter of the leader of the Elector Karl Theodor's famous Mannheim orchestra, Christian Cannabich. It was composed for solo piano. The three movements include Allegro con spirit, Andante un poco Adagio, and Rondo: Allegretto gracioso.

The opening theme of the first movement uses a symmetrical paragraph of fourteen bars with seven measures each. It is followed by a pair of 3-bar balancing phrases. The slow movement also adapted the well balanced phrase structure at its exposition. This particular style was never unusual to musicians during the period.

It has been used by many others including Josef Antonin Stepan whose Sonata no. 57 in E flat embraced almost identical elements as in Mozart's C Major Sonata. However, Mozart made his own mark distinctively in various moments. For instance, in the second movement, there was a frequent alternation between two dynamics, piano and forte. During 1777, Mozart was traveling with his mother in Mannheim. The Sonata in C Major has been described as having "a rather artificial Mannheim style" especially the opening unison forte and outlining a triad in the manner of the characteristic Mannheim 'rocket'. During the time, the young composer was at a stage when he still had something to learn from other composers.

He was entering the established genres including the piano sonata. He was able to easily transform his music into an adaptation of the specific style required in the surroundings. In contrast to the C Major Sonata, K. 309, Mozart in his later years has composed several piano sonatas which were rather unusual and shockingly different from his previous style. The Fantasy and Sonata in C minor, K. 457, was composed in October, 1784 and the Fantasy, K. 475, in May, 1785. The pair is probably his greatest work for solo keyboard. It could be called "interior monologue", which in what is seemingly an improvisational style.

Yet it is beautifully unified and goes through the wide variety of turbulent and conflicting moods that the sonata will then handle with a more objective, formal clarity. The Fantasy No. 4 embraces multi-movements in one single piece of music. It is approximately two-thirds the length of a regular sonata. Unlike any other sonata, Mozart combines all the elements which usually existed in three or four movements into one masterpiece. When listening to the piece, the music struck me as similar to story-telling. The Adagio opened the Fantasy with a dark, overcast ting atmosphere.

His use of key (C minor in this case) sets the mood unmistakably. The main theme is altered between both hands with variations. The progressive melodic embellishment serves as a useful model for the performer and they are compositional models for successive stages in the variation of a theme. The piece then moves on to a "march" like Allegro.

This section includes a brief middle section in F Major which introduces the following Andantino. If the audience finds the peacefulness in the "Andantino movement" to be inconvincible, the finale unquestionably brings an even bigger surprise. It's like a storm has just arrived after a quiet afternoon. The main theme reappears in the end in an even darker manner.

From the drama, expressive language to the grand gesture, this particular Fantasy reminds me of Beethoven in various ways. As a major art form in the era, Mozart's piano sonatas presented "models of fluency". They revealed both the composer's and the player's musical virtuosity and clarity.