Chapter 7

MINUETTO OF

BEETHOVEN’S FIRST

SONATA.[58]

[Footnote 58: Lack of space will prevent hereafter the citation
in actual notes of the examples from Beethoven. His works
are readily accessible, and it may even be assumed that every
music-lover owns the Pianoforte Sonatas.]

In this beautifully constructed twelve-measure sentence we have
the main motive of the entire movement set forth in measures
1 and 2; then a contrasting secondary motive in measures 3
and 4. The second four-measure phrase,i.e., measures 5, 6, 7
and 8, repeats the material exactly, but with a modulation into
the relative major. In measures 9 and 10 we find the secondary
motive appearing in the alto voice (which should be brought out
in performance), and in measures 11 and 12 a free ending in the
relative major. The closing measures, 13 and 14, give an echo-
like effect, which will be explained when we come to extended
sentences. Such a sentence is not to be considered as one of 14
measures, although the literal counting gives that number; for
the first complete cadence occurs in the 12th measure at the end
of the third four-measure phrase; the remaining measures being
supplementary.[59]

[Footnote 59: Another excellent example of a 12 measure sen-