A Conversation for Ludwig van Beethoven - Pianist and Composer
the moonlight
Researcher janemaggie Started conversation Jul 6, 2001
My piano teacher told me this story - probably to instill in me some sense of the emotion behind the composition and I don't know if it's true, but it did/does always make me feel that little bit sadder about the first movement.
Beethoven went and fell in love with a married woman, who happened to live next door (in ye oldene times - across many acres and lakes etc). In the middle of the night and in the moonlight she used to go to the lake to bathe and he would hide and watch her.
The moonlight sonata is basically about wanting something so perfect that no one can ever know...
the moonlight
Gnomon - time to move on Posted Jul 6, 2001
The name "Moonlight" was not given to the sonata by Beethoven. He called it "Sonata quasi una fantasia 2" (Sonata like a fantasy). The name "moonlight" was given to it by a reviewer, Rellstab, who said it reminded him of moonlight on the waves on Lake Lucerne.
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the moonlight
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