Piano sonata written by Beethoven in 1801
Piano Sonata No. 14
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Beethoven_Piano_Sonata_14_-_title_page_1802.jpg/220px-Beethoven_Piano_Sonata_14_-_title_page_1802.jpg) Title page of the first edition of the score, published on 2 August 1802 in Vienna by Giovanni Cappi e Comp
[a]
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Other name
| Moonlight Sonata
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Key
| C
♯
minor
,
D
♭
major
(second movement)
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Opus
| 27/2
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Style
| Classical period
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Form
| Piano sonata
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Composed
| 1801
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Dedication
| Countess
Giulietta Guicciardi
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Published
| 1802
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Publisher
| Giovanni Cappi
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Duration
| 15 minutes
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Movements
| 3
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I. Adagio sostenuto (6:00)
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II. Allegretto (2:06)
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III. Presto agitato (6:56)
Played by Bernd Krueger on a
digital piano
, recorded
MIDI
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The
Piano Sonata No. 14
in
C-sharp minor
, marked
Quasi una fantasia
,
Op. 27
, No. 2, is a
piano sonata
by
Ludwig van Beethoven
, completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil Countess
Julie "Giulietta" Guicciardi
.
[b]
Although known throughout the world as the
Moonlight Sonata
(
German
:
Mondscheinsonate
), it was not Beethoven who named it so. The name grew popular later, likely long after Beethoven's death.
The piece is one of Beethoven's most famous compositions for the piano, and was quite popular even in his own day.
[1]
Beethoven wrote the
Moonlight Sonata
around the age of 30, after he had finished with some commissioned work; there is no evidence that he was commissioned to write this sonata.
[1]
Names
[
edit
]
The first edition of the score is headed
Sonata quasi una fantasia
("sonata almost a fantasy"), the same title as that of its companion piece,
Op. 27, No. 1
.
[2]
Grove Music Online
translates the Italian title as "
sonata
in the manner of a
fantasy
".
[3]
"The subtitle reminds listeners that the piece, although technically a sonata, is suggestive of a free-flowing, improvised
fantasia
."
[4]
Many sources say that the nickname
Moonlight Sonata
arose after the German music critic and poet
Ludwig Rellstab
likened the effect of the first movement to that of moonlight shining upon
Lake Lucerne
.
[5]
[6]
This comes from the musicologist
Wilhelm von Lenz
, who wrote in 1852: "Rellstab compares this work to a boat, visiting, by moonlight, the remote parts of
Lake Lucerne
in Switzerland. The soubriquet
Mondscheinsonate
, which twenty years ago made connoisseurs cry out in Germany, has no other origin."
[7]
[8]
Taken literally, "twenty years" would mean the nickname had to have started after Beethoven's death. In fact Rellstab made his comment about the sonata's first movement in a story called
Theodor
that he published in 1824: "The lake reposes in twilit moon-shimmer [
Mondenschimmer
], muffled waves strike the dark shore; gloomy wooded mountains rise and close off the holy place from the world; ghostly swans glide with whispering rustles on the tide, and an Aeolian harp sends down mysterious tones of lovelorn yearning from the ruins."
[7]
[9]
Rellstab made no mention of Lake Lucerne, which seems to have been Lenz's own addition. Rellstab met Beethoven in 1825,
[10]
making it theoretically possible for Beethoven to have known of the moonlight comparison, though the nickname may not have arisen until later.
By the late 1830s, the name "
Mondscheinsonate
" was being used in German publications
[11]
and "Moonlight Sonata" in English
[12]
publications. Later in the nineteenth century, the sonata was universally known by that name.
[13]
Many critics have objected to the subjective, romantic nature of the title "Moonlight", which has at times been called "a misleading approach to a movement with almost the character of a funeral march"
[14]
and "absurd".
[15]
Other critics have approved of the sobriquet, finding it evocative
[16]
or in line with their own interpretation of the work.
