Piano Sonata No. 9 (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 9 in D major, K. 311 / 284c, was written on the composer's stay in Augsburg and Mannheim in November-December 1777, and is contemporaneous with his Sonata No. 7 in C Major K. 309 (Mozart wrote his Sonata K. 310 in the summer of the following year, in Paris). The three sonatas K. 309–311 were published as a set 'Opus IV' in about 1782, by Franz Joseph Heina in Paris.
<templatestyles src="Stack/styles.css"/>
The work has three movements:
A typical performance takes about 15 to 17 minutes.
The first movement is in sonata form. Its first subject has a quasi-orchestral opening, and its second subject in the dominant key (A major) is quieter. The development section is almost entirely based on the last four bars of the exposition.
The second movement has an episodic structure A–B–A–B–A–coda. The second theme's melody is gently decorated with syncopation, accompanied by broken chords in the left hand. This key is G major, the subdominant of D major.
Lastly, the most technically demanding movement of the three is a sonata rondo, with a short central episode in B minor (the main key's relative minor). A slow cadenza-like passage containing a rapid ascending chromatic scale leads back to the first theme. In this passage the beginnings of the main theme of the famous second movement of the Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467, can be heard emerging - 8 years before he wrote it in 1785.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Composer (1756–1791)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age resulted in more than 800 works representing virtually every Western classical genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoires. Mozart is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture".
Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. At age five, he was already competent on keyboard and violin, had begun to compose, and performed before European royalty. His father took him on a grand tour of Europe and then three trips to Italy. At 17, he was a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position. Mozart's search for employment led to positions in Paris, Mannheim, Munich, and again in Salzburg, during which he wrote his five violin concertos, Sinfonia Concertante, and Concerto for Flute and Harp, as well as sacred pieces and masses, the motet "Exsultate Jubilate", and the opera "Idomeneo," among other works.
While visiting Vienna in 1781, Mozart was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He stayed in Vienna, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During Mozart's early years in Vienna, he produced several notable works, such as the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail", the "Great Mass in C minor", the "Haydn" Quartets and a number of symphonies. Throughout his Vienna years, Mozart composed over a dozen piano concertos, many considered some of his greatest achievements. In the final years of his life, Mozart wrote many of his best-known works, including his last three symphonies, culminating in the "Jupiter" Symphony, the serenade "Eine kleine Nachtmusik", his Clarinet Concerto, the operas "The Marriage of Figaro", "Don Giovanni", "Così fan tutte" and "The Magic Flute" and his Requiem. The Requiem was largely unfinished at the time of his death at age 35, the circumstances of which are uncertain and much mythologised.
Life and career.
Early life.
Family and childhood.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria, née Pertl, at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg. Salzburg was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic principality in the Holy Roman Empire (today in Austria). He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy. His elder sister was Maria Anna Mozart, nicknamed "Nannerl". Mozart was baptised the day after his birth, at St. Rupert's Cathedral in Salzburg. The baptismal record gives his name in Latinised form, as "Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart". He generally called himself "Wolfgang Amadè Mozart" as an adult, but his name had many variants.
Leopold Mozart, a native of Augsburg, then an Imperial Free City in the Holy Roman Empire, was a minor composer and an experienced teacher. In 1743, he was appointed as the fourth violinist in the musical establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, the ruling Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Four years later, he married Anna Maria in Salzburg. Leopold became the orchestra's deputy Kapellmeister in 1763. During the year of his son's birth, Leopold published a violin textbook, "Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule", which achieved success.
When Nannerl was seven, she began keyboard lessons with her father, while her three-year-old brother looked on. Years later, after her brother's death, she reminisced:
He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good... In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and pieces at the clavier... He could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time... At the age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down.
These early pieces, K. 1–5, were recorded in the "Nannerl Notenbuch". There is some scholarly debate about whether Mozart was four or five years old when he created his first musical compositions, though there is little doubt that Mozart composed his first three pieces of music within a few weeks of each other: K. 1a, 1b, and 1c.
In his early years, Wolfgang's father was his only teacher. Along with music, he taught his children languages and academic subjects. Biographer Solomon notes that, while Leopold was a devoted teacher to his children, there is evidence that Mozart was keen to progress beyond what he was taught. His first ink-spattered composition and his precocious efforts with the violin were of his initiative and came as a surprise to Leopold, who eventually gave up composing when his son's musical talents became evident.
1762–73: Travel.
While Wolfgang was young, his family made several European journeys in which he and Nannerl performed as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition in 1762 at the court of Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich, and at the Imperial Courts in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour followed, spanning three and a half years, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, Dover, The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Mechelen and again to Paris, and back home via Zürich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. During this trip, Wolfgang met many musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly significant influence was Johann Christian Bach, whom he visited in London in 1764 and 1765. When he was eight years old, Mozart wrote his first symphony, most of which was probably transcribed by his father.
The family trips were often challenging, and travel conditions were primitive. They had to wait for invitations and reimbursement from the nobility, and they endured long, near-fatal illnesses far from home: first Leopold (London, summer 1764), then both children (The Hague, autumn 1765). The family again went to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768.
After one year in Salzburg, Leopold and Wolfgang set off for Italy, leaving Anna Maria and Nannerl at home. This tour lasted from December 1769 to March 1771. As with earlier journeys, Leopold wanted to display his son's abilities as a performer and a rapidly maturing composer. Wolfgang met Josef Mysliveček and Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna and was accepted as a member of the famous Accademia Filarmonica. There exists a myth, according to which, while in Rome, he heard Gregorio Allegri's "Miserere" twice in performance in the Sistine Chapel. Allegedly, he subsequently wrote it out from memory, thus producing the "first unauthorised copy of this closely guarded property of the Vatican". However, both the origin and plausibility of this account are disputed.
In Milan, Mozart wrote the opera "Mitridate, re di Ponto" (1770), which was performed with success. This led to further opera commissions. He returned with his father twice to Milan (August–December 1771; October 1772 – March 1773) for the composition and premieres of "Ascanio in Alba" (1771) and "Lucio Silla" (1772). Leopold hoped these visits would result in a professional appointment for his son, and indeed ruling Archduke Ferdinand contemplated hiring Mozart, but owing to his mother Empress Maria Theresa's reluctance to employ "useless people", the matter was dropped and Leopold's hopes were never realised. Toward the end of the journey, Mozart wrote the solo motet "Exsultate, jubilate", K.165.
1773–77: Employment at the Salzburg court.
