Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

[kfanyo]

Hi,

Since my son took an interest in learning this piece, I've spent some time wondering what the music is about. It is compelling, as everyone knows well, especially when you are in the room with the piano.

I keep coming back to the idea that it is a narrative of Beethoven coming to terms with his eventual deafness. As far as I've checked, he started dealing overtly with his loss of hearing circa 1799 and the Sonata was published in 1802.

To me, the first movement describes an accepting despair, the first clear realizations of just how bad his circumstances will become.

The second, within the context of the first and third, seems to capture perfectly the feelings accompanying the attempts at rationalizing an overwhelmingly bad situation into a more acceptable one. They don't last long, as my understanding of Beethoven would tell me to expect.

And the third is the simple, violently passionate refusal to be defeated, or even discouraged, by the adversity; probably the single worst one imaginable for a truly dedicated, passionate composer of music. Even worse, I think, than death.

To me, it all seems to "fit" very well together, as well as with the image of Beethoven as the Passionate Composer.

I personally think it's a testament to Beethoven's professionalism and passion that he could be so inspired by such a personal tragedy.

So I'm wondering if there is something that you might be aware of that pursues this idea more.

Thanks much in advance,

Ken

[AeolianHarp]

Hello Ken and welcome to Beethoven forum! I think it's great your son is practising this sonata. I like your response to this brilliant sonata- it does seem to be an excellent one to it.

You might like to consider this free online course on Beethoven's sonatas in which Jonathan Biss has a lecture on this very sonata on the course.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/beethoven-piano-sonatas

He talks about the emotions expressed in it and how it is constructed.

[Peter]

Welcome Ken - I'm not sure about reading Beethoven's deafness into the music of Op.27/2. If we look at the music of the following year 1802 when Beethoven's depression reached a climax in the Heiligenstadt Testamant, he was working on one of his sunniest pieces, the 2nd symphony. According to Fischer, the inspiration behind the 1st movt of the 'Moonlight' (written whilst Beethoven was in Hungary on the Brunsvik estate) was the premature death of a friend.

[Decrepit Poster]

I'm fond of Andras Schiff's lecture-recital on the Moonlight, and not just because he shares my opinion that the first movement is best when played faster than one normally encounters it nowadays.

[AeolianHarp]

I've got Fischer's book ( it is free online as an e-book)- no mention of such a friend though Peter.

[Peter]

I've got Fischer's book ( it is free online as an e-book)- no mention of such a friend though Peter.

Sorry I wasn't thinking of The Fischer Manuscript, I was referring to Edwin Fischer, the great pianist! I'm not saying I necessarily agree, but offer it as a perfectly plausible theory.

He pointed to areas where the Moonlight Sonata’s first movement bears a striking resemblance to Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, from the first act where the Commendatore is murdered. Edwin Fischer suggests that the origin of the first movement could be that Beethoven transposed into C sharp minor the passage from Mozart's Don Giovanni where the Commendatore is killed. The similarity with this passage and the first movement of Beethoven's C sharp minor Fantasy Sonata is, in his opinion, unmistakable. It is true that the postlude is note-for-note as in Mozart. The question therefore remains, was it so unlikely that Beethoven was reminded of the scene in Don Giovanni. and does this possibly account for the striking similarity between the passage from Mozart and Beethoven's opening Adagio sostenuto sonata movement?

[AeolianHarp]

Sorry I wasn't thinking of The Fischer Manuscript, I was referring to Edwin Fischer, the great pianist! I'm not saying I necessarily agree, but offer it as a perfectly plausible theory.

He pointed to areas where the Moonlight Sonata’s first movement bears a striking resemblance to Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, from the first act where the Commendatore is murdered. Edwin Fischer suggests that the origin of the first movement could be that Beethoven transposed into C sharp minor the passage from Mozart's Don Giovanni where the Commendatore is killed. The similarity with this passage and the first movement of Beethoven's C sharp minor Fantasy Sonata is, in his opinion, unmistakable. It is true that the postlude is note-for-note as in Mozart. The question therefore remains, was it so unlikely that Beethoven was reminded of the scene in Don Giovanni. and does this possibly account for the striking similarity between the passage from Mozart and Beethoven's opening Adagio sostenuto sonata movement?

That works for perhaps an inspiration from Don Giovanni- but what friend?

[Peter]

That works for perhaps an inspiration from Don Giovanni- but what friend?

The reference comes from Fischer and another source refers to an 'aristocratic friend'. Possibly it was The Elector Max Franz? (a keen admirer of Mozart and Beethoven's patron at Bonn) who died at Hetzendorf in July 1801 - Beethoven is known also to have been in Hetzendorf that summer.