Sonata for piano (C minor) op. 13 (Sonata patétique)

The Piano Sonata op. 13, composed between 1797 and 1799, has a special place among Beethoven's piano works. Many of his great sonatas are known by their nicknames: every music lover knows the 'Waldstein', 'Appassionata' and 'Moonlight' sonatas. Op. 13 also has a nickname: the 'Pathétique'. But unlike the others, which only received their nicknames in the 19th century, op. 13 has always been the 'Pathétique'. Beethoven himself gave it the title 'Grande Sonate pathétiqu'’. Only one other piano sonata has an original nickname: 'Les Adieux' (op. 81a).

But why exactly is op. 13 called 'pathétique'? For one thing the key of C minor had a very special character for his contemporaries (we cannot quite reconstruct it on our modern well-tempered instruments). Music theorists of the time described C minor as being 'sorrowful' (Rousseau) or 'sad' (Mattheson), but also 'angry' and 'raging' (Quantz) and imbued with all kinds of passionate emotions. This character is further strengthened by the tempo mark for the first movement ('Grave') and the dotted rhythms of the opening motif. Gustav Schilling, in Encyclopedie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften (1837), defined a composition as being pathetisch if it 'is in an elevated and therefore harmonically rich, strong style and without any sweetness and mere nicety' - criteria which Beethoven's 'Pathétique' fulfils in every respect. (J.R.)