After finally returning with his father from Italy on 13 March 1773, Mozart was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. The composer had many friends and admirers in Salzburg and had the opportunity to work in many genres, including symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, masses, serenades, and a few minor operas. Between April and December 1775, Mozart developed an enthusiasm for violin concertos, producing a series of five (the only ones he ever wrote), which steadily increased in their musical sophistication. The last three—K. 216, K. 218, K. 219—are now staples of the repertoire. In 1776, he turned his efforts to piano concertos, culminating in the E♭ concerto K. 271 of early 1777, considered by critics to be a breakthrough work.
Despite these artistic successes, Mozart grew increasingly discontented with Salzburg and redoubled his efforts to find a position elsewhere. One reason was his low salary, 150 florins a year; Mozart longed to compose operas, and Salzburg provided only rare occasions for these. The situation worsened in 1775 when the court theatre was closed, especially since the other theatre in Salzburg was primarily reserved for visiting troupes.
Two long expeditions in search of work interrupted this long Salzburg stay. Mozart and his father visited Vienna from 14 July to 26 September 1773, and Munich from 6December 1774 to March 1775. Neither visit was successful, though the Munich journey resulted in a popular success with the premiere of Mozart's opera "La finta giardiniera".
1777–78: Journey to Paris.
In August 1777, Mozart resigned his position at Salzburg and on 23 September ventured out once more in search of employment, with visits to Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Munich.
Mozart became acquainted with members of the famous orchestra in Mannheim, the best in Europe at the time. He also fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four daughters of a musical family. There were prospects of employment in Mannheim, but they came to nothing, and Mozart left for Paris on 14 March 1778 to continue his search. One of his letters from Paris hints at a possible post as an organist at Versailles, but Mozart was not interested in such an appointment. He fell into debt and took to pawning valuables. The nadir of the visit occurred when Mozart's mother was taken ill and died on 3July 1778. There had been delays in calling a doctor—probably, according to Halliwell, because of a lack of funds. Mozart stayed with Melchior Grimm at Marquise d'Épinay's residence, 5 rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin.
While Mozart was in Paris, his father was pursuing opportunities of employment for him in Salzburg. With the support of the local nobility, Mozart was offered a post as court organist and concertmaster. The annual salary was 450 florins, but he was reluctant to accept. By that time, relations between Grimm and Mozart had cooled, and Mozart moved out. After leaving Paris in September 1778 for Strasbourg, he lingered in Mannheim and Munich, still hoping to obtain an appointment outside Salzburg. In Munich, he again encountered Aloysia, now a very successful singer, but she was no longer interested in him. Mozart finally returned to Salzburg on 15 January 1779 and took up his new appointment, but his discontent with Salzburg remained undiminished.
Among the better-known works which Mozart wrote on the Paris journey are the A minor piano sonata, K. 310/300d, the "Paris" Symphony (No. 31), which were performed in Paris on 12 and 18 June 1778; and the Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major, K. 299/297c.
Vienna.
1781: Departure.
In January 1781, Mozart's opera "Idomeneo" premiered with "considerable success" in Munich. The following March, Mozart was summoned to Vienna, where his employer, Archbishop Colloredo, was attending the celebrations for the accession of Joseph II to the Austrian throne. For Colloredo, this was simply a matter of wanting his musical servant to be at hand (Mozart indeed was required to dine in Colloredo's establishment with the valets and cooks). He planned a bigger career as he continued in the archbishop's service; for example, he wrote to his father:
My main goal right now is to meet the emperor in some agreeable fashion, I am absolutely determined he should get to know me. I would be so happy if I could whip through my opera for him and then play a fugue or two, for that's what he likes.
Mozart did indeed soon meet the Emperor, who eventually was to support his career substantially with commissions and a part-time position.
In the same letter to his father just quoted, Mozart outlined his plans to participate as a soloist in the concerts of the "Tonkünstler-Societät", a prominent benefit concert series; this plan as well came to pass after the local nobility prevailed on Colloredo to drop his opposition.
Colloredo's wish to prevent Mozart from performing outside his establishment was in other cases carried through, raising the composer's anger; one example was a chance to perform before the Emperor at Countess Thun's for a fee equal to half of his yearly Salzburg salary.
The quarrel with the archbishop came to a head in May: Mozart attempted to resign and was refused. The following month, permission was granted, but in a grossly insulting way: the composer was dismissed literally "with a kick in the arse", administered by the archbishop's steward, Count Arco. Mozart decided to settle in Vienna as a freelance performer and composer.
The quarrel with Colloredo was more difficult for Mozart because his father sided against him. Hoping fervently that he would obediently follow Colloredo back to Salzburg, Mozart's father exchanged intense letters with his son, urging him to be reconciled with their employer. Mozart passionately defended his intention to pursue an independent career in Vienna. The debate ended when Mozart was dismissed by the archbishop, freeing himself both of his employer and of his father's demands to return. Solomon characterizes Mozart's resignation as a "revolutionary step" that significantly altered the course of his life.
Early years.
Mozart's new career in Vienna began well. He often performed as a pianist, notably in a competition before the Emperor with Muzio Clementi on 24 December 1781, and he soon "had established himself as the finest keyboard player in Vienna". He also prospered as a composer, and in 1782 completed the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), which premiered on 16 July 1782 and achieved considerable success. The work was soon being performed "throughout German-speaking Europe", and thoroughly established Mozart's reputation as a composer.
Near the height of his quarrels with Colloredo, Mozart moved in with the Weber family, who had moved to Vienna from Mannheim. The family's father, Fridolin, had died, and the Webers were now taking in lodgers to make ends meet.
Marriage and children.
After failing to win the hand of Aloysia Weber, who was now married to the actor and artist Joseph Lange, Mozart's interest shifted to the third daughter of the family, Constanze.
The courtship did not go entirely smoothly; surviving correspondence indicates that Mozart and Constanze briefly broke up in April 1782, over an episode involving jealousy (Constanze had permitted another young man to measure her calves in a parlour game). Mozart also faced a very difficult task getting permission for the marriage from his father, Leopold.
The marriage took place in an atmosphere of crisis. Daniel Heartz suggests that eventually, Constanze moved in with Mozart, which would have placed her in disgrace by the mores of the time. Mozart wrote to Leopold on 31 July 1782, "All the good and well-intentioned advice you have sent fails to address the case of a man who has already gone so far with a maiden. Further postponement is out of the question." Heartz relates, "Constanze's sister Sophie had tearfully declared that her mother would send the police after Constanze if she did not return home [presumably from Mozart's apartment]." On 4 August, Mozart wrote to Baroness von Waldstätten, asking: "Can the police here enter anyone's house in this way? Perhaps it is only a ruse of Madame Weber to get her daughter back. If not, I know no better remedy than to marry Constanze tomorrow morning or if possible today."
