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Moonlight Sonata

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A Look into Different Interpretations of the First Movement of Moonlight Sonata: The Piece that Portrays an Assortment of Emotions by Lauren Mora
Music History 70: Beethoven
Section 1G

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. …show more content…

Kempff 's fidelity to Beethoven 's wishes makes this performance full of the majestic sensation that is associated with Beethoven 's music. Liberace was one of the most ingenious and eccentric American entertainers of the 20th century. He was best known for his creative interpretations of piano and vocal music as well the flamboyance present in his performances. One of Liberace 's versions of Moonlight Sonata is actually a mash-up between the first movement and the popular Broadway tune, Night and Day, written by Cole Porter in 1932. Overall, Night and Day is a love song with a joyful spirit. It is full of amorous melodic phrases that add the sincerity of the romance depicted in the lyrics, such as, “Night and day, you are the one. ..Whether near to me or far, It 's no matter darling where you are, I think of you, Night and Day”. The first movement of the Moonlight Sonata can also be interpreted as filled with romance but unlike Night and Day, the romance is accompanied with struggle. Liberace pairs this happy kind of love song, with a piano piece that has dark, romantic qualities to create a sort or ultimate love piece that has both climatic love-filled moments and low points of misery. Unlike Kempff, in his version of the Moonlight Sonata, Liberace almost immediately pulls away from the original melody. In the sixth measure, right after Beethoven first introduces the melody, Liberace infuses the melody to Night and

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