The Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major

C major

C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....

, Op. 53, also known as the Waldstein, is considered to be one of Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

's greatest piano sonatas

Piano sonata

A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement , two movements , five or even more movements...

, as well as one of the three particularly notable sonatas of his middle period (the other two being the Appassionata

Piano Sonata No. 23 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 is a piano sonata. It is considered one of the three great piano sonatas of his middle period . It was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick...

 sonata, Op. 57, and Les Adieux

Piano Sonata No. 26 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major, Op. 81a, known as the Les Adieux sonata, was written during the years 1809 and 1810.The title Les Adieux implies a programmatic nature...

, Op. 81a). The sonata was completed in the summer of 1804. The work has a scope that surpasses Beethoven's previous piano sonatas, and is notably one of his most technically challenging compositions. It is a key work early in his 'Heroic' decade (1803-1812) and set the stage for piano compositions in the grand manner both in Beethoven's later work and all future composers.

The Waldstein receives its name from Beethoven's dedication to Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein

Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein

Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein was a German nobleman and patron of the arts. A member of the Waldstein family and an early patron of Beethoven, his political and military roles included Geheimrat in Bonn, lieutenant-general in the British army, and Komtur in the Teutonic...

 of Vienna, a patron as well as a close personal friend of Beethoven's. Like the Archduke Trio (one of many pieces dedicated to Archduke Rudolph), this one bears Waldstein's name though there are other works dedicated to him. This sonata is also known as 'L'Aurora' (The Dawn) in Italian, for the sonority of the opening chords of the third movement, which conjures an image of daybreak.

Movements

The Waldstein has three movements

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

:

1. Allegro con brio
2. Introduzione: Adagio molto - attacca
3. Rondo
   Rondo
   Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
   
   . Allegretto moderato - Prestissimo

The two outer movements of the sonata are most substantial, each taking about 11 minutes to perform.

First Movement: Allegro con brio

The sonata opens with repeated chords, played pianissimo

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...

. This initial straightforward, but anxious rhythm is devoid of melody for two bars. It then swiftly ascends and follows with a three-note descent in the middle register and a four-note descent in the upper. More of this teasing rhythm rumbles forward, until 45 seconds later, when the notes seem to almost stumble over themselves.

The second subject group, marked dolce

Dolce

Dolce means "sweet" in Italian and may refer to:- Places:*Dolcè, an Italian municipality located in the Province of Verona*Dolce , a village in the Czech Republic- People :*Christine Dolce...

, is a sweet chordal theme in E major

E major

E major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....

. Though not unprecedented (the first movement of the Op. 31 No. 1 sonata

Piano Sonata No. 16 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 16 in G major, Op. 31 No. 1, was composed between 1801 and 1802. Although it was numbered as the first piece in the trio of piano sonatas which were published as Opus 31 in 1803, Beethoven actually finished it after the Op. 31 No...

 also has a second group in the mediant

Mediant

In music, the mediant is the third scale degree of the diatonic scale, being the note halfway between the tonic and the dominant. Similarly, the submediant is halfway between the tonic and subdominant...

), this was the first major work in which Beethoven had chosen to modulate elsewhere than the customary fifth up for the second group, an idea to which he would return later (in the Hammerklavier Sonata

Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 is a piano sonata widely considered to be one of the most important works of the composer's third period and among one of the great piano sonatas...

, for example).

For the recapitulation, Beethoven transposes the second subject into A major

A major

A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...

, which quickly changes into A minor

A minor

A minor is a minor scale based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The harmonic minor scale raises the G to G...

 and then back to C major

C major

C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....

 again. The movement ends in a heavy coda.

Second Movement: Introduzione. Adagio molto - attacca

The Introduzione is a short Adagio set in jutting 6/8 time which serves as an introduction to the third movement. At once halting, angular, and tranquil, the music gradually gets more agitated before calming down to segue into the Rondo

Rondo

Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...

. This Introduzione replaced an earlier, longer middle movement, which was later published separately as the Andante Favori

Andante Favori

The Andante favori is a work for piano solo by Ludwig van Beethoven. In catalogues of Beethoven's works, it is designated as WoO 57.-Composition and reception:...

