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These excerpts are from the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata, Op. 13, "Pathetique." The opening chord is exceptionally heavy and dark, with notes closely packed in a low range, inviting the pianist to expend the combined weight of torso and arm. The psychological effect of the forte-piano attack is created by the contrasting lightness of the ensuing thinner-voiced chords, whose dotted rhythms are articulated from the wrist.

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