Posts Tagged ‘Sonata’

A common reaction to the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (often this is the only movement known) is to find it beautiful but too sad to listen to very often.

Apparently even Beethoven was a bit puzzled and exasperated by its popularity in his own day : “Surely I’ve written better things.”
So why did it become so popular?

“Honestly I really can’t get why people love moonlight sonata so much! That this piece will forever be remembered on those people? It just has a simple melody but there is sadness, yes I can hear it? What’s in this piece! Can someone describe this? What emotion can you feel upon hearing this! What bar or passage or part of the moonlight sonata that makes you feel very tensed or very emotional?”
Rik N.

“I am having trouble with the second movement, any tips?”

Frank S.

The second movement was once described by Liszt as “a flower between two chasms.”  It is, in contrast with the more sombre first movement and intense third, a much lighter and almost playful interlude. The rhythm is fairly straightforward and so it is really the pp stacatto parts that keep the feeling light and airy, despite adding in the lower line.