Cello Sonata No. 3 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69 was written in 1808. It consists of three movements:

1. Allegro, ma non tanto
2. Scherzo, in A minor
3. Adagio cantabile – Allegro vivace

in (apparent) contrast to the normal sonata form fast–slow–fast.

The Sonata No. 3 dates from Beethoven's most productive compositional period. Composed in the same year were the Violin Concerto and the two piano trios of Op. 70; the same year also saw the completion and publication of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies.

The first movement opens with the cello alone; variations of its expansive main theme and a pair of contrasting secondary ideas give much cause to contrapuntal and melodic interplay between the two players. The scherzo which follows, in the tonic minor (i.e. A minor), prominently features off-beat accents; the trio in the major is heard twice as in many of Beethoven's later scherzos.

The briskly-paced finale is preceded by a short slow introduction which can be regarded as an 'abortive' slow movement; in this sense the form of the sonata resembles that of works as the Archduke Trio where the scherzo precedes a slow movement linked to the fast finale.

External links

• Cello Sonata No. 3: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• The Mutopia project has information about the composition Cello Sonata No. 3 (Beethoven) — Allegro, ma non tanto
• The Mutopia project has information about the composition Cello Sonata No. 3 (Beethoven) — Scherzo
• The Mutopia project has information about the composition Cello Sonata No. 3 (Beethoven) — Adagio cantabile — Finale