Piano Sonata No. 14

Title page of the first edition of the score, published in 1802 in Vienna by Gio. Cappi e Comp.^[1]

	1st movement Performed by Paul Pitman for Musopen
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The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata, is a piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, it is one of Beethoven's most popular compositions for the piano.

Names

The first edition of the score is headed Sonata quasi una fantasia, a title this work shares with 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 name "Moonlight Sonata" has its origins in remarks by the German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab. In 1832, five years after Beethoven's death, Rellstab likened the effect of the first movement to that of moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne.^[4] Within ten years, the name "Moonlight Sonata" ("Mondscheinsonate" in German) was being used in German^[5] and English^[6] publications. Later in the nineteenth century, it could be said that the sonata was "universally known" by that name.^[7]

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"^[8] and "absurd".^[9] Other critics have approved of the sobriquet, finding it evocative^[10] or in line with their own associations with the work.^[11] 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", adding that "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."^[12]

Form

	1st movement 2nd movement 3rd movement all created in MIDI and recorded from a digital piano
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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. 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 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.”^[13]

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".^[14] Beethoven's student Carl Czerny called it "a nocturnal scene, in which a mournful ghostly voice sounds from the distance".^[15] 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."^[16][17]

Allegretto

The second movement is basically a relatively conventional scherzo and trio, a moment of relative calm written in D-flat major, the more easily-notated enharmonic equivalent of C♯ major, the parallel major of C♯ minor. Franz Liszt is said to have described the second movement as "a flower between two chasms".^[18] 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.

It is thought that the C-sharp minor sonata, particularly the third movement, was the inspiration for Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu,^[19] 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."^[14]

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

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. Therefore, his instruction cannot be followed by pianists playing modern instruments without creating an unpleasantly dissonant sound.

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.^[20]

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.^[14]

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.^[21]

Notes

References

• Siepmann, Jeremy (1998) The Piano: The Complete Illustrated Guide to the World's Most Popular Musical Instrument.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)

• Detailed analysis and recordings review of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
• 1st movement for piano and orchestra on YouTube, arranged by Georgii Cherkin
• Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, performed by Artur Schnabel
• Lecture and performance of the work on YouTube by András Schiff
• Recording of "Moonlight Sonata" No. 14 in C-sharp minor, published by 1stpiano.com
• Third movement on YouTube by Wilhelm Kempff

Scores

• Piano Sonata No. 14: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
• The Mutopia project has information about the composition Sonata No. 14
• Free sheet music of Moonlight Sonata from Cantorion.org
• Ricordi edition, The William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University School of Music