The Violin Sonata No. 9, Op. 47 in

A major A major (or the key of A) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only k ...

, by

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

, is an 1803 sonata for piano and violin notable for its technical difficulty, unusual length (around 40 minutes), and emotional scope. It is commonly known as the ''Kreutzer Sonata'' () after the violinist

Rodolphe Kreutzer Rodolphe Kreutzer (15 November 1766 – 6 January 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including '' La mort d'Abel'' (1810). He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven's Violin S ...

, to whom it was ultimately dedicated, but who thoroughly disliked the piece and refused to play it.

Composition

In the composer's 1803 sketchbook, the work was titled "Sonata per il Pianoforte ed uno violino obligato in uno stile molto concertante come d’un concerto" ("

Sonata Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''canta ...

for the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and one obligatory

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

in a highly ''concertante'' style like a

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typ ...

"). The final movement of the work was originally written for another, earlier, sonata for violin and piano by Beethoven, the Sonata No. 6, Op. 30, No. 1, in A major. Beethoven gave no key designation to the work. Although the work is usually titled as being in

, the Austrian composer and music theoretician

Gerhard Präsent Gerhard Präsent (born 21 June 1957) is an Austrian composer, conductor and academic teacher. Professional career Born in Graz, Präsent studied from 1976 at the Musikhochschule Graz, composition with Iván Erőd and conducting with Milan Horva ...

has published articles indicating that the main key is in fact

A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes ...

Premiere and dedication

The sonata was originally dedicated to the violinist

George Bridgetower George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower (11 October 1778 – 29 February 1860) was a British musician, of African descent. He was a virtuoso violinist who lived in England for much of his life. His playing impressed Beethoven, who made Bridg ...

(1778–1860) as "Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer ridgetower gran pazzo e compositore mulattico" (Mulatto Sonata composed for the mulatto Brischdauer, great madman mulatto composer). Shortly after completion the work was premiered by Bridgetower and Beethoven on 24 May 1803 at the Augarten Theatre at a concert that started at the unusually early hour of 8:00 am. Bridgetower sight-read the sonata; he had never seen the work before, and there had been no time for any rehearsal. After the premiere performance, Beethoven and Bridgetower fell out: while the two were drinking, Bridgetower apparently insulted the morals of a woman whom Beethoven cherished. Enraged, Beethoven removed the dedication of the piece, dedicating it instead to

, who was considered the finest violinist of the day.

Structure

The piece is in three

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

, and takes approximately 43 minutes to perform:

Reception

After its successful premiere in 1803, the work was published in 1805 as Beethoven's Op. 47, with its re-dedication to Rudolphe Kreutzer, which gave the composition its nickname. Kreutzer never performed the work, considering it "outrageously unintelligible". He did not particularly care for any of Beethoven's music, and they only ever met once, briefly. Referring to Beethoven's composition,

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's novella '' The Kreutzer Sonata'' was first published in 1889. That novella was adapted in various stage and film productions, contributing to Beethoven's composition becoming known to the general public.

Rita Dove Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952) is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the positi ...

's 2009 ''

Sonata Mulattica ''Sonata Mulattica : A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play'' is a collection of poems by U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove, published in 2009, about the life of George Bridgetower. Bridgetower was a biracial (Afro-Caribbean, Polish, German) musici ...

'' reimagined the life of Bridgetower, the sonata's original dedicatee, in poetry, thus writing about the sonata that connected the composer and the violinist who first performed it.

''Sonata Mulattica: A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play''.
W.W. Norton, spring 2009.

Reference in Film

Within Bernard Rose's autobiographical film of Beethoven's life, ''

Immortal Beloved The Immortal Beloved (German "Unsterbliche Geliebte") is the addressee of a love letter which composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote on 6–7 July 1812 in Teplitz. The unsent letter is written in pencil on 10 small pages. It was found in the comp ...

'', Beethoven (as played by

Gary Oldman Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy F ...

) relates to

Anton Schindler Anton Felix Schindler (13 June 1795 in Medlov – 16 January 1864 in Bockenheim (Frankfurt am Main)) was an Austrian law clerk and associate, secretary, and early biographer of Ludwig van Beethoven. Life Schindler moved to Vienna in 1813 to s ...

(

Jeroen Krabbe Jeroen () is a Dutch male given name originating from the Greek Hieronymus, and is equivalent to the English name Jerome. In the Netherlands, there are around 52,000 people who are named Jeroen, while in Belgium there are around 11,000 people of ...

) the inspiration for the first movement Adagio-Presto, where Schindler is listening to the rehearsal prior to the premier performance by

and

Ignaz Schuppanzigh Ignaz Schuppanzigh (20 July Michael Lorenz"Four more months for Ignaz Schuppanzigh" 13 August 2012] 1776 – 2 March 1830) was an Austrian violinist, friend and teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven, and leader of Count Razumovsky's privat ...

. As recorded by Schindler in his biography of the composer, Beethoven then gave an explanation of what the music represented to him - and this then had bearing on the identity of the

immortal beloved The Immortal Beloved (German "Unsterbliche Geliebte") is the addressee of a love letter which composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote on 6–7 July 1812 in Teplitz. The unsent letter is written in pencil on 10 small pages. It was found in the comp ...

in turn. ''"...What was in my mind when I wrote this ? ... A man is travelling to meet his lover by coach, during a storm. The coach wheel is broken, unable to move, by the side of the road. She will only wait so long. This - is the sound of his agitation."''

References

External links

* * *
Story about the Dedication of Kreutzer Sonata

European Archive
Copyright free LP recording of the Kreutzer sonata Max Rostal (violin) and Franz Osborn (piano) at the European Archive (for non-American viewers only).
Performance of Violin Sonata No. 9
by

Corey Cerovsek Corey Cerovsek (born 24 April 1972) is a Canadian violinist, pianist, and mathematician. At age 12, he was the youngest student to receive a gold medal from the Royal Conservatory of Music. In 1992, Cerovsek was the recipient of the Virginia-Park ...

(violin) and Paavali Jumppanen (piano) from the

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was found ...

{{Authority control Violin Sonata 09 1803 compositions Music dedicated to ensembles or performers