6 - The design of the Op. 31 sonatas

Summary

Beethoven distanced the Op. 27 sonatas from eighteenth-century precedents by amalgamating the sonata with the fantasy, but in Op. 31 he strikes a more searching attitude towards fundamental aspects of classical syntax and the sonata style. In some respects the design of Op. 31 is more conventional than that of Op. 27: movements are discreet and closed; each sonata begins with a fast movement in sonata form; and – with the exception of the third sonata – the distribution of movement types has ample precedent in the classical repertoire. However, the relationship between form and content, especially in the first movements of Op. 31, is even more innovative and fantastic than in Op. 27. Several common threads run through Op. 31. Each sonata begins with an unstable opening, whose implications profoundly affect the subsequent discourse. And multi-movement integration becomes increasingly important in each successive sonata: from gestural rhymes and a certain degree of complementarity between the outer movements of the first sonata, to a more thoroughly processual integration between the outer movements of the last.

No. 1 in G

Allegro vivace

One of the most innovative aspects of the first group (bars 1–64) is the way in which Beethoven seems to revel in a lack of eloquence. Gestures are disjointed and phrases asymmetrical. By turn highly volatile and circular, the music repeatedly returns to its starting point before striking out in new directions.