Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)
Although there is no direct reason as to why Beethoven decided to title both the Op. 27 works as Sonata quasi una fantasia, it may be important that the layout of the present work does not follow the traditional movement arrangement in the Classical period of fast-slow-[fast]-fast. Instead, the sonata has an end-weighted path, with the faster more technically complex music saved until the third movement. In his analysis, German critic Paul Bekker says that "The opening sonata-allegro movement gave the work a definite character from the beginning... which succeeding movements could supplement but not change. Beethoven rebelled against this determinative quality in the first movement. He wanted a prelude, an introduction, not a proposition.”