L. VAN BEETHOVEN – PIANO SONATA OP. 110 (I): FORMAL, RHETORICAL, AND SEMANTIC ANALYSIS Cover Image

L. VAN BEETHOVEN – PIANO SONATA OP. 110 (I): FORMAL, RHETORICAL, AND SEMANTIC ANALYSIS
L. VAN BEETHOVEN – PIANO SONATA OP. 110 (I): FORMAL, RHETORICAL, AND SEMANTIC ANALYSIS

Author(s): Adriana Paler, Petruța-Maria Coroiu
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Music
Published by: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai
Keywords: form; rhetoric; semantic; analyze; modernity;

Summary/Abstract: 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.

  • Issue Year: 71/2026
  • Issue No: Sp.Issue 2
  • Page Range: 139-155
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: English
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