Proficiency Quiz on Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

Do you think you know enough about Beethoven's piano sonatas? Take this quiz and find out!

Listening Portion
You will hear the opening note(s) of twelve of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. Identify each one, giving the opus number, key, and the year(s) during which the work was written. Also, for each work with a nickname, write a one page summary about how the work acquired its name. 5 points each.

Performance Portion
Choose three sonatas from the above and play them transposed up a minor third, singing the entire first clarinet part of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the same time. Make up the text as you go along. Extra points if you are able to balance a bucket of thallium ethoxide on your head throughout this entire section. 20 points.

Written Portion
For each of the questions below, write a clear and convincing three-page essay. Be sure to cite sources. 10 points each.

Question 1:
Choose a sonata from the above and determine who the work was dedicated to. Discuss why you think Beethoven dedicated his work to this person. NOTE: No credit given if the work you choose has no dedication.

Question 2:
Choose a different work than you chose for Question 1 and discuss how Beethoven's hearing loss affected his abilities at motivic development. Optionally, you may talk about how his abilities at motivic development contributed to his hearing loss. Give examples.

Extra Credit
Rewrite Beethoven's last three piano sonatas in the way he would have written them had he been married. 5 points.

Click on each image for partial <pause> answers to the listening portion.

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Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Junichi Steven Sato. The PDF version of this quiz may be publicly distributed without charge as long as no modifications are made to it.