[17]
Gramophone
founder
Compton Mackenzie
found the title "harmless", remarking that "it is silly for austere critics to work themselves up into a state of almost hysterical rage with poor Rellstab", and adding, "what these austere critics fail to grasp is that unless the general public had responded to the suggestion of moonlight in this music Rellstab's remark would long ago have been forgotten."
[18]
Donald Francis Tovey
thought the title of
Moonlight
was appropriate for the first movement but not for the other two.
[19]
Carl Czerny
, Beethoven's pupil, described the first movement as "a ghost scene, where out of the far distance a plaintive ghostly voice sounds".
[20]
Franz Liszt
described the second movement as "a flower between two abysses".
[7]
Form
[
edit
]
Although no direct testimony exists as to the specific reasons why Beethoven decided to title both the Op. 27 works as
Sonata quasi una fantasia
, it may be significant that the layout of the present work does not follow the traditional movement arrangement
in the Classical period
of fast?slow?[fast]?fast. Indeed, this sonata is considered one of the earliest pieces of the
Romantic
era.
[8]
Instead, the sonata possesses an end-weighted trajectory, with the rapid music held off until the third movement. In his analysis, German critic
Paul Bekker
states: "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".
[21]
The sonata consists of three
movements
:
I. Adagio sostenuto
[
edit
]
The first movement,
[c]
in
C
♯
minor
and
alla breve
, is written in modified
sonata-allegro form
.
[22]
Donald Francis Tovey warned players of this movement to avoid "taking [it] on a quaver standard like a slow
12
8
".
[19]
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
",
[
citation needed
]
mostly by the left hand, is played against an accompanying
ostinato
triplet rhythm, simultaneously played by the right hand.
The movement is played
pianissimo
(pp)
or "very quietly", and the loudest it gets is
piano (p)
or "quietly".
The
adagio sostenuto
tempo has made a powerful impression on many listeners; for instance, Berlioz commented that it "is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify".
[23]
Beethoven's student
Carl Czerny
called it "a nocturnal scene, in which a mournful ghostly voice sounds from the distance".
[1]
The movement was very popular in Beethoven's day, to the point of exasperating the composer himself, who remarked to Czerny, "Surely I've written better things".
[24]
[25]
In his book
Beethoven's pianoforte sonatas
,
[26]
the renowned pianist
Edwin Fischer
suggests that this movement of this sonata is based on Mozart's "
Ah Soccorso! Son Tradito
" of his opera
Don Giovanni
, which comes just after the Commendatore’s murder. He claims to have found, in the archives of the
Wiener Musikverein
, a sketch in Beethoven's handwriting of a few lines of Mozart's music (which bears the same characteristic triplet figuration)
transposed
to C
♯
minor, the key of the sonata. "In any case, there is no romantic moon-light in this movement: it is rather a solemn
dirge
", writes Fischer.
II. Allegretto
[
edit
]
The second movement is a relatively conventional
minuet
in
triple time
, with the first section of the minuet not repeated. It is a seeming moment of relative calm written in
D
♭
major
, the more easily notated
enharmonic
equivalent of
C
♯
major
, the
parallel major
of the first movement's key, C
♯
minor. The slight majority of the movement is in
piano
(p)
, but a handful of
sforzandos
(sfz)
and
fortepianos
(
fp)
helps to maintain the movement's cheerful disposition. It is the shortest of the movements and has been called the "less popular" interlude between the first and third movements.
[27]
Franz Liszt
is said to have described the second movement as "a flower between two chasms".
[28]
III. Presto agitato
[
edit
]
The stormy final movement (C
♯
minor), in sonata form and
common time
, 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
), namely, placement of the most important movement of the sonata last. The writing has many fast
arpeggios
/broken chords, strongly accented notes, and fast
alberti bass
sequences that fall both into the right and left hands at various times. An effective performance of this movement demands lively, skillful playing and great stamina, and is significantly more demanding technically than the 1st and 2nd 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".
