Moonlight Sonatas - Mondscheinsonaten - for Beethoven

In spite of its overall musical perfection, it is
usually the first movement of the world famous
“Moonlight Sonata” that magically attracts people.
Beethoven called his three-part work a “Sonata
quasi una Fantasia”, and famously remarked about
his Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27,
No. 2: “Surely, I’ve written better things.” Taking liberties
on the classical sonata form, and displaying
new emotional depths, the work is seen as a significant
precursor of Romantic music. The dreamy
Adagio in the first movement has been engraved
in many people’s memory. The familiar sound of
the tune is wont to suddenly appear from the depth
of our mind, while we may be looking at the moon
and, possibly inspired by Caspar David Friedrich’s
paintings, lose ourselves in the magic of the scenery.
When the poet Ludwig Rellstab listened to it, he
felt reminded of a nocturnal boat trip, making him
coin the name “Moonlight Sonata” in 1823. Franz
Liszt likened its short second movement to “a flower
between two abysses”. In the third movement,
finally, the music storms towards a merciless, desperate
finale.
Beethoven wrote the „Moonlight Sonata“ in
1801, probably in the gardener’s cottage at Unterkrupka
Castle in what is now Slowakia. This is the
reason the work originally became known as the
“Summer House Sonata”. While staying at the cottage,
the nature-loving composer’s heart may well
have felt captivated by the aesthetic dimension of
the nocturnal visual stimuli surrounding him. Like
a landscape or a moonlight sketch, the tonal sensitivity
of the “Moonlight Sonata” allows a mood
of nature to speak for itself. Similarly, the truth of
a painting lies not so much in the superficial depiction
of a phenomenon, as in the abstracting force
of its spiritual message. The surrealist painter Max
Ernst, for example, a great admirer of Caspar David
Friedrich, gifted a painting of the moon to his wife
Dorothea Tanning for her birthday every year, as a
declaration of his love for her.
The history of the Sonata resembles a jigsaw
puzzle. On the one hand, it seems to convey the
effective course of light in a dramatically beautiful
cloudy sky, and a close observation of atmospheric
components, on the other, it is remindful of a dark
monochromaticity. At the same time, the vibrato of
its energetic musical notation captures the ephemeral
nature of a rapidly changing mood. Between
1800 and 1806, Beethoven did not only spend time
in Unterkrupka, but also frequently stayed at the
Brunsvik family’s Hungarian castle Martonvásár.
Both castles are surrounded by spacious parks
landscaped in the style of English gardens. Here,
Beethoven was able to leave behind his busy life in
Vienna, and relax. Presumably, this was the time he
met the love of his life, but it was also the time he
first realized that he was losing his hearing. In 1802,
he wrote the famous „Heiligenstadt Testament“.
The gloomy aspect of the Sonata, however,
tends to be perceived mostly by musical virtuosos,
owed to their perceptive depth. Beethoven
was interested in philosophy and literature, while
struggling with politics. As he was beginning to feel
the effects of his deafness, thoughts about death
cannot be ruled out while he was composing the
Sonata. Helplessly, he had to stand by and endure
no longer being able to listen to his own music,
or the sound of birdsong that he loved so much.
Passionately, he went for walks and observed the
scenery, while rejoicing in the voices of nature. His
creativity was also reflected in his interest for exotic
instruments. While composing the Sonata, he was
especially interested in the aeolian harp. And indeed,
the inner harmony of the adagio resembles the
sound of a harp, the distant whisper of the wind,
or a muted murmur, while the bright trilling outer
voice sets the tempo. Beethoven indicated to play
the tune with extreme tenderness. The particular
appeal of the aeolian harp is that it can transform
the sounds of nature into a kind of vocal canon,
which may have inspired the melancholy part of
the “Moonlight Sonata” and, together with its light
piano chords, may embody the moon rising from
the darkness.
It is hardly surprising that the „Moonlight Sonata“
was already popular during Beethoven‘s
lifetime. The moon is as old as the earth, and female
in many languages. It was not its physical
existence, however, but the picturesque appeal of
its appearance, and the eruptive power of the full
moon that, in a sense, were reflected in Beethoven’s
personality. In Shakespeare’s “Othello”, the moon
kills and drives people mad. Yet lovers of all times
have succumbed to its magic. In the year after it
was written, Beethoven dedicated the Sonata to his
then 20-year-old piano student, the Countess Julie
Guicciardi. But had he really written it for her? There
was also Josephine, another woman whom, due to
the misguided social constraints of his time, Beethoven
could not have. As a trusted sister and freespirited
educator, Therese later found the perfect
words to describe their situation: “They were made
for each other, and if both of them were still alive,
Photo collage: Homage to the Moon
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