, WoO

WoO

WoO is an acronym/abbreviation, derived from the German musical catalog phrase . WoO is a catalogue prepared in 1955 by Hans Halm and Georg Kinsky, listing all of the compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven that were not originally published with an opus number, or survived only as fragments.The...

 57.

Third Movement: Rondo. Allegretto moderato - Prestissimo

The Rondo begins with a sweet and consoling tune played pianissimo, which soon comes back fortissimo

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...

, over daringly fast scales

Musical scale

In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...

 in the left hand and a continuous trill on the dominant

Dominant (music)

In music, the dominant is the fifth scale degree of the diatonic scale, called "dominant" because it is next in importance to the tonic,and a dominant chord is any chord built upon that pitch, using the notes of the same diatonic scale...

 in the right. Beethoven then introduces the second theme—a series of broken chords in triplets—but soon interrupts it with a turbulent section in A minor that foreshadows the central episode.

Soon the music returns to C major, and the sweet theme is repeated before being followed by a series of staccato octaves in C minor

C minor

C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The harmonic minor raises the B to B. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with naturals and accidentals as necessary.Its key signature consists of three flats...

 that mark the start of the central episode, one of the few cases where such melodic change is seen, a theme repeated in larger works like the Emperor Piano Concerto

Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)

The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was his last piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil...

. Soon the octaves are accompanied by swirling triplets in first the left and then right hands; the music grows more tense and eventually cadences in C minor. The next section brings back the opening theme in chord form and further develops it - it is first heard in A-flat major (bars 221 - 224), then in F minor (bars 225 - 228), and then in D-flat major (bars 229 - 232), at which point the theme is fragmented into shorter phrases (233 pickup - 238) and then transitions into a more quiet and almost mysterious section, which returns after much drama to the C major theme, which is then played in a triumphant fortissimo

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...

.

The second theme reappears, followed by another long line of beautiful dance-like music, which is perfectly characteristic of Beethoven. Another series of fortissimo chords is struck, ushering in a short, delicate pianissimo section, and the movement seems to die away, but then unexpectedly segues into the Prestissimo coda

Coda (music)

Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...

, a wondrous section that plays with the various themes of the movement and more before ending in a triumphant rush of grandeur.

In popular culture

The piece is briefly referenced in the episode "The Pez Dispenser

The Pez Dispenser

"The Pez Dispenser" is the thirty-first episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. The episode was the fourteenth episode of the show's third season. It aired on January 15, 1992.The episode was written by Larry David and was directed by Tom Cherones.-Plot:...

" of the popular sitcom Seinfeld

Seinfeld

Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

, in which George

George Costanza

George Louis Costanza is a character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a "short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man" , "Lord of the Idiots" , and as "the greatest sitcom character of all time"...

 is wild over his new romance with a pianist, Noel, who ultimately ends the relationship over Elaine

Elaine Benes

Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld; she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer...

's laughing, all stemmed from Jerry's seemingly-innocent placement of a Pez Dispenser on Elaine's leg during one of Noel's solo recitals.

This piece is also played by Jane Fairfax in BBC's "Emma

Emma

Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively 'comedy of manners' among...

", Episode 2.

Helena Bonham Carter plays excerpts from the 2nd and 3rd movements of this piece in James Ivory

James Ivory

James Ivory may refer to:*James Ivory *James Ivory...

's film adaptation of E.M. Forster's "A Room with a View

A Room with a View (film)

A Room with a View is a 1985 British drama film directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. The film is a close adaptation of E. M...

".

The third-season House

House (TV series)

House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...

 episode "Half-Wit" opens with Dave Matthews' character Patrick performing the first movement and later has him mimicking playing the third as he gets a CAT scan.

It is used in the soundtrack for SimCopter

SimCopter

SimCopter is a 1996 computer game from Maxis. This game is a 3D offshoot from Maxis's normal fare, putting the player into a 3D city. Like Streets of SimCity, SimCopter lets the user import SimCity 2000 maps into the game.- Objective :...

.

External links

• Analysis of the first movement at teoria.com
• A performance of the work by pianist Michael Hawley
• Lecture with clips of performance by Andras Schiff
  András Schiff
  András Schiff is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist, who has won a number of awards including the Grammy and made numerous recordings.- Biography :...
  
  and why he thinks it is "one of the greatest pieces of music there is".
• For a public domain recording of this sonata visit Musopen