The couple were finally married on 4August 1782 in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the day before his father's consenting letter arrived in the mail. In the marriage contract, Constanze "assigns to her bridegroom five hundred gulden which ... the latter has promised to augment with one thousand gulden", with the total "to pass to the survivor". Further, all joint acquisitions during the marriage were to remain the common property of both.
The couple had six children, of whom only two survived infancy:
1782–87.
In 1782 and 1783, Mozart became intimately acquainted with the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel as a result of the influence of Gottfried van Swieten, who owned many manuscripts of the Baroque masters. Mozart's study of these scores inspired compositions in the Baroque style and later influenced his musical language, for example in fugal passages in "Die Zauberflöte" ("The Magic Flute") and the finale of Symphony No. 41.
In 1783, Mozart and his wife visited his family in Salzburg. His father and sister were cordially polite to Constanze, but the visit prompted the composition of one of Mozart's great liturgical pieces, the Mass in C minor. Though not completed, it was premiered in Salzburg, with Constanze singing a solo part.
Mozart met Joseph Haydn in Vienna around 1784, and the two composers became friends. When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes played together in an impromptu string quartet. Mozart's six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, K. 421, K. 428, K. 458, K. 464, and K. 465) date from the period 1782 to 1785, and are judged to be a response to Haydn's Opus 33 set from 1781. Haydn wrote, "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years" and in 1785 told Mozart's father: "I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition."
From 1782 to 1785 Mozart mounted concerts with himself as a soloist, presenting three or four new piano concertos in each season. Since space in the theatres was scarce, he booked unconventional venues: a large room in the Trattnerhof apartment building, and the ballroom of the Mehlgrube restaurant. The concerts were very popular, and his concertos premiered there are still firm fixtures in the repertoire. Solomon writes that during this period, Mozart created "a harmonious connection between an eager composer-performer and a delighted audience, which was given the opportunity of witnessing the transformation and perfection of a major musical genre".
With substantial returns from his concerts and elsewhere, Mozart and his wife adopted a more luxurious lifestyle. They moved to an expensive apartment, with a yearly rent of 460 florins. Mozart bought a fine fortepiano from Anton Walter for about 900 florins, and a billiard table for about 300. The Mozarts sent their son Karl Thomas to an expensive boarding school and kept servants. During this period Mozart saved little of his income.
On 14 December 1784, Mozart became a Freemason, admitted to the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit ("Beneficence"). Freemasonry played an essential role in the remainder of Mozart's life: he attended meetings, a number of his friends were Masons, and on various occasions, he composed Masonic music, e.g. the Maurerische Trauermusik.
1786–87: Return to opera.
Despite the great success of "Die Entführung aus dem Serail", Mozart did little operatic writing for the next four years, producing only two unfinished works and the one-act "Der Schauspieldirektor". He focused instead on his career as a piano soloist and writer of concertos. Around the end of 1785, Mozart moved away from keyboard writing and began his famous operatic collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. The year 1786 saw the successful premiere of "Le nozze di Figaro" in Vienna. Its reception in Prague later in the year was even warmer, and this led to a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera "Don Giovanni", which premiered in October 1787 to acclaim in Prague, but less success in Vienna during 1788. The two are among Mozart's most famous works and are mainstays of operatic repertoire today, though at their premieres their musical complexity caused difficulty both for listeners and for performers. These developments were not witnessed by Mozart's father, who had died on 28 May 1787.
In December 1787, Mozart finally obtained a steady post under aristocratic patronage. Emperor Joseph II appointed him as his "chamber composer", a post that had fallen vacant the previous month on the death of Gluck. It was a part-time appointment, paying just 800 florins per year, and required Mozart only to compose dances for the annual balls in the Redoutensaal (see "Mozart and dance"). This modest income became important to Mozart when hard times arrived. Court records show that Joseph aimed to keep the esteemed composer from leaving Vienna in pursuit of better prospects.
In 1787, the young Ludwig van Beethoven spent several weeks in Vienna, hoping to study with Mozart. No reliable records survive to indicate whether the two composers ever met.
Later years.
1788–90.
Toward the end of the decade, Mozart's circumstances worsened. Around 1786, he ceased to appear frequently in public concerts, and his income shrank. This was a difficult time for musicians in Vienna because of the Austro-Turkish War: both the general level of prosperity and the ability of the aristocracy to support music had declined. According to Solomon, in 1788, Mozart saw a 66% decline in his income compared to his best years in 1781.
By mid-1788, Mozart and his family had moved from central Vienna to the suburb of Alsergrund. Although it has been suggested that Mozart aimed to reduce his rental expenses by moving to a suburb, as he wrote in his letter to Michael von Puchberg, Mozart had not reduced his expenses but merely increased the housing space at his disposal. Mozart began to borrow money, most often from his friend and fellow mason Puchberg; "a pitiful sequence of letters pleading for loans" survives. Maynard Solomon and others have suggested that Mozart was suffering from depression, and it seems his musical output slowed. Major works of the period include the last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41, all from 1788), and the last of the three Da Ponte operas, "Così fan tutte", premiered in 1790.
Around this time, Mozart made some long journeys hoping to improve his fortunes, visiting Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin in the spring of 1789, and Frankfurt, Mannheim, and other German cities in 1790.
1791.
Mozart's last year was, until his final illness struck, a time of high productivity—and by some accounts, one of personal recovery. He composed a great deal, including some of his most admired works: the opera "The Magic Flute"; the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B♭); the Clarinet Concerto K. 622; the last in his series of string quintets (K. 614 in E♭); the motet Ave verum corpus K. 618; and the unfinished Requiem K. 626.
Mozart's financial situation, a source of anxiety in 1790, finally began to improve. Although the evidence is inconclusive, it appears that wealthy patrons in Hungary and Amsterdam pledged annuities to Mozart in return for the occasional composition. He is thought to have benefited from the sale of dance music written in his role as Imperial chamber composer. Mozart no longer borrowed large sums from Puchberg and began to pay off his debts.
He experienced great satisfaction in the public success of some of his works, notably "The Magic Flute" (which was performed several times in the short period between its premiere and Mozart's death) and the Little Masonic Cantata K. 623, premiered on 17 November 1791.
Final illness and death.
Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the premiere, on 6September 1791, of his opera "La clemenza di Tito", which was written in that same year on commission for Emperor Leopold II's coronation festivities. He continued his professional functions for some time and conducted the premiere of "The Magic Flute" on 30 September. His health deteriorated on 20 November, at which point he became bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting.
Mozart was nursed in his final days by his wife and her youngest sister and was attended by the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. He was mentally occupied with the task of finishing his Requiem, but the evidence that he dictated passages to his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr is minimal.
