What is unusual about this sonata is the tempo choices. This is typical of the Classical-era genre – sonatas are almost always 3-4 movements long. So let’s look at the overarching structure of this work, which generally runs about 20 minutes. Ahh, the cycle of (music) life! Overall structure of Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven So Beethoven was heavily influenced by Mozart’s death scene in Don Giovanni, and Chopin was later inspired by Moonlight Sonata for his Fantaisie-Impromtu. When I listen to this, I don’t hear a story of lost love – I hear a story of death and turmoil. It was also written in his early thirties, around the time he was starting to deal with his hearing loss and his music style was changing. This indicates to us that Beethoven envisioned more of a funeral feel to this movement, as opposed to a romantic feel. In one of the original manuscripts, Beethoven had notes from Mozart’s Don Juan, also in C# minor, from the scene where Don Juan kills the commander.
However, it’s much more likely that the inspiration came from a darker place. The title “Moonlight” sonata makes it sound like this is a rather romantic sonata, and people have speculated that it was meant as a sort of love song to Giulietta Guicciardi, Beethoven’s 17-year old piano student who he dedicated the piece to. 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.” We can actually regard Chopin as our teacher as he points to the coda and says, ‘Look here, this is great. “… With the aid of the Fantaisie-Impromptu we can at least recognize what particular features of the C♯ minor Sonata struck fire in Chopin. I love this quote by Enst Oster, who writes, Inspiration for Moonlight Sonata by Beethovenįrederic Chopin was said to have been inspired to write his Fantaisie-Impromtu because of this piece, as a tribute to Beethoven. That comment caught fire, and within a decade it was already being published as “Moonlight Sonata”. Shortly after Beethoven’s death, a well-known music critic named Ludwig Rellstab made the comment that the first movement sounded like moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne. It wasn’t always called “Moonlight Sonata” – on the first edition, Beethoven gave the piece an Italian subtitle, “ Sonata quasi una fantasia”, which translates to something like “Sonata almost like a fantasy” (A fantasy is another music genre, and much more improvisational). It was written in 1801, and aside from being popular over 200 years later, it was pretty well-loved in Beethoven’s day as well. The actual title for Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven is “Piano Sonata no. Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven: General info We’ll play clips from the piece so you can get a sense of what it sounds like, and talk a bit of history, theory and style. The purpose of this video is to give you a deeper insight into this lovely sonata, whether or not you’re a music nerd or everyday general music fan. In today’s video, we’re going to look at all three movements – yes, there are three movements, beyond the iconic slow first movement – and talk a little history and analysis.
I can’t believe this channel has existed for over 2 years and we haven’t yet done an analysis on Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, probably one of the most famous piano pieces of all time.
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