The fourth of Beethoven’s four 1801 piano sonatas is No. 15 in D Major (Opus 28), called the “Pastoral.” Although the name was given to the sonata by a publisher rather than Beethoven himself, it’s a good fit for this sunny and mellow work, and no one complains.
Most of the pastoral effects in Beethoven’s Sonata No. 15 occur in the final 6/8 Rondo movement, which begins with what Charles Rosen calls a “drone bagpipe accompaniment” and “a set of yodels. This is very rustic.” (“Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas,” p. 162)
As Lewis Lockwood explains, Beethoven’s pastoral music “springs from figures and effects whose roots lie far back in the Baroque [such as] the celebrated pastoral interludes in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Handel’s Messiah. … Pastoral movements and compositions regularly exhibit such features as drone bass effects (sustained bass notes on the first and fifth scale steps) and motivic repetitions lasting over whole phrases, and arpeggiated thematic ideas, all of which Beethoven used a few years later in his Pastoral Symphony.” (“Beethoven,” pp. 135–6)
William Kinderman writes “one can find pedal points in the first and last movements and occasional bagpipe fifths, whereas the cadential theme in the first movement, internal episode of the slow movement, and scherzo are all rustic in character.” (“Beethoven,” p. 82)
#Beethoven250 Day 141
Piano Sonata No. 15 “Pastoral” in D Major (Opus 28), 1801
Mei-Ting Sun in a video posted five days ago, part of his COVID-19 Beethoven Cycle.
For me, the tune in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 15 that I can’t get out of my head is the second movement Andante. The staccato left hand says “March!” but the lyrical right hand says “Sing!” The movement is roughly in da capo aria ABA form except that the repeat of the A section is fully written out and includes a variation with extensive figuration. The clever coda reintroduces the B theme as well.
According to Carl Czerny, the Andante was one that Beethoven “himself was fond of playing.” Czerny tells us that it’s “like a simple narration — a ballad of former times.”