Talk:Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 (Beethoven)

Tierce de Picardie
This movement ends with an extended passage in major. That is not a "tierce de Picardie," which is a major final chord or tonic pedal. Kostaki mou (talk) 02:30, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

There exist 18th century cello sonatas with written out parts for both harpsichord and cello
I have strong doubts about the entire contents of the section starting with "In the early 19th century, sonatas for piano and instrument were usually advertised as piano sonatas with instrumental accompaniment".

100 years before Beethoven's sonatas, there were already sonatas for cello by e.g. Vivaldi, or viola da gamba, by Handel, that have completely written parts for both instruments and an even more interesting cello part than harpsichord part. Also all violin sonatas before Beethoven (by e.g. Mozart) look more like violin works with piano accompaniment than the other way around.

I have no access to the referenced source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maartenterh (talk • contribs) 17:18, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

Major difference between Beethoven's sonatas and earlier cello sonatas
Beethoven's sonatas are a pretty major departure from the earlier repertoire. The Vivaldi sonatas, and nearly all other cello sonatas from the eighteenth century were written as solos for the cello with a bass line that could be played by a variety of different instruments or combination of instruments. Keyboard instruments like harpsichord could play the bass line and fill in the harmonies, given in part in figures, and realize a complete accompaniment. Written out accompaniments for Vivaldi sonatas that are published now realizations by more recent editors. Only the bass line in these parts is by Vivaldi. This would be true of sonatas by Marcello, Geminiani, Boccherini, and many others. Beethoven wrote out entire keyboard parts and conceived of his "cello" sonatas as piano (or keyboard) sonatas with obbligato cello. I know of only three examples of sonatas before Beethoven for cello and keyboard where the keyboard part is fully written out and those pieces are very different in nature from Beethoven's. Much has been written on this, including the magnum opus on the sonata by William S. Newman. --HenryPurcell (talk) 00:58, 30 January 2019 (UTC)