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Sonata

Analysis and Comparison of Beethoven’s Two Piano Sonatas
Appassionata & Hammerklavier

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist who lived between 1770 and 1827. He was born in Germany, moved to Vienna in his early twenties and studied with Joseph Haydn. He quickly gained reputation as a virtuoso pianist. Although he began to lose his hearing, he continued to produce pieces. He lost his hearing absolutely but he didn’t give up producing musical compositions. He is regarded as classical music’s composer in the transitional period between the classical and romantic eras in music. Romantic period was preceded by the classical period, and was followed by the modernist period. It can be said that his career is divided into three periods as Early (Classical), Middle (Heroic) and Late (Romantic). Beethoven composed in various genres like symphonies, sonatas(piano, violin),string quartets and opera. Appassionata is one of his piano sonatas that he produces in his Heroic period and Hammerklavier is produced by him in his Romantic period. These two compositions are both in the same genre (piano sonata) but they differ on several issues like structure, time, motives and movements.

Beginning with the average performance times, while Appassionata lasts about 23 minutes, Hammerklavier lasts about 45 minutes. Appassionata was not named by the composer, but it was labeled after his dead by the publisher. It is also known as opus 57 no --. Hammerklavier also doesn’t present Beethoven’s own title, but it comes from his insistence on using German rather than Italian words for musical terminology. It is also known as opus --, no --. When we look at structures of these, opus 57 contains three movements whereas opus—consists of four movements.

If the structures are analyzed deeper, opus 106 is more difficult composition for piano than opus 57, even it is said that opus 106 is one of the most difficult and most challenging solo works in the entire piano...