Sonata in B minor, Hob XVI/32

Franz Joseph Haydn

Duration: 16 Minutes 30 seconds

Joseph Haydn was one of the most important figures in the development of the Classical
style in music during the 18th Century. He was born on 31st March 1732 in Austria and died on
31st May 1809 in Vienna. He established the forms and styles for the string quartet and
the symphony. He was affectionately nicknamed 'Papa Haydn' because of his extraordinary
warm, kind and generous qualities.

This Sonata was originally published in 1776 and it was part on an edition of six sonatas
Opus 14. This Sonata was the last of the published set. The Sonata is one of only four
instrumental works that Haydn composed in key and in the stylistic movement known as Sturm
und Drang (Storm and Stress). It is designed to elicit an intense emotional response in the
performer or listener, the music of this movement often used minor keys, wide interval leaps,
and syncopated rhythms. There are three movements in this sonata which are the Allegro
moderato, Minuet and Presto.
 The first movement is written in textbook sonata form. The opening Allegro makes
instantly clear that this piece in B minor, a mode that drives its serious intent from beginning
to end. There are many intervals and ornaments like the mordents, the turns and the trills are
played.

Intervals

Mordent Turns Trills

s

The second movement is Minuet and Trio. It is played in a bright B major in the Minuet.
The slow minuet has a graceful, nostalgic quality and is more a reminiscence of the dance.
Besides, it uses the ornaments like appoggiatura and trills to decorate the melody line as well.
It is beautiful in its simplicity, although interrupted by the angst Trio. This trio is played in
weighty and dramatic on the tonic minor. It contrasts the upper and lower ranges of the
keyboard, and major and minor modalities.

Appoggiatura and Trills

Trio
 The last movement which is the agitated Presto. It is a toccata-like movement that
virtually creates itself from its opening repeated-note motive, while fiercely dramatic pauses
add to an effect of distraction. It is thrilling, monothematic sonata form. It uses counterpoint
and canon. The insisting character of the repeated quavers that keep coming back throughout
the pieces is fate of knocking furiously on the door. It concludes that it has the same melodic
idea on the rhythmic pattern.

Repeated Quavers

In the last movement, it modulates to D major from the tonic minor in bars 28 32. It
creates a bright feeling when entering into the major key from the gloom and dark minor.

Lastly, the repeated-notes figures carry the movement swiftly and powerfully to its
conclusion. Its ending is like a bad-tempered affair, bristling towards its close with the rapid-
fire fortissimo octaves. The sonata ends in a B-minor fury, with a coda in octaves that hammer
Haydns intentions home.

(461 words)