The romantic imagery in the sonatas for cello and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven

Abstract

In this article we develop the hypothesis that more than simply a composer in a historical period, Ludwig Van Beethoven adopted compositional strategies in music related to the birth of the literary novel, linking his work to very objective elements of what would come to be called Romanticism. Among these elements, we highlight the importance of instrumental writing, adopting structures particularly associated with the instruments for which he wrote, resembling his creative process in a way corresponding to the use of vernacular languages as a distinctive aspect that formed the Romance Languages. Such correspondence crosses through a modern ideology and constitutes a normalized aspect in the musical composition of the 19th century, however we seek to emphasize Beethoven's originality beyond the paradigm of the genius by tracing his relationship with a broader aesthetic context. We use Beethoven's five sonatas for cello and piano as study objects, as examples of distinctive phases of his work, proposing that since his Opus 5 the Baroque paradigm of generic writing had already been overcome, assuming new criteria for his period’s style. Thus, by linking musical analysis to a historical-aesthetic reading, our conclusions point to a redefinition of structural paradigms, which were once dependent solely on structural elements (harmony and thematic development).