The Violin Sonata in A major,

Hess High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is a system of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) for the investigation of cosmic gamma rays in the photon energy range of 0.03 to 100 TeV. The acronym was chosen in honour of Victor ...

46, is a fragmentary and possibly unfinished work for

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

composed by

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

sometime between 1790 and 1792. Discovered by musicologist Willy Hess, it may be one of Beethoven's first attempts at composing a work for this combination of instruments. The surviving manuscript comprises three pages containing parts of two separate

movements Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...

, both of which are missing several pages including their openings. Violinist Eimar Heeney identifies the two fragmentary movements as being the slow movement and concluding

rondo The rondo or rondeau is a musical form that contains a principal theme (music), theme (sometimes called the "refrain") which alternates with one or more contrasting themes (generally called "episodes", but also referred to as "digressions" or "c ...

. Musicologist

Sieghard Brandenburg Sieghard Brandenburg (21 January 1938 – 18 December 2015) was a German musicologist, who stood out especially as a Beethoven researcher. Life Born in Bad Frankenhausen, Brandenburg studied music (main subject oboe), musicology and mathematics ...

also reconstructs the fragments in this way and adds that he believes the finale was never completed because the score ends abruptly with plenty of space remaining on the page. Both authors agree that the work was balanced in such a way that the violin has a purely accompanying role. Brandenburg characterized the fragments as demonstrating that at this point in his career Beethoven possessed a sound understanding of the techniques used in classical

violin sonata A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, often accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple Baroque music, baroque form wi ...

s, but may not have had the skill to use them effectively. Heeney agrees with the assessment regarding the balance between the violin and the piano in this work and adds that the violin part did not contain anything outside the skills of a typical amateur musician of the period. Scholar Richard Kramer commented that the style of the work was heavily influenced by

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's Violin Sonata in A major, K. 526.

References

Notes Sources * * *

External links

* , performed by Rachel Barton Pine {{Authority control 1790 compositions Violin sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven Compositions in A major