The Creation of Beethoven's 35 Piano Sonatas

Barry Cooper is Professor of Music at the University of Manchester. He has a wide range of research interests from medieval to 19th-century music, notably on English Baroque music and the music of Beethoven and his contemporaries. A world authority on Beethoven, his books on the composer include Beethoven and the Creative Process (1990; 2nd edn, 1992), Beethoven’s Folksong Settings (1994), Beethoven (The Master Musicians, 2000; 2nd edn, 2008) and Beethoven: An Extraordinary Life (2013). He is also the General Editor and co-author of The Beethoven Compendium (1991; 2nd edn, 1996). His scholarly performing edition of Beethoven’s 35 Piano Sonatas (London: ABRSM, 2007) won the award 'Best Classical Publication' of the year from the Music Industries Association.

List of music examples

List of tables

Abbreviations

Preface and acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Approaching Beethoven’s piano sonatas

Chapter 2: The Bonn sonatas

Chapter 3: The Opus 2 sonatas and Haydn

Chapter 4: The sonatas of 1796–97

Chapter 5: The sonatas of 1798–1800

Chapter 6: New century, new approaches

Chapter 7: A ‘new path’?

Chapter 8: The middle period opens up

Chapter 9: A Clementi commission

Chapter 10: Moving into the late period

Chapter 11: The last three sonatas

Bibliography

Index