The Cello Sonata Turns

Berlin in 1796, when Beethoven moved the cello out of the bass and let it sing

In 1796 Beethoven wrote two sonatas in Berlin for the Prussian court cellist Jean-Louis Duport. The cello moved from the floor of the continuo to a voice as articulate as the violin.

Time and place

Berlin and Vienna, 1796. Beethoven wrote the two sonatas of Opus 5 for Duport, with the cello stating the melody at the start. Earlier cello sonatas were mostly cello with continuo, a keyboard or another bass instrument filling the harmony while the cello stayed in its lower range.

What happened

Opus 5 puts both instruments on one level: the piano no longer merely accompanies, and the cello carries themes and counterpoint in high and low registers alike. In the Third and Fourth Sonatas Beethoven pushed the cello toward a more singing, more dramatic role, and the opening monologue of the Fourth is close to recitative. The change was gradual. Keyboard and cello sonatas existed by the mid-eighteenth century, but the cello was usually written as a bass. Beethoven took it out of the bass and let it sing in the middle and upper register, competing with the piano for the theme.

What changed

The cello's solo repertory separated from teaching and accompaniment and became concert music. Players needed new technique, thumb position, singing in the high register and breathing with the piano, all written into the score. Publishers issued sonatas for piano and cello, and the chamber market gained a new pairing. Brahms, Grieg and Rachmaninoff later worked along the same line.

Listen for the turn

Begin with the opening of the Third Sonata, the cello singing first and the piano answering. Then its slow movement, where the two exchange the same motive. Finally the first movement of Brahms's First Sonata, the cello's low register pressed by dense piano harmony. Opus 5 is not in the catalogue; these three works show the later half of the road.

This turn belongs to Classical; the instrument is the Cello, the form at Sonata, and its partner the Piano.

Listen in the library

Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major · 1. Allegro ma non tantoC111:32贝多芬第三号大提琴奏鸣曲开头，大提琴先唱，钢琴再答DetailsCello Sonata No. 3 in A major · 3. Adagio cantabile - Allegro vivaceC17:43同一首的慢乐章，两件乐器交换同一动机DetailsCello Sonata No. 4 in C major · 2. Adagio - Tempo d andante - Allegro vivaceC16:06第四号奏鸣曲的慢引子，大提琴独白近乎宣叙调DetailsCello Sonata No 1 in E minor · 1. Allegro non troppoC113:27勃拉姆斯第一号大提琴奏鸣曲，低音区与钢琴密集和声互相挤压Details

All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).

Sources

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Violoncello" — the Opus 5 sonatas and Duport checked, not quoted
Robin Stowell, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Cello (Cambridge University Press, 1999) — repertory development checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.

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