Moonlight Sonata

Moonlight Sonata

The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C♯ minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata (Mondscheinsonate in German), was completed in 1801.^[1] It was dedicated in 1802 to his pupil, the then 20-year-old^[2] Countess Julie Guicciardi,^[3] with whom Beethoven was, or had been, in love.^[4] It is one of Beethoven's most popular piano sonatas, as well as one of his most famous compositions for the piano.

The name "Moonlight" Sonata derives from an 1832 description of the first movement by music critic Ludwig Rellstab, who compared it to real moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne.^[1][5]

Beethoven included the phrase "Quasi una fantasia" (Italian: Almost a fantasy)^[6] in the title partly because the sonata does not follow the traditional movement arrangement of fast-slow-[fast]-fast. Instead, the Moonlight sonata possesses an end-weighted trajectory; with the rapid music held off until the third movement. To be sure, the deviation from traditional sonata form is intentional. In his analysis of the Moonlight sonata, German critic Paul Bekker states 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.”^[7]

Form

The sonata consists of three movements:

1. Adagio sostenuto
2. Allegretto
3. Presto agitato

Adagio sostenuto

The first movement, in C♯ minor, is written in an approximate truncated sonata form. The movement opens with an octave in the left hand and a triplet figuration in the right. A melody that Hector Berlioz called a "lamentation", mostly by the right hand, is played against an accompanying ostinato triplet rhythm, simultaneously played by the right hand. The movement is played pianissimo or "very quietly", and the loudest it gets is mezzo forte or "moderately loud".

The adagio sostenuto has made a powerful impression on many listeners; for instance, Berlioz said of it that it "is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify".^[8] The work was very popular in Beethoven's day, to the point of exasperating the composer himself, who remarked to Carl Czerny, "Surely I've written better things."^[9][10]

Allegretto

The second movement is basically a relatively conventional scherzo and trio, a moment of relative calm written in D-flat major, the enharmonic equivalent of C♯ major, the more easily-notated parallel major of C♯ minor. Franz Liszt described the second movement as "a flower between two chasms".^{[citation needed]} The slight majority of the movement is in piano, but a handful of sforzandos and forte-pianos helps to maintain the movement's cheerful disposition.

Presto agitato

The stormy final movement (C♯ minor), in sonata form, is the weightiest of the three, reflecting an experiment of Beethoven's (also carried out in the companion sonata, Opus 27, No. 1 and later on in Opus 101) placement of the most important movement of the sonata last. The writing has many fast arpeggios and strongly accented notes, and an effective performance demands lively and skillful playing.

Its combination of difficult chromaticism and prestissimo ascending arpeggios make it one of the most difficult and virtuosic compositions for the solo piano, demanding supreme technical skill to play accurately according to Beethoven's own metronome marking.

It is thought that the C-sharp minor sonata, particularly the third movement, was the inspiration for Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu,^[11] which manifests the key relationships of the sonata's three movements.

Of the final movement, Charles Rosen has written "it is the most unbridled in its representation of emotion. Even today, two hundred years later, its ferocity is astonishing."^[8]

Beethoven's heavy use of sforzando notes, together with just a few strategically located fortissimo passages, creates the sense of a very powerful sound in spite of the predominance of piano markings throughout. Within this turbulent sonata-allegro, there are two main themes, with a variety of variation techniques utilized.

Beethoven's pedal mark

See also: Piano history and musical performance, Mute (music), and Piano pedals#Beethoven and pedals

At the opening of the work, Beethoven included a written direction that the sustain pedal should be depressed for the entire duration of the first movement. The Italian reads: "Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordino". ("One must play this whole piece [meaning "movement"] very delicately and without dampers.") The modern piano has a much longer sustain time than the instruments of Beethoven's day, leaving for a rather blurry and dissonant tone.

One option for dealing with this problem is to perform the work on a restored or replicated piano of the kind Beethoven knew. Proponents of historically informed performance using such pianos have found it feasible to perform the work respecting Beethoven's original direction.