Mozart died in his home on at 12:55 am. The "New Grove" describes his funeral:
Mozart was interred in a common grave, in accordance with contemporary Viennese custom, at the St. Marx Cemetery outside the city on 7December. If, as later reports say, no mourners attended, that too is consistent with Viennese burial customs at the time; later Otto Jahn (1856) wrote that Salieri, Süssmayr, van Swieten and two other musicians were present. The tale of a storm and snow is false; the day was calm and mild.
The expression "common grave" refers to neither a communal grave nor a pauper's grave, but an individual grave for a member of the common people (i.e., not the aristocracy). Common graves were subject to excavation after ten years; the graves of aristocrats were not.
The cause of Mozart's death is not known with certainty. The official record of "hitziges Frieselfieber" ("severe miliary fever", referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds) is more a symptomatic description than a diagnosis. Researchers have suggested more than a hundred causes of death, including acute rheumatic fever, streptococcal infection, trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning, and a rare kidney ailment.
Mozart's modest funeral did not reflect his standing with the public as a composer; memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended. Indeed, in the period immediately after his death, his reputation rose substantially. Solomon describes an "unprecedented wave of enthusiasm" for his work; biographies were written first by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Nissen, and publishers vied to produce complete editions of his works.
Appearance and character.
Mozart's physical appearance was described by tenor Michael Kelly in his "Reminiscences": "a remarkably small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine, fair hair of which he was rather vain". His early biographer Niemetschek wrote, "there was nothing special about [his] physique... He was small and his countenance, except for his large intense eyes, gave no signs of his genius." His facial complexion was pitted, a reminder of his childhood case of smallpox. Of his voice, his wife later wrote that it "was a tenor, rather soft in speaking and delicate in singing, but when anything excited him, or it became necessary to exert it, it was both powerful and energetic."
He loved elegant clothing. Kelly remembered him at a rehearsal: "[He] was on the stage with his crimson pelisse and gold-laced cocked hat, giving the time of the music to the orchestra." Based on paintings that researchers were able to find of Mozart, he seemed to wear a white wig for most of his formal occasions—researchers of the Salzburg Mozarteum declared that only one of his fourteen portraits they had found showed him without his wig.
Mozart usually worked long and hard, finishing compositions at a tremendous pace as deadlines approached. He often made sketches and drafts; unlike Beethoven's, these are mostly not preserved, as his wife sought to destroy them after his death.
Mozart lived at the centre of the Viennese musical world and knew a significant number and variety of people: fellow musicians, theatrical performers, fellow Salzburgers, and aristocrats, including some acquaintance with Emperor Joseph II. Solomon considers his three closest friends to have been Gottfried von Jacquin, Count August Hatzfeld, and Sigmund Barisani; others included his elder colleague Joseph Haydn, singers Franz Xaver Gerl and Benedikt Schack, and the horn player Joseph Leutgeb. Leutgeb and Mozart carried on a kind of friendly mockery, often with Leutgeb as the butt of Mozart's practical jokes.
He enjoyed billiards, dancing, and kept pets, including a canary, a starling, a dog, and a horse for recreational riding. He had a startling fondness for scatological humour, which is preserved in his surviving letters, notably those written to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart around 1777–1778, and in his correspondence with his sister and parents. Mozart also wrote scatological music, a series of canons that he sang with his friends. He had an ear for languages, and having travelled all over Europe as a boy, was fluent in Latin, Italian, and French in addition to his native Salzburg dialect of German. He possibly also understood and spoke some English, having jokingly written "You are an ass" after his 19-year-old student Thomas Attwood made a thoughtless mistake on his exercise papers.
Mozart was raised a Catholic and remained a devout member of the Church throughout his life. He embraced the teachings of Freemasonry in 1784.
Works, musical style, and innovations.
Style.
Mozart's music, like Haydn's, stands as an archetype of the Classical style. At the time he began composing, European music was dominated by the "style galant", a reaction against the highly evolved intricacy of the Baroque. Progressively, and in large part at the hands of Mozart himself, the contrapuntal complexities of the late Baroque emerged once more, moderated and disciplined by new forms, and adapted to a new aesthetic and social milieu. Mozart was a versatile composer, and wrote in every major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including string quartet and string quintet, and the piano sonata. These forms were not new, but Mozart advanced their technical sophistication and emotional reach. He almost single-handedly developed and popularised the Classical piano concerto. He wrote a great deal of religious music, including large-scale masses, as well as dances, divertimenti, serenades, and other forms of light entertainment.
The central traits of the Classical style are all present in Mozart's music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are the hallmarks of his work, but simplistic notions of its delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces, such as the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491; the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550; and the opera "Don Giovanni". Charles Rosen makes the point forcefully:
It is only through recognising the violence and sensuality at the centre of Mozart's work that we can make a start towards a comprehension of his structures and an insight into his magnificence. In a paradoxical way, Schumann's superficial characterisation of the G minor Symphony can help us to see Mozart's daemon more steadily. In all of Mozart's supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous.
During his last decade, Mozart frequently exploited chromatic harmony. A notable instance is his "String Quartet in C major", K. 465 (1785), whose introduction abounds in chromatic suspensions, giving rise to the work's nickname, the "Dissonance" quartet.
Mozart had a gift for absorbing and adapting the valuable features of others' music. His travels helped in the forging of a unique compositional language. In London as a child, he met J. C. Bach and heard his music. In Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna he met with other compositional influences, as well as the avant-garde capabilities of the Mannheim orchestra. In Italy, he encountered the Italian overture and opera buffa, both of which deeply affected the evolution of his practice. In London and Italy, the galant style was in the ascendent: simple, light music with a mania for cadencing; an emphasis on tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other harmonies; symmetrical phrases; and clearly articulated partitions in the overall form of movements. Some of Mozart's early symphonies are Italian overtures, with three movements running into each other; many are homotonal (all three movements having the same key signature, with the slow middle movement being in the relative minor). Others mimic the works of J. C. Bach, and others show the simple rounded binary forms turned out by Viennese composers.
As Mozart matured, he progressively incorporated more features adapted from the Baroque. For example, the Symphony No. 29 in A major K. 201 has a contrapuntal main theme in its first movement, and experimentation with irregular phrase lengths. Some of his quartets from 1773 have fugal finales, probably influenced by Haydn, who had included three such finales in his recently published Opus 20 set. The influence of the "Sturm und Drang" ("Storm and Stress") period in music, with its brief foreshadowing of the Romantic era, is evident in the music of both composers at that time. Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor K. 183 is another excellent example.
