Beethoven – Piano Sonata No.14

Beethoven`s piano sonata is one of his best-known compositions. He originally called his sonata as Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia, which means sonata almost like a fantasy. The name Moonlight Sonata was given by a German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab. He described the sonata`s opening movement with an effect of moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne.

The sonata was completed in 1801. The title “Moonlight sonata” gives a sense that this is a romantic piece, a love song dedicated to his 17-year-old piano student, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. But the inspiration came from a scene of Mozart`s Don Juan, where the main character Don Juan kills the commander. This gives a darker, a more funeral feel. This piece is also written in C# minor. Beethoven noted this in one of his first manuscripts, indicating it as an influence. The dark sense was also supported by the fact that the piece was written in the time period when the composer started losing his hearing and also his music style was changing and evolving.

One of the examples that Beethoven`s work was evolving was the sonata`s form. He did not follow the traditional fast – slow – fast pattern. Instead he opened with a slow movement, which followed by a medium and closed with a fast movement.

The first movement is one that most people are familiar with. The movement as a whole is quiet and sombre. It contains mainly piano (soft) and pianissimo (very soft) with a few crescendos (gradually loud) and a couple of forte (loud) moments but it never grows too loud.

Throughout the movement there are rhythmic ostinatos, which is a short, constantly repeated rhythmic pattern. In this piece this is a triplet which is a group of three notes played or sung in the time normally taken by two notes (Musicterms.artopium.com, 2018). It gives a rolling feeling, almost like a swaying movement. Also, we have the melody line which is sitting on the rolling triplets. It gives a feeling of little lights shining through the pitch-black lover notes.

The first movement is in a modified sonata form. It starts with an exposition which consists of two themes. A theme or may sometimes be called the subject consists of a recognizable melody or a characteristic rhythmic pattern. It is followed by a development section, where the melody dropped, and the notes run up and down. He did not follow the common harmonic progression and rules of sonata form. This gives an improvisational and free feeling to the piece. Next is the recapitulation section which is the repeat of the exposition with a little key modification. Finally, the movement closes with a coda. The coda is another word for ending and brings the movement to a close.

Franz Liszt described the second movement as a “flower between two chasms”. The second movement contains a minuetto and trio. The minuetto and trio is an A-B-A form (A = minuet; B = trio) in a moderate triple meter that is often the third movement of the Classical sonata cycle. (Musicterms.artopium.com, 2018) This movement is also unusual because both the minuetto part and the trio part are in the same key which is Db major. Generally, the composers will change the keys, but Beethoven kept it really simple. The key of the first and third movements are C# minor which is actually the exact same note as Db. We call these keys enharmonic, meaning they are different names for the exact same note on the piano. The reason that the composers choose to write in Db major instead of C# major is because it is easier to play. The same goes for writing in C# minor versus Db minor.

The third movement is like the first movement. It is written in sonata form and contains exposition, development, recapitulation and coda. It starts similarly, except with some twists and turns. For example, the development section is on a major chord. The mood is dark and heavy like the first movement, except this time it’s loud and fast and exciting. The powerful sound of this movement is not achieved by loud notes rather a few well-chosen accents in the quiet playing (with the odd, short fortissimo section) that makes it have impact.

Reference:

Musicterms.artopium.com. (2018). Triplet – Definition (Artopium’s Music Dictionary). [online] Available at: https://musicterms.artopium.com/t/Triplet.htm [Accessed 5 Mar. 2020]

Musicterms.artopium.com. (2018). Minuet and trio – Definition (Artopium’s Music Dictionary). [online] Available at: https://musicterms.artopium.com/m/Minuetandtrio.htm [Accessed 5 Mar. 2020]