Page:Rolland - Beethoven, tr. Hull, 1927.pdf/197



Although the designation Sonata persists with Beethoven right along throughout all his periods, yet in this last sonata we have left the first ones completely out of sight. The name must be taken merely in its general sense of a piece of high aims; or even in its literal sense, the Italian word meaning simply to play. This Sonata, which was dedicated to the Archduke Rudolph, is practically a Prelude and Fugue, with an Air and Variations. The introduction contains two themes, a leonine, stormy one and a singing phrase. The Fugue opens like a veritable thunder-storm. There are short phrases in the major which answer to the second subject, a brief snatch of two celestial bars, and the agitated atmosphere again unfolds itself. This second subject, which is a mere phrase, is repeated in the last portion of the Fugue in the tonic major, which brings the Fugue into line with the Sonata form proper. The beauty of the Coda has not been surpassed by Brahms in his sublimest moments.

After the storm, a calm. Beethoven concludes his world contribution of Sonatas with an air of celestial happiness, varied in the most lovely manner possible. "A voice from above," someone has called it. The variations lap round it tenderly like the waves caressing the sands on a beautiful