Mozart would sometimes switch his focus between operas and instrumental music. He produced operas in each of the prevailing styles: opera buffa, such as "Le nozze di Figaro", "Don Giovanni", and "Così fan tutte"; opera seria, such as "Idomeneo"; and Singspiel, of which "Die Zauberflöte" is the most famous example by any composer. In his later operas, he employed subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestral texture, and tone colour, for emotional depth and to mark dramatic shifts. Here, his advances in opera and instrumental composing interacted: his increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in the symphonies and concertos influenced his operatic orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was in turn reflected in his later non-operatic compositions.
Köchel catalogue.
For unambiguous identification of works by Mozart, a "Köchel catalogue number" is used. This is a unique number assigned, in regular chronological order, to every one of his known works. A work is referenced by the abbreviation "K." or "KV" followed by this number. The first edition of the catalogue was completed in 1862 by Ludwig von Köchel. It has since been repeatedly updated, as scholarly research improves knowledge of the dates and authenticity of individual works.
Instruments.
Although some of Mozart's early pieces were written for harpsichord, he also became acquainted in his early years with fortepianos made by Regensburg builder Franz Jakob Späth. Later when Mozart was visiting Augsburg, he was impressed by Stein fortepianos and shared this in a letter to his father. On 22 October 1777, Mozart had premiered his triple-piano concerto, K. 242, on instruments provided by Stein. The Augsburg Cathedral organist Demmler was playing the first, Mozart the second and Stein the third part. In 1783, when living in Vienna he purchased an instrument by Walter. Leopold Mozart confirmed the attachment which Mozart had with his Walter fortepiano: "It is impossible to describe the hustle and bustle. Your brother's pianoforte has been moved at least twelve times from his house to the theatre or to someone else's house."
Influence.
His most famous pupil was Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic eras whom the Mozarts took into their Vienna home for two years as a child. More important is the influence Mozart had on composers of later generations. Ever since the surge in his reputation after his death, studying his scores has been a standard part of a classical musician's training.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart's junior by fifteen years, was deeply influenced by his work, with which he was acquainted as a teenager. He is thought to have performed Mozart's operas while playing in the court orchestra at Bonn and travelled to Vienna in 1787 hoping to study with the older composer. Some of have direct models in comparable works by Mozart, and he wrote cadenzas (WoO 58) to Mozart's D minor piano concerto K. 466.
Composers have paid homage to Mozart by writing sets of variations on his themes. Beethoven wrote four such sets (Op. 66, WoO 28, WoO 40, WoO 46). Others include Fernando Sor's Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart (1821), Mikhail Glinka's Variations on a Theme from Mozart's Opera "The Magic Flute" (1822), Frédéric Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" from "Don Giovanni" (1827), and Max Reger's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart (1914), based on the variation theme in the piano sonata K. 331. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who revered Mozart, wrote his Orchestral Suite No. 4 in G, "Mozartiana" (1887), as a tribute to him.
References.
Citations.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Sources.
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>
Further reading.
"See for an extensive bibliography"
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>
External links.
Digitized documents
Sheet music

Piano Sonata No. 9 (Beethoven)
Piano sonata written by Beethoven
The Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14, No. 1, is an early-period work by Ludwig van Beethoven, dedicated to Baroness Josefa von Braun, one of his patrons at that time. It was composed in 1798 and arranged for string quartet by the composer in 1801 (Hess 34), the result containing more quartet-like passagework and in the more comfortable key of F major.
Form.
The sonata is in three movements:
Analysis.
The first movement.
The first movement opens with a series of ascending fourths in the right hand, followed by a quartet-like echoing of a phrase in different octaves. The second theme, in B major, is based on a descending run followed by an ascending chromatic run. The development is full of sixteenth-note arpeggios in the left hand, and sixteenth-note left-hand scales accompany the start of the recapitulation, but the movement ends quietly.
This movement also features a high F#6 in measure 41, which was out of the typical range of the piano at the time, which went from F1 to F6. It's possible Beethoven had intentionally wrote it like this anticipating that although the note wasn't playable at the time, it would become playable in the (near) future.
The second movement.
The second movement is minuet-like; the main section ends on the tonic major chord. The first time, this leads without intermediate modulation to the trio, headed "Maggiore", in C; after its return, the coda briefly quotes the C major tune before returning to E minor. Anton Schindler recalled that Beethoven would play the E-minor section furiously, before pausing at length on the E-major chord and giving a calmer account of the Maggiore.
The third movement.
The third movement is in a lively sonata rondo form. On its final return, the main theme is syncopated against triplets.
Not withstanding its seeming simplicity, this sonata introduces the "Sturm und Drang" character that became so commonly identified with Beethoven. He adds drama both in the contrast between the lyrical passages that follow very active, textured thematic sections. Furthermore, the contrasting dynamics and variation between major and minor, between using the parallel minor and the subdominant of its relative major (E minor to C major). These were new techniques that offer a hint of the innovations that Beethoven brought to end the Classical era and begin the Romantic era.
Critical reception.
The pianist and musicologist Charles Rosen considers both of the Opus 14 sonatas to be "considerably more modest than their predecessors", "destined for use in the home" and with "few technical difficulties". However, in contrast, pianist András Schiff disagrees with the notion that "the Opus 14 sonatas are lighter or easier" and in his lecture on Opus 14 No. 1 (see below), he states that they are frightfully difficult to play and to interpret.
Version for string quartet.
According to Donald Francis Tovey, the instrumentation of this sonata for string quartet is “one of the most interesting documents in the history of Beethoven’s art… There is hardly a bar of the quartet-version that does not shed some light on the nature of the pianoforte, of quartet-writing and of the general structure of music… he takes one of his smallest sonatas and shows [...] that hardly a bar of pianoforte music can be turned into good quartet-writing without quantities of new material besides drastic transformation of the old.” Tovey singles out the opening of the Allegretto second movement as an example not only of what Beethoven adds, but also of what he "leaves out" in re-imagining the piano sound for strings:
“Beethoven shows his profoundest insight in not allowing the four stringed instruments to reproduce the thick pianoforte chords, though this would be possible with quite easy double stops.”
References and sources.
References.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Piano Sonata Hob. XVI/9
Sonata by Joseph Haydn
The Piano Sonata in F major, Hob. XVI/9, L.3, also called a divertimento, was written before 1766 (perhaps in 1758) by Joseph Haydn. The 1st and 3rd movements are used as the 1st and 5th movements respectively of the Piano Trio in F major, Hob. XV/39. The Minuet of the 2nd movement is also used as the Minuet of the 4th movement of Hob. XV/39.
Structure.
The work has three movements:
Notes.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Piano Sonata No. 9 (Prokofiev)
1948 piano sonata by Sergei Prokofiev
The Piano Sonata No. 9 in C major, Op. 103 by Sergei Prokofiev is his final completed piano sonata. It is dedicated to pianist Sviatoslav Richter.
Background.
