Moonlight Sonata Analysis

To assign the first movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony the sonata form would truly be a subjective judgment. I will first explain how this movement fits thesonata form; then I will discuss how it diverges from this form in rather fascinating ways.

Many consider Ludwig Von Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 as his first major musical accomplishment, more commonly known as Sonata Pathetique. Written at the age of 27 in 1798, the young composer had gained instant fame and his work was published only a year later. Beethoven, being one of the first significant musicians to work for them selves, is said to have given it the title.

8 in C minor, Op. 13 composed in 1798 focussing on musical features such as melody, thematic content, rhythm, form and structure and harmony. This sonata has been chosen for analysis as it is the most popular Beethoven sonata within the performance circuit, as it is a well known piece worldwide. Secondly, Beethoven developed Sonata form, adding more thematic contrast and contrasting melodies reflecting his own personal struggles with his progressive loss of hearing and also his failures in his love life which all contributed to the passion and despair that is depicted within the sonatas during his second compositional stage in his career.

Composers since the early classical era have used sonata form to express through music ideas which are at once complex and unified. This form contains a variety of themes and permutations of these themes, but is brought together into a comprehensible whole when these excerpts reappear. Beethoven, in the first movement of his Piano Sonata Opus 2 Number 3 utilizes this form to its full potential, modifying the typical structure in his characteristic way.

Beethoven’s earlier works had conformed to a more traditional and Mozart-like style, often including themes from Haydn as well. When Beethoven went to live in Heiligenstadt, he came to terms with his increasing deafness and decided to live on through his work. When he returned to Vienna he began to compose his Third Symphony, he incorporated a new unorthodox style of using the music to express his internal feelings through the piece itself. Many people felt that Beethoven’s complex expressions in his Third Symphony were somewhat unpleasant or longer than needed, however that did not mean that his third symphony was not a success. The second movement of the third symphony was considered odd by many because of its juxtaposition of a funeral march among the other movements which were more triumphant or lighthearted. Furthermore, Beethoven’s unprecedented expression of self in the Eroica forced his contemporaries to change their notions of a symphonies purpose. (Gibbs) “It foreshadowed the world that Wagner and, ultimately, Sigmund Freud would explore—the realm of the unconscious. That’s what was so revolutionary.”

Beethoven had reached complete deafness in the 1810’s. At this time he piano playing and conducting were deteriorating. At the age of 44 he was no longer able to play in public, but insisted on conducting still. Often times the performances were chaotic and he was hard to comprehend by musicians. He had a custody battle for his nephew Karl, in which he won. This caused disaster as Beethoven craved attention and companionship. After 1818, Beethoven conducted some of his greatest works even though he was completely deaf. Beethoven’s music was influenced by Haydn and Mozart although he had his own unique style. He was one of the greatest composers ever and had to overcome his complete deafness and suffering to put out these great works.

Regrettably, though in the late 1790s Beethoven began to lose his hearing. Then at the start of the 1800s Beethoven changed the way he created music and his personality because of the increasing deafness. Prior to the increasing loss of hearing Beethoven had been full of pride and independent, though a little odd. When his hearing started to go he changed, he became more apprehensive and ill tempered. Despite becoming absolutely deaf by the end of his life Beethoven’s works were still brilliant. It was on March 26, 1827 when Beethoven died, the cause was a simple cold that turned into pneumonia and then later dropsy.

From the time Ludwig van Beethoven was a young child, everyone around him could see that he was extremely talented. His name is known all around the world and when people think classical music, Beethoven is one of the first names that pop up. Long after his death in 1827, his music is still listened to. Soon to be mothers are sometimes told to allow the baby to listen to classical music, especially by Beethoven, to help with brain development. College and high school students are told we can benefit by listening to Beethoven when studying. Even in some modern songs, you can hear Beethoven’s legacy living on. Beethoven was an excellent composer and wrote pieces that defied the norm of the Romantic Era. Many artists today may not realize that

Ludwig Van Beethoven was one of the most influential composers of his time. The decades around the 1800’s were years of many changes and Beethoven’s new approach to music was something that reflected that. “His symphonies, concertos, string quartets and piano sonatas are central to the repertory of classical music.” This essay will focus on the historical and theoretical aspects of the third movement of Sonata Op. 28 No. 15.

Critics said that Beethoven gave the Italian subtitle, “Quasi una Fantasia” because it did not follow a traditional sonata form and that “The Moonlight Sonata” was rather like a “Fantasia”, which is a classical piece that is free-form. I agree with this view since “The Moonlight Sonata steps all over traditional sonata form” (favorite-classical-composers.com). A traditional sonata has 3 different speeds throughout each three movements. It would be fast in the first, slow in the second and fast again in the third. However in “The Moonlight Sonata”, the first movement’s speed was “Adagio sostenuto”, which meant “slow and sustained”. The second movement’s speed was “Allegreto”, which meant “at a fairly brisk speed” and the last movement’s speed was “Presto agitato”, which meant “fast and agitated”. One can say that the structure of “The Moonlight Sonata” is just a steady build-up to the raging

The early piano sonatas of Beethoven deserve special mention. Although his first published examples of concertos and trios and the first two symphonies are beneath the masterpieces of Mozart and Haydn, the piano sonatas bear an unmistakably Beethovian stamp: grandiose in scope and length, and innovative in their range of expression. The sonatas were able to move expression from terrible rage to peals of laughter to deep depression so suddenly. Capturing this unpredictable style in his music, a new freedom of expression which broke the bounds of Classical ideals, was to position Beethoven as a disturbed man in the minds of some of his contemporaries. Furthermore, he was to be seen as the father of Romanticism and the single most important innovator of music in the minds of those after him. (Bookspan 27).

Ludwig Van Beethoven 's Quasi Una Fantasia, later named and more famously known as The Moonlight Sonata, is a piano piece that can be portrayed and analyzed in a multitude of ways. The piece was published in 1801, during a period of great experimentation in Beethoven 's music. This can help explain how the piece addresses a broad range of emotions that vary from romance to frustration to anger. The first movement is full of all of those feelings and more, however it is the pianist who decides which of them will triumph over the rest.

This sonata was composed around 1802, a point at which Beethoven experienced the crisis of encroaching deafness. From then on, the composer started to introduce innovative and bold ideas within classical framework in his musical composition to expand the expressiveness of his music. His novel approach was evident in his formal and harmonic arrangement in the first movement of Sonata Op.31 No.1.

The first movement of the third sonata is the most experimental, the one which deviates most from Classical form and harmonies. The exposition, in particular, is more like a fantasy than a sonata. The sonata opens quite promisingly. A descending broken chord followed by ascending march-like chords creates the primary theme (mm. 1 – 4).

Music in the nineteenth century was starting to become recognized as one of the major arts. No longer seen just as a casual form of entertainment, musicians and composers began to gain respect in artistic circles. One of the key figures to help bring up this new reverence for music was Beethoven, with his sonatas and symphonies impacting the public massively. Not only where his musical works perfect for the Romantic ideals of the time, but his personal afflictions, especially his deafness, fit perfectly into the Romantic archetype of the suffering artist. Beethoven literally became a figurehead of Romanticism in a much admired painting of the time depicting Franz Liszt at the piano, surrounded by other prominent artists, fixated on a bust of Beethoven in the windowsill. This painting perfectly depicts the new respect music had gained within the artistic community of the nineteenth century largely through the life and works of Beethoven.