ABSTRACT
This chapter explores work's dogged individuality proceed from close examination of those most basic musical elements that Beethoven apparently renders so simply but whose hidden tensions permeate to the highest levels of form. It discusses a similar internal conflict in the motion of its phrase rhythm, and reveals itself as much in perception of the movement's basic temporality. The opening tonic chord is the foundation on which a Classical piece stands; if it is not hammer strokes that secure this base, then at least some clear enunciation is pro forma. The sense that a tonic key or tonic prolongation pervades moments where no tonic is present is highly conceptual, a thing of the mind rather than of actual sound. The marking 'Assai sostenuto' is ambiguous at best as a tempo indication, at once suggesting a slower performance, a legato style of playing, and perhaps even a certain indefinable character or mood.
