Genesis

There is an April entry in Beethoven's conversation book describing a "small new piece" that is, according to William Meredith, identical to the first movement of Op. 109. In fact, the outline of the movement makes the idea of a Bagatelle interrupted by fantasia-like interludes seem very plausible.^[2][3] Beethoven's secretary Franz Oliva then allegedly suggested the idea of using this "small piece" as the beginning of the sonata that Schlesinger wanted.^[4] Sieghard Brandenburg has put forward the theory that Beethoven had originally planned a two-movement sonata, omitting the first movement. Apparently some of the motivic characteristics that link the first movement with the others were only introduced later.^[5] Alexander Wheelock Thayer, on the other hand, put forward the view that the beginning of a sonata in E minor by Beethoven was not developed further and had nothing to do with Op. 109.^[6]

For the third movement, Beethoven first sketched a set of about six variations, then a set of nine, and finally a continuity draft for a set of six.^[7] The differences in character between the individual variations seem to be smaller in the nine-variation version than in the final printed edition,^[8]: 226 but according to Kay Dreyfus this already indicates a "process of exploration and re-discovery of the theme".^[9]: 194

Publication

It has not been conclusively established whether Beethoven completed the sonata in the autumn of 1820 or only in 1821. In letters to his publisher in 1820, he was already speaking of "Fertigstellung" (completion); but it is unclear whether Beethoven meant completed concepts, drafts or a fair copy that could be dispatched.^[10] The first edition was published by Schlesinger in Berlin in November 1821. It contained many errors, since Beethoven had sent the difficult-to-read autograph score to the Berlin-based publisher Schlesinger instead of a fair copy and was prevented by illness from undertaking adequate proof-reading of the prints.^[3] The sonata is dedicated to Maximiliane Brentano, the musically gifted daughter of Franz and Antonie Brentano.

First performances

The date of the first performance is unknown. The first pianists to undertake bringing Beethoven's last sonatas, including Op. 109, to public attention were Franz Liszt, who regularly included them in his programs between 1830 and 1840,^{[citation needed]} and Hans von Bülow, who even included several of the late sonatas in one evening.^{[citation needed]} Arabella Goddard is credited as having been the first pianist to program all of Beethoven's late sonatas in a single concert series. The Musical World reported in 1857, "No pianist in Europe has hitherto been able to boast of having performed the five last sonatas of Beethoven in public, at five alternate soirées, with very brief intervals between; but Miss Goddard has accomplished this feat, and accomplished it to admiration." ^[11]

Beethoven's last sonatas

Opus 109 is one of Beethoven's last three,^[12] five^[9] or six^[13] sonatas that are counted among his late works. The different cut-off points arise from the fact that the sonatas from Opus 90 on are varied and contradictory in form and in their predominant musical tendencies. The pianistic means are reduced to leaner, chamber music-like voice leading, as in the first movement of Opus 110, or dissolved into recitative-like passages, as in the third movement of the same work. These procedures contrast with a heightened virtuosity, a broadening of the form and an increase in overall length, as for example in the Hammerklavier sonata, Op. 106.^[14] In Op. 109, reminiscences of the straightforward style of the early, Haydn-influenced sonatas contrast with harmony that is sometimes harsh, anticipating the music of the 20th century.^[15]: 169 This gives special importance to the principles of polyphonic variation, as in the second movement of Op. 109, and consequently the use of baroque forms, especially fugue and fugato.^[14] Very wide intervals between the outer voices, a process of breaking the music into ever shorter note values (as in the sixth variation in Op. 109), use of trills to resolve the music into layers of sound (the same variation in Op. 109 and again in Op. 111), arpeggios, ostinati and tremolos gain increased significance.^[12]: 138

General characteristics

This sonata seduces the listener with its intimate, less dramatic character and distinguishes itself by its special lyricism, "melodic and harmonic beauties" and ornaments and arabesques hinting at Chopin.^[15]: 192 In this sonata, as in many of Beethoven's late works, one interval is significant throughout. Here it is the interval of a third.^[12]: 140 It shares with other late Beethoven sonatas the shift of focus to the last movement, the dissolution into "pure sound" and the references to old baroque forms.^{[8]: 14–15} Some similarities to the opening of the Sonata in A, Op.101 have been noted.^[16]: 401

