Sonata in G: Allegro, ma non troppo (Op. 49 No. 2, 1st movement)

Background

Beethoven's piano sonatas are numbered 1 to 32 in the order of their opus numbers, which mostly follow publication rather than composition. The Sonata in G major, Op. 49 No. 2, shows how misleading that can be. It is No. 20, after the famous "Pathétique" (Op. 13), yet it was written first, usually dated to 1795–96, around the time Beethoven published his first three sonatas, Op. 2, dedicated to his former teacher Haydn. It simply waited until 1805 to be printed.

The sonata has just two movements: this Allegro, ma non troppo ("fast, but not too much") and a graceful Tempo di Menuetto. The Allegro is a complete sonata form on a small scale, the plan Beethoven used for most of his first movements. An exposition presents a first theme in G major and a second theme in D major; a short development takes ideas through minor keys; and a recapitulation brings both themes back in G major. Because every part is short and clear, it is one of the best pieces for learning how sonata form works from the inside.

How to practise it

The movement is in G major and in 2/2 time ("cut time"): two half-note beats per bar, though you will think in quarter notes while learning. It has 122 bars: the exposition (bars 1 to 52), the development (bars 53 to 66) and the recapitulation (from bar 67).

It begins with a G major chord, then a run of triplets, three eighth notes to each quarter-note beat, climbing up the chord and turning back:

Practise the triplets with the words "trip-o-let" to keep the three notes even, and make sure they do not turn into sixteenths. The next two bars use plain quarter notes and a dotted rhythm instead:

Switching cleanly between triplets, quarter notes and dotted rhythms is the real skill of this movement, so practise bars 1 to 4 until each rhythm sounds distinct.

Further on, look out for:

• bars 15 to 19, where both hands play triplets at once, the left hand in broken chords;
• the second theme from bar 21, a smooth tune in quarter notes over left-hand broken chords in eighths;
• the triplet scales near the end of the exposition, which race down more than an octave;
• the development, where accidentals pile up as the music passes through minor keys. Read it slowly, hands separately.

Set the metronome to the half-note beat: 40, 48, 56, then the full 63 (the app shows this as 126 quarter notes a minute). Play the left hand more softly than the right, keep the runs light, and remember ma non troppo: bright and clear, never hurried.