[23]
Beethoven's heavy use of
sforzando
(sfz)
notes, together with just a few strategically located
fortissimo
(ff)
passages, creates the sense of a very powerful sound in spite of the predominance of
piano
(p)
markings throughout.
Autograph score; the first page has evidently been lost
Beethoven's pedal mark
[
edit
]
At the opening of the first movement, Beethoven included the following direction in Italian: "Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordino" ("This whole piece ought to be played with the utmost delicacy and without damper[s]"
[29]
). The way this is accomplished (both on today's pianos and on those of Beethoven's day) is to depress the
sustain pedal
throughout the movement ? or at least to make use of the pedal throughout, but re-applying it as the harmony changes.
The modern piano has a much longer sustain time than the
instruments of Beethoven's time
, so that a steady application of the sustain pedal creates a dissonant sound. In contrast, performers who employ a historically based instrument (either a restored old piano or a modern instrument built on historical principles) are more able to follow Beethoven's direction literally.
For performance on the modern piano, several options have been put forth.
- One option is simply to change the sustain pedal periodically where necessary to avoid excessive dissonance. This is seen, for instance, in the editorially supplied pedal marks in the
Ricordi edition
of the sonata.
[30]
- Half pedaling
?a technique involving a partial depression of the pedal?is also often used to simulate the shorter sustain of the early nineteenth century pedal.
Charles Rosen
suggested either half-pedaling or releasing the pedal a fraction of a second late.
[23]
- Joseph Banowetz
suggests using the
sostenuto pedal
: the pianist should pedal cleanly while allowing sympathetic vibration of the low bass strings to provide the desired "blur". This is accomplished by silently depressing the piano's lowest bass notes before beginning the movement, then using the sostenuto pedal to hold these dampers up for the duration of the movement.
[31]
Influence
[
edit
]
The C
♯
minor sonata, particularly the third movement, is held to have been the inspiration for
Frederic Chopin
's
Fantaisie-Impromptu
, and the
Fantaisie-Impromptu
to have been in fact a tribute to Beethoven.
It manifests the key relationships of the sonata's three movements, chord structures, and even shares some passages.
Ernst Oster
writes: "With the aid of the
Fantaisie-Impromptu
we can at least recognize what particular features of the C
♯
minor Sonata struck fire in Chopin. We can actually regard Chopin as our teacher as he points to the coda and says, 'Look here, this is great. Take heed of this example!' ... The
Fantaisie-Impromptu
is perhaps the only instance where one genius discloses to us ? if only by means of a composition of his own ? what he actually hears in the work of another genius."
Carl Bohm
composed a piece for violin and piano called "Meditation", Op. 296, in which he adds a violin melody over the unaltered first movement of Beethoven's sonata.
[34]
Modern popular music pianists have included core motifs of the piece in their adaptations. Examples include
George Shearing
, in his 'Moonlight Becomes You,' on his
White Satin
album and
Alicia Keys
's 'Remixed & Unplugged' version of her
Songs in A Minor
album.
Depeche Mode
released a version of the piece, performed by
Alan Wilder
, as a B-side on their 1988 single
Little 15
.
In July 1975,
Dmitri Shostakovich
quoted the sonata's first movement in his
Viola Sonata, op. 147
, his last composition. The third movement, where the quotation takes fragmentary form, is actually called an "Adagio in memory of Beethoven".
Notes and references
[
edit
]
Notes
- ^
The title page is in Italian, and reads
SONATA quasi una FANTASIA per il Clavicembalo o Piano=forte composta e dedicata alla Damigella Contessa Giulietta Guicciardi da Luigi van Beethoven Opera 27 No. 2. In Vienna presso Gio. Cappi Sulla Piazza di St. Michele No. 5.
