The Evolution of Sonata-Form Design in Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

This work is an analytic and stylistic survey of sonata-form movements in Ludwig van Beethoven s early piano sonatas. Schenkerian theory is adopted as the primary methodology to illuminate questions of design and tonal structure posed by Beethoven s sonata-form movements. The dissertation takes the middle-period sonatas as a core repertoire and traces how Beethoven s compositional traits as seen in the early-period works evolve toward the middle period. Detailed analyses of sonata-form movements in the Bonn and early Vienna period incorporate available sources (such as analyses by Schenker, Roger Kamien, Janet Schmalfeldt, and others) and serve as the basis for stylistic generalizations about Beethoven s handling of sonata-form design and other compositional devices. This work shows that the structural designs and compositional devices in the early-period works evolve or innovate toward the middle-period models.

Autorentext

Moo Kyoung Song received his B.M. in composition from Yonsei University and his M.M. and Ph.D. in theory from The University of Texas at Austin. He has served on the music faculty of the College of Music at Yonsei University since 2005. He has been also active as an academic committee member of the Musicological Society of Korea.