Beethoven Piano Sonata Op.111 Creative Features And Performance Analysis

Ludwig van Beethoven(1770-1827),a German musician,is one of the representative composers of classical music in Vienna.He has written a great number of works of music genres such as opera,string quartet,violin sonata,symphony and so on.Beethoven’s Piano Sonata is of the most artistic value in his piano musical creation.His 32 piano sonata piano musical works have the important component with Bach’s musical masterpieces in the history of music.The three periods of Beethoven’s musical creation in his life reflect the different characteristics.In addition to the changes in terms of the structure,Beethoven also fully makes use of the piano’s intensity contrast,the dramatic crescendo and the sudden weak accompaniment,apart from the timbre variations of the high-pitched and bass registers.As a composer across the classical and the romantic period,Beethoven’s piano sonatas created in his first period inherited the creative features of classical music,which possessed not only the ornate style of the traditional sonatas,but the emotional expression with meditation.And Bach,Haydn and Mozart all had some effects on his musical creations.In his second period of creation,Beethoven’s piano sonata creation had entered into a new stage,which was considered as the mature stage of his musical creation.He gradually got away from the influences of the classical music traditions,and obviously presented the excessive tendency of the romantic style.Stepping to his third creative period,Beethoven’s piano sonata didn’t almost include the emotional contrast and intense conflicts,compared with his piano works in the last two periods.And he sublimed his masterpieces in terms of the mediation to the unknown world instead of the firm beliefs existing in his previous works.Piano Sonata in c minor(Op.111)is one of the representative works of Beethoven’s piano sonatas during the late creative period,and also the last piano sonata in his musical creation.The work is divided into the first movement and the second movement,whose structure breaks away from the classical tradition of creative techniques.These two movements are very unique in the creation of the material and structure.The first movement is of the contrapuntal style sonata form,showing Beethoven’s nature of heroic passion,his perfect sense of propriety,rigorous logic and the compact structure.The second movement can be regarded as the highest model of the pure melody variations,which shows Beethoven’s highly creative skills in the patterns of musical variations.The mood of the music varies from the calm contemplation to fast fierce;from dark gloomy to bright purity,finally ending with the magnificent bright variation.In the Op.111,these two movements contain a sharp contrast in terms of the musical images,showing the different images,namely,the opposite and harmonious nature:spirit and passion;vigorous and energetic performance.All of these factors are perfectly combined with the introspection and the noticeable meditation of the attitude to the life in his late years.Between each movement among this piano sonata,the passage is clear,with the distinct creative characteristics.And introspective lyrical works replace the former heroic features to a great extent.In addition,the abstract and complexity of the piano sonata takes the place of the title character in his previous works.Beethoven’s conception of music creation mainly comes from his life.The motive forceful factor in the first movement and the enlightening characteristics of peace in the second movement present the thought of music and the realization of life in his old age.In the performance,it is a big challenge to obtain a reasonable grasp of the details,for instance,the strength,speed,pedal,vibrato and tone.All the elements should be required to make the corresponding analysis.Combining the professional studies and the understanding of the musical works,this thesis mainly discusses the musical background,creative features(sonata tone,contrastive characteristics)and the analysis of the performance of this piano work,which aims to impro’ve the level of the academic research and performance.In the process of the discussion,the perseverance and the persistence are always within Beethoven’s whole life,whether on his own point or in his career of musical creation.