(In English, "Sonata, almost a
fantasia
for harpsichord or pianoforte. Composed, and dedicated to Mademoiselle Countess Julie "Giulietta" Guicciardi, by Ludwig van Beethoven. Opus 27 No. 2. Published in Vienna by Giovanni Cappi, Michaelerplatz No. 5.") The suggestion that the work could be performed on the harpsichord reflected a common marketing practice of music publishers in the early 19th century (
Siepmann 1998
, p. 60).
- ^
This dedication was not Beethoven's original intention, and he did not have Guicciardi in mind when writing the sonata. Thayer, in his
Life of Beethoven
, states that the work Beethoven originally intended to dedicate to Guicciardi was the
Rondo in G, Op. 51 No. 2
, but circumstances required that this be dedicated to Countess Lichnowsky. So he cast around at the last moment for a piece to dedicate to Guicciardi. See
Thayer, Alexander Wheelock
(1921).
Elliot, Forbes
(ed.).
Thayer's Life of Beethoven
(revised ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press (published 1967). p. 291 and 297.
ISBN
0-691-02702-1
.
- ^
Note that Beethoven wrote "senza sordino"; see
#Beethoven's pedal mark
below.
References
- ^
a
b
c
Jones, Timothy.
Beethoven, the Moonlight and other sonatas, op. 27 and op. 31
. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 19, 43 and back cover.
- ^
"Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonate fur Klavier (cis-Moll) op. 27, 2 (Sonata quasi una fantasia), Cappi, 879"
.
Beethovenhaus
. Retrieved
January 12,
2012
.
- ^
"Quasi"
.
Grove Music Online
. Retrieved
January 7,
2012
.
- ^
Schwarm, Betsy.
"Moonlight Sonata"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Retrieved
21 April
2018
.
- ^
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
.
- ^
Lenz, Wilhelm von
(1852).
Beethoven et ses trois styles
(in French). Vol. 1. St Petersburg. p. 225.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
a
b
c
"Beethoven Bookshelf"
.
- ^
a
b
Maconie, Robin (2010).
Musicologia: Musical Knowledge from Plato to John Cage
. Scarecrow Press. p. 279.
ISBN
978-0-8108-7696-5
.
- ^
Rellstab, Ludwig (1824).
"Theodor. Eine musikalische Skizze"
.
Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
(in German): 274.
- ^
"The Complete Beethoven: Day 344"
.
- ^
See. e.g.,
Allgemeiner musikalischer Anzeiger
. Vol. 9, No. 11, Tobias Haslinger, Vienna, 1837, p. 41.
- ^
See, e.g.,
Ignaz Moscheles
, ed.
The Life of Beethoven
.
Henry Colburn pub., vol. II, 1841, p. 109.
- ^
Aunt Judy's Christmas Volume
. H. K. F. Gatty, ed., George Bell & Sons, London, 1879, p. 60.
- ^
Kennedy, Michael
.
"Moonlight Sonata"
, from
Oxford Dictionary of Music
2nd edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006 rev., p. 589.
- ^
"Moonlight Sonata"
, from
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
. J.A. Fuller Maitland, ed., Macmillan and Co., London, 1900, p. 360.
- ^
Dubal, David.
The Art of the Piano
. Amadeus Press, 2004, p. 411.
- ^
See, e.g., Wilkinson, Charles W.
Well-known Piano Solos: How to Play Them
. Theo. Presser Co., Philadelphia, 1915, p. 31.
- ^
Mackenzie, Compton.
"The Beethoven Piano Sonatas"
, from
The Gramophone
, Aug. 1940, p. 5.
- ^
a
b
Beethoven, Ludwig van
(1932).
Tovey, Donald Francis
;
Craxton, Harold
(eds.).
Complete Pianoforte Sonatas, Volume II
(Revised ed.). London: Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. p. 50.
ISBN
978-1-85472-054-2
.
OCLC
53258888
.
- ^
Beethoven, Ludwig van (2015).