Key

Throughout the history of music there has been much philosophy and speculation about the character of the individual keys. In Beethoven, E major (frequently described as bright and radiant) and E minor (sad, lamenting) often appear together, as in Op. 14 No. 1, the second Razumovsky quartet and Op. 90. The combination has been said to mitigate both the light and the dark aspects of the music.^[16]: 401

Differences from the standard model

Opus 109 differs from the "standard model" in several ways. Although written in three movements, it feels more like "two balanced movements",^[15]: 163 since the first movement is linked to the scherzo-like Prestissimo by holding down the pedal. The internal form of the first movement is based less on elaboration than on the contrasting juxtaposition of fast and slow, loud and soft, and major and minor. Hence the second movement takes on even more of the function usually assigned to the first movement, which would be in sonata-allegro form.^[17] Then the third movement is – most unusually for a sonata – a theme and variations. Thus the theme in the third movement takes on the role of the slow movement, which is usually the second movement in the standard model. Although the sonata is formally in three movements, many leading musicians^[18] and recordings make it sound like two movements by going into the second movement without a pause and then clearly separating the third movement. However, musicologists Jürgen Uhde, Richard Rosenberg [de], Udo Zilkens [de] and Carl Dahlhaus divide the work into three movements in their detailed analyses.

First movement

The first movement reflects the strong interest that Beethoven developed during this period in structures in which contrasting sections are included parenthetically.^{[clarification needed]} The same tendency is manifest in the Missa Solemnis, composed at almost the same time, and in the piano sonatas following this one.^[15]: 163 A quiet, lyrical, rapid Vivace first theme is contrasted, after only eight bars, with a forte and Adagio second theme full of arpeggios. Even from a purely harmonic point of view, the contrast between the clear major in the first part and the extremely tense diminished seventh chords in the second could hardly be more obvious.^[19]

Bar 8 does not complete the cadence in the dominant (B major) that was conventional when progressing to the second subject in sonata-allegro form. Bars 9–15 continue to avoid the cadence, which only appears in bar 15. Charles Rosen and others analyse the first movement as being in sonata form, in which the two opening sections form the first and second subjects, and bars 66 to the end as a coda.^[20]

Richard Rosenberg confirms the three-part structure of sonata form, but cannot identify any thematic duality within the exposition. Rather, he sees a correspondence between the upper voices of the Vivace and the Adagio together with the bass of the Vivace on the one hand (E–D♯–C♯–B–A–G♯–B–E) and the middle voice in the left hand of the Adagio on the other (D♯–E–F♯–G♯–A–C♯–D♯–E).^{[16]: 402–403}

Jürgen Uhde^{[13]: 475–476} and Richard Rosenberg^[16]: 402 point out a similarity between the opening theme of the present sonata and that of the Vivace movement of the Sonata in G major, Op. 79.

Second movement

The stormy Prestissimo in E minor has been described as one of Beethoven's most tuneful Prestissimo movements.^[15]: 195

This movement is in Sonatina form, although the usual contrast between the first subject (E minor) and the second subject (B minor) is completely absent here because of the nature of the thematic material.^[21]

Third movement

This movement consists of a theme with six variations of differing character and piano technique.

The work as a whole

Already in the first two movements, many musicologists see motifs, scale passages, rhythmic models and characteristic idioms that reach their full potential only in the third movement. Jürgen Uhde does not consider the first two movements to be completely self-sufficient constructions in their own right. Rather, often in concealed ways, they already foreshadow the theme of the third movement as the goal of the whole sonata.^{[13]: 465, 471} Richard Rosenberg, in his "reductions", concentrates more on the commonalities among the bass and middle voices of the movements. Starting with the first eight bars of the first movement, he reduces the bass progressions of each movement to a fundamental model of a stepwise descent followed by an ascent in leaps.^{[16]: 404–407}

This approach recalls Heinrich Schenker's determination of an Ursatz through his technique of reductive analysis. Uhde and others often point out the danger of too much interpretative license indicating parallels between passages that are scarcely related.^[25]: 126