Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1, was written in 1795 and dedicated to Joseph Haydn. It was published simultaneously with his second and third piano sonatas in 1796. Sir Donald Francis Tovey wrote, "Sir Hubert Parry has aptly compared the opening of [this sonata] with that of the finale of Mozart's G minor symphony to show how much closer Beethoven's texture is. The slow movement ... well illustrates the rare cases in which Beethoven imitates Mozart to the detriment of his own proper richness of tone and thought, while the finale in its central episode brings a misapplied and somewhat diffuse structure in Mozart's style into a direct conflict with themes as Beethovenish in their terseness as in their sombre passion". Structure The sonata is laid out in four movements: I. Allegro The first movement, in cut common time, is in the tonic key of F minor and in conventional sonata form, as was typical at Beethoven's time. A tense, agitated feel is ubiquitous throughout the movement. The piece opens with an ascending arpeggiated figure (a so-called Mannheim Rocket, like that opening the fourth movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 40), culminating in a sixteenth-note triplet turn. This theme was used by Arnold Schoenberg for his initial example of sentence form. This subject is reiterated and increasingly shortened until reaching a climatic half cadence in measure 8. After a short intriguing fermata, the ascending-arpeggio motif is now introduced on the dominant minor key (C minor), played by the left hand. This is seamlessly continued by imitative sequences (mm. 9–14), effectively working as a transition preparing the secondary key (see sonata form). An ascending bass progression leading to a half-close in the key of A major is played three times (mm. 15–19) against syncopated descending thirds on the right hand, all of which unequivocally establishes A major (the relative major of F minor) as the secondary key. (Using the relative major as secondary key is the most conventional procedure for minor-key sonata expositions.) A new melodic subject based on a descending arpeggio is presented over a ceaseless dominant pedal in broken octaves (mm. 20–25). This subject clearly references the opening subject of the sonata, both being quarter-note arpeggios, whilst contrasting with it by inverting its contour (descending vs. ascending), articulation (legato vs. staccato) and harmony (outlining a dominant ninth chord as opposed to the