Del Mar, Jonathan
; Donat, Misha (eds.).
Sonata quasi una Fantasia fur Pianoforte
(in English and German). Translated by Schutz, Gudula. Kassel:
Barenreiter
. p. iii.
ISMN
979-0-006-55799-8.
- ^
Maynard Solomon
,
Beethoven
(New York: Schirmer Books, 1998), p. 139
- ^
Harding, Henry Alfred (1901).
Analysis of form in Beethoven's sonatas
. Borough Green: Novello. pp.
28
?29.
- ^
a
b
c
Rosen, Charles
(2002).
Beethoven's Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion
. Yale University Press. p. 157.
ISBN
978-0-300-09070-3
.
- ^
Life of Beethoven
,
Alexander Wheelock Thayer
, ed. Elliot Forbes, Princeton 1967
- ^
Fishko, Sara.
"Why do we love the 'Moonlight' Sonata?"
.
NPR.org
. NPR
. Retrieved
10 May
2011
.
- ^
Fischer, Edwin (1959).
Beethoven's pianoforte sonatas: a guide for students & amateurs
. Faber. p. 62.
- ^
DONALDSON, BRYNA. “Beethoven’s Moonlight Fantasy.” American Music Teacher, vol. 20, no. 4, 1971, pp. 32?32. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43533985
. Accessed 20 Oct. 2023.
- ^
Brendel, Alfred
(2001).
Alfred Brendel on music
. A Capella Books. p. 71.
ISBN
1-55652-408-0
.
- ^
Translation from
Rosenblum 1988
, p. 136
- ^
William and Gayle Cook Music Library
, Indiana University School of Music
Beethoven, Sonate per pianoforte, Vol. 1 (N. 1?16), Ricordi
- ^
Banowetz, J. (1985).
The Pianist’s Guide to Pedaling
, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p. 168.
- ^
IMSLP Carl Bohm, "Meditation"
Sources
- Rosenblum, Sandra P. (1988).
Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music: Their Principles and Applications
. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Oster, Ernst
(1983). "The
Fantaisie-Impromptu
: A Tribute to Beethoven". In David Beach (ed.).
Aspects of Schenkerian Analysis
. Yale University Press.
ISBN
978-0-300-02800-3
.
- Siepmann, Jeremy
(1998).
The Piano: The Complete Illustrated Guide to the World's Most Popular Musical Instrument
.
External links
[
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]
Scores
[
edit
]
|
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Early sonatas
|
- No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2/1
- No. 2 in A major, Op. 2/2
- No. 3 in C major, Op. 2/3
- No. 4 in E
♭
major, Op. 7
(Grand Sonata)
- No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10/1
- No. 6 in F major, Op. 10/2
- No. 7 in D major, Op. 10/3
- No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13
(Pathetique)
- No. 9 in E major, Op. 14/1
- No. 10 in G major, Op. 14/2
- No. 11 in B
♭
major, Op. 22
- No. 12 in A
♭
major, Op. 26
- No. 13 in E
♭
major, Op. 27/1
- No. 14 in C
♯
minor, Op. 27/2
(Moonlight)
- No. 15 in D major, Op. 28
(Pastoral)
- No. 19 in G minor and No. 20 in G major, Op. 49
|
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Middle sonatas
|
- No. 16 in G major, Op. 31/1
- No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31/2
(The Tempest)
- No. 18 in E
♭
major, Op. 31/3
(The Hunt)
- No. 21 in C major, Op. 53
(Waldstein)
- No. 22 in F major, Op. 54
- No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57
(Appassionata)
- No. 24 in F
♯
major, Op. 78
(A Therese)
- No. 25 in G major, Op. 79
- No. 26 in E
♭
major, Op. 81a
(Les adieux)
- No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90
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Late sonatas
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Duo
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Unnumbered (
WoO
)
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Doubtful (
Anh.
)
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International
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National
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Other
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