The First Movement of Beethoven's Sonata Op.31 No.1 Displays Rhetorical Effects Resulting from the Harmonic and Formal Departure from Sonata Form Convention
This sonata was composed around 1802, a point at which Beethoven experienced the crisis of encroaching deafness. From then on, the composer started to introduce innovative and bold ideas within classical framework in his musical composition to expand the expressiveness of his music. His novel approach was evident in his formal and harmonic arrangement in the first movement of Sonata Op.31 No.1. Distinctive harmonic departure from the classical sonata form convention fills the movement with drama. In classical sonata form convention, tonality is to be established in the first theme with no ambiguity so as to make contrast with the second theme, which is normally set in the dominant. In the first movement of Beethoven’s sonata Op.31 No.1, however, such clarity in tonality is to be questioned. As shown in Fig. A, after stated in the tonic –G major, the first theme is repeated in full with tonicisation in F major in the exposition (mm.10-21). The whole step down from G to F suggests a descending direction which would lead towards the “real” home key to the listeners. However, the immediate return of G major demolishes this expectation and confirms G as the home key, posing bold surprise in the very beginning of the music. The listeners are deceived in a sense that their expectation is not fulfilled. The tonicisation also creates tension which needs to be resolved by returning to G major. The tonal ambiguity created by the tonicisation is innovative with respect to classical sonata form convention. Fig. A The second theme in the exposition is supposed to be in dominant in classical sonata style. In this piece, nevertheless, the composer placed the second theme in a more remote key area- the mediant (B-flat major). As shown in Fig. B, the arpeggiando passage in the transition (mm.38-45) seems to establish the dominant- D major, preparing the use of the dominant in the second theme. However, the listeners are once again tricked as the restatement of the