“Moonlight Sonata” by Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig Van Beethoven and his family were from Brabant in Belgium. He was baptized on December 17^th, 1770 at Bonn. One of seven children and the oldest of the sons that survived Ludwig was no stranger to music even as a child. His father Johann was a notable musician of the court of Bonn with a fondness for drinking his mother was a gentle soul whom he was closest with and considered her his best friend. His father was a driving force in his musical education teaching him day and night, he wanted his interested son Beethoven to become a prodigy like Mozart and other famous composers of the time. By age 7 in March 1778 he gave his first public performance at Cologne and before age 12 Beethoven had published his first works “9 variations in C minor, for the piano”. Many of his prestigious and notable teachers through the years said “if he continues like this he will indeed be without a doubt the new Mozart and thus the musical legend was born.

Ludwig Van Beethoven’s genius went to work when he wrote the piano sonata commonly known as “Moonlight Sonata” this is one of his most famous compositions for the piano. This sonata is very widely known and is popular today with those who study and follow classical music. Its actual name is Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor “Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia”, Opus 27, No. 2, and it was completed in 1801. He dedicated it to his pupil Giulietta Guicciardi in Vienna in 1802. The original name loosely translates from Italian as “sonata in the manner of a fantasy”. The name “Moonlight Sonata came five years after Beethoven’s death at the hand of German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab because he likened the first movement of the sonata to that of moonlight shinning upon “Lake Lucerne” and within the next ten years the name was widely being accepted and used in German and English publications and so now the piece is universally known by this name. It is speculated that the original title “Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia” was chosen by Beethoven because the piece did not follow the traditional movement arrangement of the classical period, Fast-Slow-Fast, instead has an end weighted feel with the rapid movement held off until the third movement. With the opening of this 3 part piece as slow, Beethoven broke from the mold as he chose to rebel from the normal traditional quality of the sonatas because he truly wanted a prelude, an introduction and not a proposition. Moonlight Sonata consists of an Adagio Sostenuto, then an Allegretto and lastly a Presto Agitato. Moonlight Sonata is the first movement this Adagio was to be played in a slow tempo (adagio) and sostenuto meaning in delicate manner without damper and sustained for most of the piece. You can definitely hear the sustained quality of the piece it gives it a very echoing and haunting feel. The piece opens with an octave in the left hand and triplet figuration in the right. A type of melody that Hector Berlioz called a “lamentation” is done mainly by the right hand which is played against an accompanying triplet rhythm that’s also simultaneously played by the right hand; the whole movement is played Piannissimo or “very quietly” and only ever gets moderately loud. Beethoven has made a strong impression with this piece on many throughout the years. Berlioz described as “is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify, one of his students called it “a nocturnal scene, in which a mournful ghostly voice calls from a distance” this was very popular in Beethoven’s time and to the point of exasperating the composer himself. This is one of my favorite piano sonatas, whenever I hear this piece I hear a sadness and mourning yet it has a very calming and steady feel. Perhaps it is the mourning of someone, the mourning of a lost or impossible love but one that has never given up hope, the piece speaks poetically in its lighter moments in the higher octaves and even though it has a haunting and ominous feel the lamenting melody speaks of never ending hope. Here’s a creative lady who put lyrics to this song.

Work Cited

Dominique Prevot. December, 2001. “Ludwig van Beethoven’s Biography” Ludwig van Beethoven’s Website. 6 March, 2012. http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyLudwig.html

Wikipedia.com 5 March, 2012. “Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)” 6 March, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No._14_(Beethoven)