Beethoven and C minor

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In the compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven, C minor is commonly regarded as a special key: works by Beethoven in this key are felt to be powerful and emotionally stormy.

Here are some quotations from commentators to this effect: the key is said to represent for Beethoven a "stormy, heroic tonality" (Henry Wyatt, [link]); he uses it for "works of unusual intensity" (Eric Bromberger, [link]); and it is "reserved for his most dramatic music" [link].

Pianist and scholar Charles Rosen writes (2002):

"Beethoven in C minor has come to symbolize his artistic character. In every case, it reveals Beethoven as Hero. C minor does not show Beethoven at his most subtle, but it does give him to us in his most extrovert form, where he seems to be most impatient of any compromise".

A characteristic 19th century view is that of the musicologist George Grove, writing in 1898:

"The key of C minor occupies a peculiar position in Beethoven's compositions. The pieces for which he has employed it are, with very few exceptions, remarkable for their beauty and importance."

Grove's view could be said to reflect the view of many participants in the Romantic age of music, who valued Beethoven's music above all for its emotional force.

Of the works said to embody the Beethovenian "C minor mood", probably the canonical example is the Fifth Symphony.

List of works

Here is a list of works by Beethoven in C minor that are felt to be characterize of how Beethoven used this key; it is taken largely from Grove's book.

Piano trio, Op. 1 No. 3 (1793)
Piano sonata, Opus 10 no. 1 (1795-8)
Piano sonata, Opus 13, "Pathétique" (1798)
String trio, Opus 9 no. 1 (1798)
Piano concerto No. 3 (1800)
String quartet Opus 18, no. 4 (1800)
Sonata for violin and piano, Op. 30, No. 2 (1802)
Third Symphony, second "Funeral March" movement (1803)
"Coriolan" overture, Opus 62 (1807)
Fifth Symphony (1808)
String Quartet Opus 74, scherzo movement (1809)
Piano sonata, Op. 111 (the last piano sonata, 1822)

Other minor keys

The works by Beethoven in C minor hardly exhaust the set of emotionally stormy minor-key works by this composer; some useful comparisons would include the pianos sonatas Opus 2, no. 1 and Opus 57 (both in F minor), or the first movement of the Ninth Symphony (in D minor).

References

Grove, George (1898) Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies. Novello, Ewer and Company. Reprinted 1962 by Dover Publications, New York. The passage is found on p. 181 of the Dover edition.
Rosen, Charles (2002) Beethoven's Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 134.

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