Prokofiev completed the sonata on September 27, 1947 in the Moscow suburb of Nikolina Gora, although thematic sketches exist from the mid-1940s. Upon introducing the score to its dedicatee, the composer said that he did not think the music was intended to create an effect, and that it was "not the sort of work to raise the roof of the Grand Hall [of the Moscow Conservatory]." Prokofiev had anticipated premiering the work in early 1948, but was prevented from doing so by the Zhdanovschina and the resulting censure he endured. The sonata would not be debuted until April 21, 1951 at a concert in Moscow organized by the Union of Soviet Composers in commemoration of Prokofiev's birthday. The composer himself was too ill to attend, but listened to the performance over the phone.
Music.
The sonata is divided into four movements:
Each movement references the next in their respective codas, with the finale recalling the opening movement, thereby creating a cyclical structure.
Reception.
"This sonata is very different from the three preceding ones," Prokofiev's wife, Mira Mendelson, wrote in her diary. "It is calm and deep. When I told him that my first impression was of it being both Russian and Beethoven-like, he answered that he himself found both of these qualities present in it." Richter would later confess that he was initially disappointed by the sonata's simplicity, but that he eventually came to "love it very much." Writing seven years after Prokofiev's death, the French critic Claude Samuel praised the music as a "perfect achievement" and the "end of a quest for a 'new simplicity,'" although he also acknowledged that the "new tone" in this late work could be "attributed to the change in character of an ill and aging man, who has exchanged his youthful energy for a more contemplative attitude to life." Boris Berman echoed that sentiment, speculating that "Prokofiev’s [deteriorating] health may also have contributed to the relative lack of sheer motoric energy so typical of his music." Simon Morrison described the sonata as a "modest masterpiece."
References.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Piano Sonata No. 9 (Scriabin)
Piano sonata by Alexander Scriabin, c.1913
The Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68, commonly known as the "Black Mass" Sonata, is one of the late piano sonatas composed by Alexander Scriabin. The work was written around 1912–1913. Although its nickname was not invented by Scriabin (unlike the nickname "White Mass" given to his Seventh Sonata), he approved of it.
Structure and content.
The ninth sonata is a single movement. It typically lasts 8–10 minutes, and is marked as follows:
 Moderato quasi andante – Molto meno vivo – Allegro molto – Alla marcia – Allegro – Presto – Tempo primo
Like Scriabin's other late works, the piece is highly chromatic. The "Black Mass" Sonata is particularly dissonant because many of its themes are based around an interval of a minor ninth, one of the most unstable sounds. Its marking 'legendaire' exactly captures the sense of distant mysterious wailing which grows in force and menace. The opening theme is constantly transformed, from the early trill arpeggio's sounding unsettling and then completely shifting, eventually tumbling in rapid cascades into a grotesque march. Scriabin builds a continuous structure of mounting complexity and tension, and pursues the combination of themes with unusual tenacity, eventually reaching a climax as harsh as anything in his music. The piece ends with the original theme reinstated.
Like Scriabin's other sonatas, it is both technically and musically highly demanding for the pianist, sometimes extending to three staves as opposed to the standard two used in piano music.
Recordings.
One of Scriabin's better-known works, the ninth sonata has been recorded and performed extensively, notably by Vladimir Horowitz, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sviatoslav Richter, Andrej Hoteev, Garrick Ohlsson, Burkard Schliessmann and Pietro Scarpini.
Notes.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Piano Sonata No. 7 (Mozart)
Sonata by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 7 in C major, K. 309 (284b) (1777) is a piano sonata in three movements:
A typical performance takes about 16 minutes.
The work was composed during a journey to Mannheim and Paris in 1777-78. In a letter to his father dated October 24 1777, Mozart describes a concert where he played "a magnificent sonata in C major with a closing rondo, my own invention", suggesting that the sonata was completed by October 1777. The andante movement is a "portrait" of his pupil Rose Cannabich, the 13-year-old daughter of the Mannheim Kapellmeister Christian Cannabich. Upon reviewing a copy of the manuscript, Mozart's father Leopold wrote that it was "a strange composition. It has something in it of the 'rather artificial' Mannheim style, but so very little that your own good style is not spoilt".
References.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Mozart Sonata in C for piano K.309/284b

Piano Sonata, WoO 51 (Beethoven)
Beethoven piano sonata
The Piano Sonata, WoO 51, in C major (also called the Sonatina in C major), is an incomplete composition for piano by Ludwig van Beethoven, believed to have been composed before he left Bonn, that was discovered amongst Beethoven's papers following his death. The composition was not published until 1830 by F. P. Dunst in Frankfurt, with a dedication to Eleonore von Breuning, along with the piano trios WoO 38 and WoO 39.
Background.
Beethoven is believed to have begun composing the sonata some time around 1790–91 for Eleonore von Breuning on the basis of a letter to her from 1796 in which he announced that a sonata that he had promised to her some time previously would be sent to her. A recent evaluation opines that the sonata shares stylistic characteristics with the Piano Sonatas, WoO 47, Nos. 1–3.
While Alexander Thayer believed that the sonata was a complete three movement work by 1796, at the time of Beethoven's death the manuscript copy only contained the complete first movement and an incomplete second movement. For publication in 1830 Ferdinand Ries composed an additional eleven measures of music to complete the second movement.
Movements.
The composition as published is in two movements:
A typical performance takes around 6 to 7 minutes.
References.
Notes
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Sources

Piano Sonata No. 9
Piano Sonata No. 9 may refer to:
Topics referred to by the same term
<templatestyles src="Dmbox/styles.css" />
 This page lists associated with the title .

Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)
Longest Beethoven piano sonata, composed in 1818
The Piano Sonata No. 29 in B♭ major, Op. 106 (known as the "Große Sonate für das Hammerklavier", or more simply as the Hammerklavier) by Ludwig van Beethoven was composed in 1817 and published in 1818. The sonata is widely viewed as one of the most important works of the composer's third period and a pivotal work between his third and late period. It is also considered to be Beethoven's most technically challenging piano composition and one of the most demanding solo works in the classical piano repertoire. The first documented public performance was in 1836 by Franz Liszt in the Salle Érard in Paris to an enthusiastic review by Hector Berlioz.
Background.
Prior to the creation of the "Hammerklavier" sonata, the years between 1807 and 1812 were considered one of Beethoven's most productive period. During that time, he composed four symphonies (Nos. 5 through 8), three piano sonatas (opp. 78–81a), the Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor", the Mass in C major, and various chamber works. After this period, Beethoven's output reduced drastically, although scholars disagree on when exactly this period of decreased activity began, with the date ranging from 1812 to 1816.
