Beethoven – Sonata No.17 in D Minor, “Tempest” – Harmonic Analysis
November 22, 2017
MVT I EXPOSITION
00:00 – Theme Group 1, Motif A (Rising Arpeggio)
00:14 – TG1, Motif B (Scalar Passage, with notes in groups of 2)
00:18 – TG1, Motif C (Turn)
00:24 – Counterstatement of TG 1, entering in a surprise E6, the dominant of III
00:37 – Motif B
00:48 – Transition (or an extension of TG 1): Motif A rising in bass, answered by Motif C in RH. Surprisingly substantial.
01:06 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1 (= Motif B!, with Motif C in the LH.) A minor.
01:18 – TG2, Theme 2 (= Motif C, with lengthened 2nd note)
01:26 – TG2, Theme 2, with Motif C now in the deep bass
01:31 – TG2, Theme 3 (Cadential Theme) DEVELOPMENT
03:51 – Motif A, repeated thrice, arriving in F#
04:37 – Transition Theme (Motif A + C), sequentially deployed, rising constantly
04:58 – 22(!) bars of dominant preparation, totally devoid of any thematic allusion. Short recitative (with a little Neapolitan Eb) leads into RECAPITULATION
05:19 – TG1, with 4 bars of recitative attached to each statement of the largo. This section hangs on a Ab, which is transformed
06:43 – into a G# (in enharmonic implied Gb minor!) in a darkly guttural 4 chords. This ushers in a extraordinary modulating section.
06:55 – TG2, in tonic.
07:36 – CODA MVT II EXPOSITION
07:59 – Theme 1. (Motif A = rising double-dotted 3-note figure)
11:42 Motif B enters, building into dominant minor 9th chord RECAPITULATION 12:08 – Theme 1, with Motif A immediately used as inner voice.
14:54 – Theme 2 CODA
15:42 – Motif B, again building into a dominant minor 9th
16:26 – Motif A, rounded-off, in LH then RH
16:45 – Recalling Theme 1
17:19 – A new, 2-bar long 3rd theme enters and is repeated in the middle voice, before the movement ends. MVT III EXPOSITION
18:06 – Theme Group 1, Theme 1. A single motif (Motif A) repeated 16 times in RH. Note codetta with chromatic descending line
18:29 – Transition. Theme 1 in bass, interspersed with arpeggiated figure
18:38 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1, entering with insistent hemiola and 6 bars of dominant harmony
18:55 – TG2, Theme 2
19:05 – TG2, Theme 3 (Cadential Theme) DEVELOPMENT
20:26 – Motif A in dim7 of iv, modulating into A min 20:37 – The bass uses Motif A to climb up a dim7 in D min, then shifts to D min harmony, then shifts into C min by flattening the A and introducing the inversion of Motif A in the RH. Then movement into the dim7 of Bb min
20:54 – Dramatic entrance of inverted A motif in RH, while LH climbs up bass chromatically.
21:06 – TG1 Theme 1, in Bb min
21:12 – Chromatic rising, landing on a dominant 7, suddenly revealed
21:19 – to be a augmented 6th when it resolves into the dominant of D min 21:23 – Dominant preparation begins, oscillating between G min and D min
21:41 – 16 bars of continuous descent to the home dominant RECAPITULATION
21:53 – TG1, Theme 1. The bII in bar 18 becomes the subdominant of Bb, introduction a surprisingly lyrical passage.
22:14 – Transition. Tonal movement around circle of 5ths. G min harmony becomes augmented 6th chord, leading back into
22:34 – D min, TG2. Note how at
23:00 (Theme 3) Beethoven omits the expected high G, since his piano didn’t have the note, and substitutes a really nice repetition of the high D instead. CODA
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