For performance on the modern piano, most performers today try to achieve an effect similar to what Beethoven asked for by using pedal changes only where necessary to avoid excessive dissonance. For instance, Casa Ricordi has a publication of the score that includes pedal marks throughout the first movement.

Half pedaling—a technique involving a partial depression of the damper pedal—is also often used to simulate the shorter sustain of the early nineteenth century pedal. Charles Rosen suggests both half-pedaling and releasing the pedal a fraction of a second late.^[8]

Banowetz offers a further suggestion: to pedal cleanly while allowing sympathetic vibration of the low bass strings to provide the desired "blur". This is accomplished before beginning the movement by silently depressing the piano's lowest bass notes and then holding these dampers up with the sostenuto pedal for the duration of the movement.^[12]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} (1988) Album notes for Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 14 and 23 by Jenő Jandó. Naxos Records (8550045).
2. ^ Usually Julie is reported as being born in 1784, making her two years younger than she actually was at the time. See Rita Steblin (2009): "'A dear, enchanting girl who loves me and whom I love': New Facts about Beethoven's Beloved Piano Pupil Julie Guicciardi." Bonner Beethoven-Studien 8, pp. 89–152.
3. ^ Matthews, Max Wde (2002). The encyclopedia of Music. p. 335. .
4. ^ Morris, Edmund (2005). Beethoven: The Universal Composer. HarperCollins. pp. 93–94. ISBN 978-0-06-075974-2. . Steblin (2009) reports how Beethoven obviously dedicated this Sonata to Julie as a "revenge" for a gift he had received from her mother. This is in line with Beethoven's habit of never (publicly) dedicating any composition to anyone as a sign of personal affection or devotion, but rather as part of a business transaction (i.e., sold for money). See Thayer (in Elliot Forbes (1967, ed.): Thayer’s Life of Beethoven. 2nd ed. Princeton: University Press, p. 71): “Beethoven’s dedications of important works throughout his life were, as a rule, made to persons from whom he had received, or from whom he had hopes of receiving, pecuniary benefits.” Julie Guicciardi was also first suspected to have been Beethoven's Immortal Beloved.
5. ^ Beethoven, Ludwig van (2004). Beethoven: The Man and the Artist, as Revealed in His Own Words. 1st World Publishing. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-59540-149-6. 
6. ^ Grove Music Online (the article "Quasi"): "sonata in the manner of a fantasy"; the rubric sonata quasi una fantasia is also used for the preceding piano sonata, Op. 27 no. 1.
7. ^ Maynard Solomon, Beethoven (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998), 139
8. ^ ^{a b c} Charles Rosen (2002). Beethoven's Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09070-3. 
9. ^ Life of Beethoven, Alexander Wheelock Thayer, ed. Elliot Forbes, Princeton 1967
10. ^ Fishko, Sara. "Why do we love the 'Moonlight' Sonata?". NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18577817. Retrieved 10 May 2011. 
11. ^ Felix Salzer, Aspects of Schenkerian Analysis, David Beach, ed. Yale University Press, 1983
12. ^ Banowetz, J. (1985). The Pianist’s Guide to Pedaling, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p. 168.

External links

• Detailed analysis and recordings review of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
• Moonlight sonata for piano & orchestra Arranged by Georgii Cherkin
• Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, "Moonlight" performed by Artur Schnabel.
• For a public domain recording of this sonata, visit Musopen
• A Lecture and performance of the work by Andras Schiff
• Recording of "Moonlight Sonata" No. 14 in C sharp minor, published by 1stpiano.com
• Performance of the Third Movement by Wilhelm Kempff.

Scores

• Piano Sonata No. 14: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
• Score of the "Moonlight" Sonata, typeset and placed in the public domain by Chris Sawer, is part of the Mutopia project. Available at.Music Listing - without preview images
  • 1st Movement: Adagio sostenuto, local copy: PDF Version (info)
  • 1st Movement: Adagio sostenuto, 2nd Movement: Allegretto and 3rd Movement: Presto agitato: PDF Version
• The Mutopia project has information about the composition Sonata No. 14
• Free sheet music of Moonlight Sonata from Cantorion.org
• The William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University School of Music has posted a scan of the score (Ricordi edition).