L. VAN BEETHOVEN – PIANO SONATA OP. 110 (I): FORMAL, RHETORICAL, AND SEMANTIC ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbmusica.2026.spiss2.11Keywords:
form, rhetoric, semantic, analyze, modernityAbstract
This article offers a combined formal, rhetorical, and semantic reading of the first movement (Moderato cantabile molto espressivo) of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 110 in A flat major (1821). Building on sonata-form analysis, it interprets historically grounded rhetorical categories and performance-practice perspectives drawn from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century treatises (Türk, C. P. E. Bach, Czerny, Hiller). In a brief, cautious semantic layer - situated within reception history and key-character discourse - the study notes the importance of the rhetorical and declamatory conventions for Beethoven’s style, arguing that a purely ‘note-based’ reading risks missing decisive cues for phrasing, articulation, timing, and affect.
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