This thesis examines Beethoven’s Op. 28 Pastoral Sonata as a musical work that is dominated by the pastoral topic, and, through its use of this topic, refers to certain ideals of the Enlightenment. The first chapter presents an overview of the sonata and its relative neglect by modern musicologists, followed by a brief history of the pastoral topic in music and literature. The second chapter examines, and provides examples of, the pastoral signifiers that occur in the Op. 28 sonata: drone bass, compound meter, subdominant emphasis, simple harmonies, lyrical melodies and the weathered storm. The third chapter summarizes aspects of the Enlightenment that influenced Beethoven, and his use of the pastoral topic to communicate these ideals. The primary arguments put forward are: the Op. 28 Sonata demonstrates aspects of reconciliation between the urban and the rural as a metaphor for the reconciliation between man and God; Beethoven uses dance as symbol of both pastoral and of fraternity in the sonata; and the Enlightenment concept of interconnectedness between all things is reflected in the musical motives and structure of the composition. The thesis concludes by suggesting that the sonata’s message may have been obscured over time because of changes in Beethoven reception history, the gendering of his repertoire, and the shifting perception of what nature signifies as the Romantic Era developed. / Graduate

Master of Music / Music, Theatre, and Dance / Slawomir Dobrzanski / This Master’s report analyzes four piano compositions performed on April 9, 2015 at the author’s Master’s recital. The works under consideration are Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita in B flat major, BWV 825; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Sonata in D major, K.576; Fryderyk Chopin’s Four Mazurkas, Opus 17; and Aram Khachaturian’s Toccata. This analysis includes the discussion of the theoretical, stylistic, and historical background of each composition.

This thesis examines the history and origins of Beethoven's E minor Piano Sonata and examines the possibility of the programmatic conception of the work. Dedicated to Beethoven's friend Count Moritz Lichnowsky, the sonata may have been inspired by the Count's illicit affair with his future wife, the singer and actress Josefa Stummer. Providing a thorough Schenkerian analysis of both movements, the inner harmonic structure of the composition is revealed and explained. The author also investigates and details the unpublished original analyses of the composition by Heinrich Schenker, Erika Elias, and Hans Weisse. Both English and German language sources are incorporated into a comprehensive examination of Beethoven's Piano Sonata, op. 90.

The aspiration of this dissertation is to bring forth the significance of Shostakovich's Piano Sonata Op.12. This sonata is a hybrid of the German musical tradition, Russian Modernism, and Liszt's thematic transformation technique. It demonstrates Shostakovich's highly intellectual compositional skills influenced by the education that he received at St. Petersburg Conservatory as well as the exposure to modern music in the 1920s. This dissertation discusses composition techniques, such as the harmonic piers adapted from Alexander Scriabin, neighboring-tone technique, which involves the application of semitone cell throughout the piece, as well as the technique of thematic transformation borrowed from Liszt. These all come together by Shostakovich's design in the most controversial sonata form. The Piano Sonata Op.12 also sheds light on Shostakovich's early compositional style and proves its contribution to the evolution of sonata genre in the twentieth-century.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The work presented herewith is an orchestration of one of the most idiomatic piano pieces composed by Alexander Scriabin: the Sonata no.3 in F‐sharp minor, Op. 23. This particular orchestration involved a process of profound examination and comprehension of the form of the sonata, as well as understanding the role of each instrument of the symphony orchestra, and how they could contribute to an orchestral reconstruction of Scriabin’s work. The re‐creation of the piano part, and the whole experience that supported this challenge, resulted in the individual production in which my particular interpretation of Scriabin’s music reflects the maturity of an absorbed investigation of his style of composition.

The magister thesis is connected with bachelor's thesis, which was concentrated on Piano Sonata in E minor, op. 2 by Slovak composer Alexander Moyzes (1906-1984) and was concerned on it mainly with collected sources. In this thesis we decided to point out its composing work and possible inspiring sources and therefore the focus of this diploma thesis is its introduction into historical context of piano music of the 19th and 20th centuries. Through composite-technical and stylistic analyses of selected piano sonatas and other works, we want to contribute to the closer characterization of Moyzes composer's personality and to complement the literature that Moyzes Sonate has devoted to in minimal terms from composing work and inspiring sources. Selected pieces include: Brahms Sonata f mol, Op. 5 and Variation and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, op. 24 from the point of view of means of piano stylization, Sonata Eroica, op. 24 for piano by Vít zslav Novák because of their mutual interest in working with modality and mutual close relationships (Moyzes's teacher). In addition to these goals, we will also focus on the other piano works of Moyzes by creating a new chronological inventory based on preserved sources. Key words: Alexander Moyzes, Piano Sonata in E minor op. 2, Johannes Brahms, Vít zslav Novák,...

This thesis presents a brief history of the sonata form until the time of Beethoven. It also discusses Beethoven's use of the sonata form, and how it applies to his op. 111 piano sonata.

One of the famous Russian composers and a pianist himself, Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) composed a vast quantity of piano music. His nine piano sonatas represent well how he projected his musical individuality and the principles that he addressed in his autobiography: classical line, modern trend, toccata line, lyrical line, and grotesque line. However, even though Prokofiev's piano sonatas are considered one of the important collections in the piano repertoire, not all of them have gained popularity and only a few tend to be frequently performed by pianists today. For this reason, this dissertation focuses on one of his less-performed piano sonatas, No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29. The pianists György Sándor and Boris Berman were chosen as specialists in Prokofiev's piano works, and their performance editions and recordings are analyzed and compared as main references. This study provides analysis and a performance guide to this piano sonata. This guide discusses pedaling, fingering, phrasing, touch, voicing, tempo suggestion, articulation, hand distribution, and expression.

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The dissertation focuses on the early piano sonatas of Russian composer Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1880–1951). It approaches them in the context of genre history, confronts them with other composers' works, and discusses them from various analytic perspectives. A special goal is to consider the pieces in the aesthetic environment of their time, and to regard them as peculiar instances of the ›sonata principle‹, an ageless conception of musical form. The study is subdivided in three large parts, the first of which presents a summary of sonata composition before Medtner, exploring lines of tradition in Western Europe and Russia. The second part concentrates on Medtner’s musical language and its stylistic features. The third and most comprehensive part provides detailed examinations of eight of Medtner’s piano sonatas, including aspects of their genesis and reception, and making use of recent methods of musical analysis. / Die Dissertation widmet sich den frühen Klaviersonaten des russischen Komponisten Nikolaj Karlovič Metner (1880–1951), die im Kontext ihrer Gattungsgeschichte und im Vergleich mit Musik anderer Urheber betrachtet werden. Ein Hauptanliegen der multiperspektivischen Analysen ist es, den Werkkorpus in ästhetische Kontexte der Entstehungszeit einzubetten und die Einzelwerke als Spezialfälle des ›Sonatenprinzips‹, eines zeitlosen Formkonzepts, darzustellen. Die Studie gliedert sich in drei Sektionen, deren erste die Entwicklungen des Sonatenkomponierens vor Metner zusammenfasst und Traditionslinien in Westeuropa und Russland nachzeichnet. Der zweite Teil ist eine Darstellung der Tonsprache Metners und ihrer stilistischen Merkmale. Der dritte und umfangreichste Teil präsentiert Detailanalysen von acht Klaviersonaten Metners und untersucht die Notentexte mit Hilfe aktueller Analysemethoden.