ABSTRACT
Beethoven's Sixth Symphony (1808) is the last great model of the characteristic pastoral genre from the Classical era. In the emerging Romantic era, however, a new pastoral mode begins to shape the main thematic lines and overall dramatic trajectory of works that at the same time embrace a wider range of topics. Beethoven's Piano Sonata in A major, Op. 101 (1816), may be understood as pastoral in this sense. Emphasis on subdominant harmony as well as modulation to the flat side is consistent with what might be considered a second fundamental principle of pastoral expression: mollified tension and intensity. A clear example of the troping of pastoral with hymn is found in the second theme of the first movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata in A minor, D784, with its four-voice texture and male choir registration combined with pastoral pedal, slow harmonic rhythm, subdominant emphasis, and simple texture.
