An Analysis Of The Musical Features And Performance Of Beethoven 's Mid - Term Piano Sonata

Beethoven was a great pianist and musician in the classical period. 32 piano sonatas which were composed by him are a shining pearl in the history of Western music. He thoroughly performed his music style with unique and creative approaches, complex emotional changes, as well as innovative sonata forms. Particularly, mid-Beethoven is Beethoven’s most crucial period and a lot of good piano sonatas are written in this period.This paper consists of three parts. The first part introduces Beethoven piano sonatas. It includes the historical status and musical characteristics of mid-Beethoven piano sonatas in three periods. The following part discusses the musical features of “Piano Sonata Op. 31 No. 3 in E-flat Major”, which includes innovation of sonatas, expression of hero emotional characteristics and music developing techniques of melody. The last part is the analysis of musical performance on “Piano Sonata Op. 31 No. 3 in E-flat Major”. The author combines her own performance experiences with this paper and takes “Piano Sonata Op. 31 No. 3 in E-flat Major” as an example. She tries to explore and analyze performing characteristics of mid-Beethoven piano sonatas in five perspectives, which are strength, pedal, speed, vibrato and touch keys.This paper strives to ascertain the musical characteristics of mid-Beethoven piano sonatas by researching on “Piano Sonata Op. 31 No. 3 in E-flat Major”. Through combining textual analysis and performance skills analysis of “Piano Sonata Op. 31 No. 3 in E-flat Major”, performers could perform the music in a better way. Furthermore, performers could also understand and master mid-Beethoven piano sonatas deeply via reading this paper.