The beginning of Beethoven's "veritable contrapunctual obsession" : the fugue in Beethoven's Cello sonata in D major, op. 102 no. 2

Abstract

The fugue movement in Beethoven’s D major sonata for cello and piano can be seen as the beginning of his fugal fixation, and it can also be viewed as the critical watershed between Beethoven’s middle and late period. This creative project outlines the historical background, offers some theoretical analysis, and also addresses certain interpretive challenges for the movement. The content focus is not only the setting of a double fugue with its typical succession of subject and answer, but also techniques of fugal composition such as changes of textures, stretto, and other aspects of this fusion of retrospective and modernist tendencies.