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Sonate für Klavier (c-Moll) op. 13 (Sonate pathétique)
 Listening samples
Composition
1797 bis 1799
dedicated to Karl Fürst von Lichnowsky
The Piano Sonata in C Minor op. 13, which was composed between 1797 and 1799, has a special place amongst Beethoven's piano works. Many of the great sonatas are known by their popular title: every music lover knows the "Waldstein Sonata", the "Appassionata" or the "Moonlight Sonata". Op. 13 also has a popular title: "Pathétique". Unlike those already mentioned which only received their names during the nineteenth century, the Pathétique has always borne this name. Beethoven himself called it "Grande Sonate pathétique" in the title. Only one other piano sonata has an original name: "Les Adieux" op. 81a. But why exactly is op. 13 called "pathétique"? For one thing the key C minor had a very special character for his contemporaries (which we cannot quite reconstruct on our modern instruments which are well-tempered). Music theorists of the time described C minor as being "sorrowful" (Rousseau), "sad" (Mattheson), but also "angry" and "raging" (Quantz), as well as being imbued with all different kinds of passionate emotions. This character is strengthened even further by the tempo marking for the first movement "Grave" and the dotted rhythms of the opening motif. In 1837 in his "Encyclopedie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften" Gustav Schilling defined a composition as being "pathetisch" if it "is in an elevated and therefore harmonically rich, strong style and without any sweetness and mere nicety". Criteria which Beethoven's "Pathétique" fulfils in every respect. (J.R.)
Scores
Literatur
Literature for further reading
Location of other important manuscript sources
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Berlin: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv
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Großbritannien, London: The British Library
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E-Mail: bibliothek@beethoven-haus-bonn.de
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