The Structural Characteristics And Performance Style Of Beethoven's Medium-Period Piano Sonata

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is a great German composer, whose 32 piano sonatas enjoy an unparalleled status in the history of piano artistry. Beethoven has upgraded sonatas to a new height, helping to strengthen their artistic expressiveness. Thus, his sonatas are the compulsory course of all learners of piano, as well as the undoubted choices of every pianist.According to using Content Analysis Method and analyzing all the expression marks on the scores, this thesis takes Beethoven's 19 Sonata-form movements in the Medium-period sonatas as the research objects and tries to further analyze their structure characteristics. This thesis also illustrates the ways of performing Beethoven's Medium-period sonatas, based on the practices of the author's own and many other pianists. By doing this, the author hopes to help others better perform these sonatas, and gives references for the teaching programs in the future.This thesis can be mainly divided into three parts. The first part introduces the status of Beethoven's piano sonatas, the three creation periods and the development of Sonata-form. The second part concludes the structure characteristics of the Sonata-form movements in his Medium-period piano sonatas, researching on the Introduction, the inner development of the First Tonal Area, the status of the Transition, the reduction of the Recapitulation, the enlargement of the Coda and the innovation of the repeat mode. The last part gives detailed studies on the piano performance, including tempo, dynamics and pedal aspects. This part further deepens our understanding on Beethoven's Medium-period sonatas.