The famous Moonlight sonata, with so many false traditions and interpretations, is in focus in this article. This is a remarkable piece, with emotions so extreme and contrasting, that it stands out as an all time favorite for any audiences throughout history.
Beethoven’s famous Moonlight Sonata was born in 1801 as op. 27./2. Not a very marketable name, for sure. The Moonlight Sonata (“Mondscheinsonate” in German), this catchy name was given by the poet Ludwig Rellstab, much later in the 1830s. He likened the first movement to a boat floating on the lake Lucerne, in Switzerland. This name for many critics and aficionados is a nonsense. According to their opinion the first movement is nothing else, but a funeral music and as such there is nothing romantic about it!
What is certain, and by the will of the composer, is the subtitle he put on the score: Sonata quasi una fantasia. Meaning, sonata in the manner of fantasy. This header was meant for the companion piece as well, op.27/1. It certainly points to the dream like, free-flowing improvisation that is the main character of this piece. Two contrasting worlds: sonata with its structural order and fantasy with its freedom.
The two sonatas are having their own and different lives. One, the first of the two under op. 27 is almost unknown, the second, the Moonlight is one of the best known works of Beethoven. Not only in his time it overshadowed later works (to the irritation of the Master), but even today it continues to impress. In 2004 in Australia, for example people voted it to be the most loved piano music ever. Later, this magazine will do justice to the first composition as it is also to be considered a remarkable piece!
The Moonlight Sonata, like almost all Beethoven’s piano works, was unique and outstanding in its time. Most sonatas in that era consisted a lively, thematically strong first movement, a subdued second movement and a vivacious finale. By contrast this sonata has a dreamy first, a somewhat more lively second and a fury third movement. So much so, that legend has it, during the premier many strings snapped by the heavy hands of Beethoven…
Beethoven dedicated this work to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, a 16 years old student of his. Beethoven was in love with her, but their romance eventually did not come to fruition.
First movement – Adagio sostenuto, C-sharp minor, modified sonata form
The sonata starts in a very unusual way, although a sonata, it begins with a slow movement. The tempo is adagio sostenuto, but also alla breve (2/2, counting two in a beat). This Beethoven work has a lot of false traditions sticking to it, one is the tempo, which is most often played too slowly.
The composer put a sentence here as a guidance for how to play this unique movement: “Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e Senza Sordino”. It says very delicately, but without sordino (dumper raised). Today, there is argument if on a modern piano this can be done or not. If we take Beethoven seriously, we must follow his instructions and try to do it as he says. Many would say on toady’s piano, pedal should be pressed down to the third in order to find the sound and emotions the composer intended. This way, there is brief moment of blurring, as the previous harmony still sounding softly and the new one does not take over yet.
|Related: On what piano brands did Beethoven play?
Exposition
Bar 1-5: introduction of the first theme
Bar 5-9: first theme
Bar 10-15: bridge
Bar 15-23: second theme
Development
Bar 23-42: very short development section
Recapitulation
Bar 42-46: first theme
Bar 46-51: bridge
Bar 51-60: second theme, after bar four a considerably altered second theme
Bar 60: coda
The movement begins with this dreamy fantasy world, almost hypnotic with a strong base and triplets ostinato (repetition of the same motif).
The next part of the sonata is the real telling of the true nature of this movement. Edwin Fischer writes in his book about his discovery in Vienna in an archive, where he saw a note written by Beethoven and for this part there was a copy from Mozart’s Don Giovanni’s murder scene. This part is transposed to C-sharp minor and sounds like this.
If you look up Mozart’s scene, the similarities are more than convincing. This is a death scene!
The movement goes on with its restricted dynamics and ostinatos, waving like a sad sea.
The ending is so delicate, so fine and so sad, the listener almost forgets to breathe. Just as the movement ends with releasing its energy and turning into silence.
Berlioz wrote, the adagio movement is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify.
We could not agree more….
Second movement – Allegretto and trio, ternary form
The middle movement is in D-flat major. Beethoven makes a contrast here, after having the whole first movement in blur through the pedaling. Here, we have clear music.
Allegretto menuetto
Bar 1-9: first subject
Bar 9-17: repeated (varied)
Bar 18-26: second theme
Bar 26: first subject (extended, varied)
Trio
Bar 1-9: first subject
Bar 10-18: second theme
Bar 18: repeat of first theme
Third part
Allegretto da capo
The movement starts as a music with string instruments, the bass representing the cello. With Beethoven, often piano is a whole orchestra and we must learn to associate the instruments that a sound is representing.
A variation part is coming, finally with some legatos. András Schiff in one of his lectures says this part is like a lot of question marks, with a big question and a small answer at the end.
Now, after the fantasy in movement one and the playful staccatos in the beginning of movement two, we come back to the reality with strong accents. Beethoven writes forte piano to the tenor voices.
The end of the movement if familiar already. The ‘question marks’ are back, each question getting stronger, more loud and then again this tiny answer.
This middle movement was described by Franz Liszt as a little flower between two abysses, referring to the menacingly towering first and last movements.
Third movement – Presto agitato, C-harp minor, sonata form
The last movement is the longest and finally in real sonata form. Again, the pedaling will be very critical. Piano masters will tell us, Beethoven was the first great composer to fully utilize the pedals. Here, he switches back and forth, with and without pedals (con and senza sordino).
The movement even with today’s standards is extreme, ferocious. As Charles Rosen put it: the first movement is too delicate for modern instruments and the last movement was too grand for the contemporary’s. The contrast between the first and the last movement was unprecedented until then.
Exposition
Bar 1-14: first subject
Bar 15-21: bridge
Bar 21-63: second subject
Bar 63-64: repetition and development
Development
Bar 66-102: first and second subject appears
Recapitulation
Bar 103-116: first subject
Bar 117-158: second subject
Bar 158: coda
The movement starts with a menacing rhythm.
Then comes the two chords that are always with pedal in.
Now, together.
The music gets very furious, here we can hear the parts, where Beethoven presumably snapped some strings…
The music then comes to a more lyric part.
A new theme comes around 2m30s, with full orchestra at the end.
A bit later a full pedal section prepares the recapitulation.
The end is almost like a piano concerto, stepping out from the boundaries of a regular piano sonata. Grand!
Finally the coda, which reminds the listener to the later coming Appasionata sonata.