The earliest sketches for the sonata likely date from December 1817, although the original manuscript is now lost. Amongst the sketches for the first movement is an idea for an abandoned cantata for Archduke Rudolph, using the text 'Vivat Rudolphus' and a melody resembling that of the 'Hammerklavier' sonata. The sonata was planned from the beginning to be a tribute to Archduke Rudolph. This intention was confirmed in a letter dated 3 March 1819, in which Beethoven wrote that the sonata had long been 'wholly intended in my heart' for the archduke. The process of its creation was considered the longest for any of his piano works, and it ushered in a period during which Beethoven composed several large-scale works including the Missa Solemnis, the Ninth Symphony, and the Diabelli Variations. Musicologist William Kinderman attributed this delay to his preoccupation with his nephew Karl van Beethoven, his health problems, and an increasing focus on each of his major new compositions, usually large-scale works.
The sonata was originally planned to be published in 1819 in Vienna and London with the support of Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven's former pupil and friend who had arranged for a London edition to be published simultaneously as the planned Viennese edition by Artaria. The Vienna edition was published in October 1819, while the London edition appeared in December of the same year, with a dedication to Antonie Brentano instead of Archduke Rudolph of the Vienna edition. The London edition of the sonata was published in two parts: the first part has the first three movements with the second and third movement in reversed order, and the second part is the fourth movement. The reason for this rearrangement was purely economical, as Charles Rosen believed Beethoven's sole concern for publishing the sonata in London was to obtain additional financial benefit.
The nickname "Hammerklavier", which is German for the pianoforte, originated with Beethoven's desire to use German terms to replace Italian terms in a "burst of patriotic enthusiasm". In a letter to Sigmund Anton Steiner on 23 January 1817, Beethoven wrote: "henceforth on all our works...instead of pianoforte Hammerklavier is used". Only the Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101, and the Sonata No. 29 is published as "für das Hammerklavier" ("for the piano"), and over time the nickname has become associated with the latter.
Structure.
The piece contains four movements, a structure used by Beethoven in his earlier piano sonatas. However, the order of the inner movements are reversed, with the "Scherzo" placed before the "Adagio sostenuto".
In addition to the thematic connections within the movements and the use of traditional Classical formal structures, Charles Rosen has described how much of the piece is organised around the motif of a descending third (major or minor). (Carl Reinecke had first remarked on this in 1897). This descending third is quite ubiquitous throughout the work but most clearly recognizable in the following sections: the opening fanfare of the Allegro; in the scherzo's imitation of the aforementioned fanfare, as well as in its trio theme; in bar two of the adagio; and in the fugue in both its introductory bass octave-patterns and in the main subject, as the seven-note runs which end up on notes descended by thirds.
The "Hammerklavier" also set a precedent for the length of solo compositions (performances typically take about 40 to 45 minutes). While orchestral works such as symphonies and concerti had often contained movements of 15 or even 20 minutes for many years, few single movements in solo literature had a span such as the "Hammerklavier"'s third movement.
Tempo.
The sonata is the only sonata for which Beethoven provided metronome marks, given that the metronome had been patented by Johann Maelzel in 1815, and Beethoven was among the first composers to use the device. The metronome mark was given at the beginning of a letter to Ferdinand Ries, dated 16 April 1819, that states the tempo of 138 BPM on the half note for the first movement. This is considered so fast that it is routinely dismissed by performers based on theories that it was caused by a mistake from the composer, a faulty metronome, or Beethoven's deafness. Suggestions for revisions have come from Felix Weingartner, Ignaz Moscheles and Paul Badura-Skoda.
I. Allegro.
The first movement in B♭-major, marked Allegro, opens with a series of "fortissimo" B♭-major chords, which form much of the basis of the first subject. After the first subject is spun out for a while, the opening set of "fortissimo" chords are stated again, this time followed by a similar rhythm on the unexpected chord of D major. This ushers in the more lyrical second subject in the submediant (that is, a minor third below the tonic), G major. A third and final musical subject follows, which exemplifies the fundamental opposition of B♭ and B♮ in this movement through its chromatic alterations of the third scale degree. The exposition ends with a largely stepwise figure in the treble clef in a high register, while the left hand moves in an octave-outlining accompaniment in eighth notes.
The development section opens with a statement of this final figure, except with alterations from the major subdominant to the minor, which fluidly modulates to a fugue in E♭ major. The fugato ends with a section featuring non-fugal imitation between registers, eventually resounding in repeated D-major chords. The final section of the development begins with a chromatic alteration of D♮ to D♯. The music progresses to the alien key of B major, in which the third and first subjects of the exposition are played. The retransition is brought about by a sequence of rising intervals that get progressively higher, until the first theme is stated again in the home key of B♭, signalling the beginning of the recapitulation.
There is debate whether A♯ or A should be played in measures 224-26, which is at the end of the development.
In keeping with Beethoven's exploration of the potentials of sonata form, the recapitulation avoids a full harmonic return to B♭ major until long after the return to the first theme. The coda repetitively cites motives from the opening statement over a shimmering pedal point and disappears into "pianississimo" until two "fortissimo" B♭ major chords conclude the movement.
II. Scherzo: Assai vivace.
The brief second movement includes a great variety of harmonic and thematic material. The scherzo's theme – which Rosen calls a humorous form of the first movement's first subject – is at once playful, lively, and pleasant. The scherzo, in B♭ major, maintains the standard ternary form by repeating the sections an octave higher in the treble clef.
The trio in B♭ minor, marked "semplice", is in binary form. It borrows the opening theme from the composer's Eroica symphony and places it in a minor key. Following this dark interlude, Beethoven inserts a more intense "presto" section in  meter, still in B♭ minor, which eventually segues back to the scherzo, marked "dolce". After a varied reprise of the scherzo's first section, a coda with a meter change to cut time follows. This coda plays with the semitonal relationship between B♭ and B♮, and briefly returns to the first theme before dying away.
III. Adagio sostenuto.
The slow movement is centred on F♯ minor, which is a third interval down from the B♭ major key of the first two movements. It is Beethoven's longest slow movements (e.g. Wilhelm Kempff played for approximately 16 minutes and Christoph Eschenbach 25 minutes). The movement has been called, among other things, a "mausoleum of collective sorrow", Paul Bekker called the movement "the apotheosis of pain, of that deep sorrow for which there is no remedy, and which finds expression not in passionate outpourings, but in the immeasurable stillness of utter woe". Wilhelm Kempff described it as "the most magnificent monologue Beethoven ever wrote".
Structurally, it follows traditional Classical-era sonata form, but the recapitulation of the main theme is varied to include extensive figurations in the right hand that anticipate some of the techniques of Romantic piano music. NPR's Ted Libbey writes, "An entire line of development in Romantic music—passing through Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, and even Liszt—springs from this music."
