hat work appeared shortly after
Beethoven's Op. 2.

Even Haydn, who is said to have introduced the Minuet into the
Symphony, remained faithful to the three-movement form of sonata.
Beethoven, however, wrote six sonatas consisting of two movements.
This change in the direction of simplicity is striking, for in his
quartets the composer became more and more complex. It seems as if he
were merely intent on exhibiting strong contrast of mood: agitation
and repose, or fierce passion followed by heavenly calm; we are
referring especially to the Sonata in E minor (Op. 90) and to the one
in C minor (Op. 111). The two sonatas of Op. 49--really sonatinas
written for educational purposes--may be dismissed; also Op. 54, in
the composition of which the head rather than the heart of the master
was engaged. Even Op. 78, in F sharp, in spite of the Countess of
Brunswick, to whom it was dedicated, does not seem the outcome of
strong emotion; and therefore we do not take it now into
consideration. The two sonatas (Op. 90 and 111) mentioned above are
strong tone-poems, and the master having apparently said all that he
had to say, stopped. The story, already related, about having no time
to complete Op. 111 must not be taken seriously. Nevertheless, we do
not for one moment imagine that Beethoven was thus reducing the number
of movements, in accordance with some preconceived scheme.

The D minor (Op. 31, No. 2) and the F minor (Op. 57) sonatas, not to
speak of others, form the apotheosis of the sonata in three movements
as established, though not invented, by Emanuel Bach. To say that
Beethoven was the perfecter of the sonata is true, but it is scarcely
the whole truth. The E minor appears a first great step in the process
of dissolution; the C minor, a second. They were great steps, because
they were those of a very great man. The experiments as to number of
movements of which we spoke in our introductory chapter were
interesting; and with regard to the number, and also the position of
the Minuet before or after the slow movement, those experiments
acquired additional interest, inasmuch as Beethoven seems for a time
to have been affected by them. The two works named are, however, of
the highest importance; in them, if we are not mistaken, are to be
found the first signs of the disappearance, as it were, of the sonata
of three movements, and, perhaps, of the sonata itself, into the
"imperceptible." After Op. 90 Beethoven wrote sonatas in