How many sonatas did beethoven compose

In , Beethoven moved to Vienna where he took lessons from Haydn and found aristocratic patrons. After overcoming a crisis in related to his gradual loss of hearing, Beethoven wrote music of great depth and scope that soon made him the most popular composer alive. He devoted himself entirely to composition and wrote at his own pace.

After , Beethoven became increasingly withdrawn from society. By his early thirties, Beethoven was renowned as a pianist and composer, had many generous patrons, and was sought after by publishers.

In the eighteenth century, tempo was decided by the conventions of courtly dance. As these dances disappeared from the repertory, many composers, including Beethoven, turned to the metronome invented around to specify tempo. Beethoven became a cultural hero, and his life story helped to define the Romantic view of the creative artist as social outsider.

Many of his compositions, especially those from his middle period, were immediately popular for their revolutionary elements and have remained so ever since. The pianists of the family were his sisters, Therese and Josephine herself.

The first is a conflict-ridden conversation, the second a peaceful and harmonious rondo. The earlier sonatas were often written either for him to perform himself, or for his pupils — and as time went by and his deafness grew more profound, he could no longer give performances or do as much teaching. His later works in the genre were written for important patrons such as the Archduke Rudolph, close friends such as the Brentano family, or commissions from publishers.

Yet other preoccupations intervened, too: these ranged from compositions in other forms, notably symphonies, string quartets and the revision of his earlier opera Leonore into Fidelio; the difficulties of life after the latest war against Napoleon, which sparked a collapse in the Austrian currency; and, in , a mysterious love affair. In four expansive movements, it has at its heart an extended adagio which seems to contain all the sorrows of the world.

The last three sonatas, Opp. They complement one another, sharing many elements. The adagio interrupts, now with its melodic line shattered into pieces — but the fugue returns too, upside-down, before the music breaks free into a triumphant apotheosis. It presents two movements of extreme contrasts.

He realised it was misplaced, and published it separately. It became an instant hit with the amateur pianists of Vienna. It was published under the title Andante grazioso , but was nicknamed Andante favori by Beethoven himself, who said: I wish I had never written the piece.

I cannot walk down a street without hearing it coming through some window or other. Ferdinand Ries recounts how, when Beethoven played the piece for the first time to him and a friend, they liked it so much they persuaded Beethoven to repeat it.

The Prince urged Ries to play it for him, and Ries did so, as best as he could from memory. He repeated it, remembering more of it each time. Then he helped Lichnowsky learn it too. The next day Lichnowsky called on Beethoven and told him he had composed a piece of his own which he thought was rather good.

Would Beethoven mind listening and giving his opinion? Beethoven said no. Despite this the Prince sat at the piano and played … the Andante favori. Beethoven was utterly furious, expelled Lichnowsky from his apartment and threatened to break with Ries totally. He loved playing it, and marvelled at the theme of the first movement rising from the depths. The entire work has such nobility and passion it is small wonder the publisher gave it the name by which it is known.

As with the Pastoral Symphony , the only Piano Sonata where Beethoven tells us what his music represents though not as literally as with the Symphony is Les Adieux. It has become known by its French name, since the publishers subtitled it in French, but the original rather more cumbersome German title was Das Lebewohl, Abwesenheit und Wiedersehn [The Farewell, Absence and Return].

Beethoven composed it in the most fraught year in recent Viennese history. On 9 May Austria yet again declared war on France. Napoleon Bonaparte, who had occupied Vienna three years before peacefully, this time decided to teach the recalcitrant Austrians a lesson once and for all. He led his Revolutionary Army into Austria and marched them north east to Vienna. Word travelled ahead. Anyone who could, fled from the city. Roads were choked with people, wagons piled high with furniture and belongings.

It was decided that the Imperial royal family, headed by the Emperor, should leave Vienna for their own safety. Beethoven told the Archduke he would compose a Piano Sonata to mark the occasion. This he duly did.

Above the three descending opening chords of the first movement he wrote on the manuscript page: Le-be-wohl. It is a beautiful piece of music, and as always with Beethoven when you know what lies behind its composition, you listen to it with entirely different ears. We come to the most monumental of all the Piano Sonatas, the Hammerklavier. This was the work that Beethoven composed at the height of the traumatic court case, when he was composing little else.

What spurred him to do it?