IV. Introduzione: Largo... Allegro – Fuga: Allegro risoluto.
The movement begins with a slow introduction that serves to transition from the third movement. The transition is achieved by modulating from D♭ major/B♭ minor to G♭ major/E♭ minor to B major/G♯ minor to A major, which modulates to B♭ major for the fugue. Dominated by falling thirds in the bass line, the music three times pauses on a pedal and engages in speculative contrapuntal experimentation, in a manner foreshadowing the quotations from the first three movements of the Ninth Symphony in the opening of the fourth movement of that work.
After a final modulation to B♭ major, the main substance of the movement appears: a three-voice fugue in  meter. The subject of the fugue can be divided itself into three parts: a tenth leap followed by a trill to the tonic; a 7-note scale figure repeated descending by a third; and a tail semiquaver passage marked by many chromatic passing tones, whose development becomes the main source for the movement's unique dissonance. Marked "con alcune licenze" ("with some licenses"), the fugue, one of Beethoven's greatest contrapuntal achievements, as well as making tremendous demands on the performer, moves through a number of contrasting sections and includes a number of "learned" contrapuntal devices, often, and significantly, wielded with a dramatic fury and dissonance inimical to their conservative and academic associations. Some examples: augmentation of the fugue theme and countersubject in a "sforzando" "marcato" at bars 96–117, the massive stretto of the tenth leap and trill which follows, a contemplative episode beginning at bar 152 featuring the subject in retrograde, leading to an exploration of the theme in inversion at bar 209.
Influence.
The work was perceived as almost unplayable but was nevertheless seen as the summit of piano literature since its very first publication. Completed in 1818, it is often considered to be Beethoven's most technically challenging piano composition and one of the most demanding solo works in the classical piano repertoire.
The Piano Sonata No. 1 in C, Op. 1 by Johannes Brahms opens with a fanfare similar to the fanfare heard at the start of the Hammerklavier sonata.
Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Sonata in B♭ major, Op. 106, is thought to have been influenced by the Hammerklavier sonata, although the shared Opus number is coincidental. Mendelssohn's sonata has a similar opening fanfare in B♭ major, with a secondary theme in G major. The sonata's second movement is also a scherzo in , and its third movement contains a transition into the fourth.
Orchestration.
The composer Felix Weingartner produced an orchestration of the sonata in 1930. In 1878, Friedrich Nietzsche had suggested such an orchestration:
In the lives of great artists, there are unfortunate contingencies which, for example, force the painter to sketch his most significant picture as only a fleeting thought, or which forced Beethoven to leave us only the unsatisfying piano reduction of a symphony in certain great piano sonatas (the great B-flat major). In such cases, the artist coming after should try to correct the great men's lives after the fact; for example, a master of all orchestral effects would do so by restoring to life the symphony that had suffered an apparent pianistic death.
However, Charles Rosen considered attempts to orchestrate the work "nonsensical".
References.
Citations.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Sources.
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>

Violin Sonata No. 9 (Beethoven)
Composition for violin and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven
The Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is an 1803 sonata for piano and violin notable for its technical difficulty, unusual length (around 40 minutes), and emotional scope. It is commonly known as the Kreutzer Sonata () after the violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer, to whom it was ultimately dedicated, but who thoroughly disliked the piece and refused to play it.
Composition.
In the composer's 1803 sketchbook, the work was titled "Sonata per il Pianoforte ed uno violino obligato in uno stile molto concertante come d’un concerto" ("Sonata for the piano and one obligatory violin in a highly "concertante" style like a concerto"). The final movement of the work was originally written for another, earlier, sonata for violin and piano by Beethoven, the Sonata No. 6, Op. 30, No. 1, in A major.
Beethoven gave no key designation to the work. Although the work is usually titled as being in A major, the Austrian composer and music theoretician Gerhard Präsent has published articles indicating that the main key is in fact A minor.
Premiere and dedication.
The sonata was originally dedicated to the violinist George Bridgetower (1778–1860) as "Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer [Bridgetower], gran pazzo e compositore mulattico" (Mulatto Sonata composed for the mulatto Brischdauer, great madman mulatto composer). Shortly after completion the work was premiered by Bridgetower and Beethoven on 24 May 1803 at the Augarten Theatre at a concert that started at the unusually early hour of 8:00 am. Bridgetower sight-read the sonata; he had never seen the work before, and there had been no time for any rehearsal.
After the premiere performance, Beethoven and Bridgetower fell out: while the two were drinking, Bridgetower apparently insulted the morals of a woman whom Beethoven cherished. Enraged, Beethoven removed the dedication of the piece, dedicating it instead to Rodolphe Kreutzer, who was considered the finest violinist of the day.
Structure.
The piece is in three movements, and takes approximately 43 minutes to perform:
Reception.
After its successful premiere in 1803, the work was published in 1805 as Beethoven's Op. 47, with its re-dedication to Rudolphe Kreutzer, which gave the composition its nickname. Kreutzer never performed the work, considering it "outrageously unintelligible". He did not particularly care for any of Beethoven's music, and they only ever met once, briefly.
Referring to Beethoven's composition, Leo Tolstoy's novella "The Kreutzer Sonata" was first published in 1889. That novella was adapted in various stage and film productions, contributing to Beethoven's composition becoming known to the general public.
Rita Dove's 2009 "Sonata Mulattica" reimagined the life of Bridgetower, the sonata's original dedicatee, in poetry, thus writing about the sonata that connected the composer and the violinist who first performed it.
References.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Piano Sonata Hob. XVI/50
The Piano Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI/50, L.60, was written c. 1794 by Joseph Haydn.
Structure.
The work has three movements.
History.
The sonata was written for and dedicated to Therese Jansen Bartolozzi c. 1794. Jansen Bartolozzi subsequently published the sonata in c. 1800 with the title: "A Grand Sonata for the Piano Forte Composed Expressly for and dedicated to Mrs. Bartolozzi by Haydn ... Op. 79 ... London. Printed for, and to be had of the Proprietor 82 Wells Street and of the Publishers J. and H. Caulfield 36 Picadilly."
References.
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Sources

Piano Sonata (Bernstein)
Composition by Leonard Bernstein
The Piano Sonata, originally entitled Sonata for the Piano, is the only piano sonata by American composer Leonard Bernstein. An early work by the composer, it was finished in 1938.
Background.
The Piano Sonata is a juvenilia work composed by Bernstein while he was still a student at Harvard University. The composition process is likely to have started as early as 1936, as Bernstein was able to play it in part at a reception for Dimitri Mitropoulos in January 1937. Mitropoulos is said to have been very impressed by the piece, as he told Bernstein: "You have everything to make you great