Page:Rolland - Beethoven, tr. Hull, 1927.pdf/175

 ments, full of fun and written broadly in Sonata form lines.

This Sonata is one of the greatest works of the first period, if not, indeed, the greatest of them all. The first movement is a wonderful evolution from the first four-note figure, the development full of all kinds of strong devices, the stormy episode in the middle based on the rhythm of the opening phrase of the Sonata and the marvellous slow movement full of passion and tenderness, from its opening five-bar phrase to its beautiful close with those amazing tonic pedal chords. The spirited Minuet, really a Scherzo with two bars taken as one, is admirably contrasted with the Hunting Song of the Trio. Did Beethoven ever use the horse which Count Brovne gave him? The fine Rondo is cast on the old lines but filled with such new feeling.

The structure of the slow movement is in song form with five sections:—

(a) Theme in D minor in two parts with cadences in C major and A minor.

(b) Modulatory section from F to D minor.

(c) Theme in D minor with cadences in B flat and in D.

(d) Development of the (a) and (b) sections.

(e) Concluding portion.