ssive
of all the sonatas, or nearly so; others regarding the last movement as
practically a failure. The peculiarities of the work which have given
rise to these differences of opinion are substantially the following:
It begins with a slow introduction, which is full of meditative and
dreamy harmonic changes of a very delicate and suggestive character.
Then enters the allegro, with a very strong subject, such as would
naturally be used for a fugue. The entire first movement is developed
out of this subject in a very strong and almost fugue-like manner. In
fact, fugal passages occur repeatedly in the course of this
development. The effect of the whole is very impassioned and
irresistible. It is a very similar vein to that of the allegro
movement of the "Sonate Pathetique," a work which Beethoven composed
about twenty-five years earlier.

Up to this point it will be seen that the work differs from the usual
sonata treatment in not possessing a lyric second subject. The element
of song-like repose is entirely wanting in this first movement; it is
suggested in the slow introduction, but in the allegro itself we have
nothing of it.

The second movement consists of an Arietta, which is in two
strains--one in C major, the other in A minor. These two strains are
treated with variations through a very long and highly developed
unfolding, the necessary relief of key being secured by the alternating
tonalities of C and A minor. In my opinion, what Beethoven sought to
do was to end this sonata in a more serious and poetic vein than
sonatas usually close in. The general character of the sonata form,
with a slow movement in the middle, necessarily amounts to an
anti-climax. The sonata finale is almost always either a
sonata-piece--in which case it is of a very impassioned character, such
as we find illustrated in the first sonata and in the "Moonlight
Sonata"; or a rondo--an easy-going movement, the principal subject
often returning, examples of which we find in the "Pastoral Sonata,"
the opus 2 in C major, opus 7 in E-flat, and a great variety of others.
While the regular finale admits of a serious and effective ending, it
precludes the peculiarly elevated and poetic sentiment of the adagio
movement. I think Beethoven undertook in the present instance to
develop the sonata to the necessary complexity for climax and at the
same time to end with the poetic and sentimental spirit. When these
variations are played in this