Beethoven: Sonata 14 (Moonlight) Op. 27 No. 2 in C-sharp Minor

Piano Sheet Music to Download and Print or to View in Mobile Devices

ID:26

Ludwig van Beethoven - Sonatas : Sonata 14 (Moonlight), Op. 27 No. 2
Key: C-sharp Minor	Year: 1801
Level: 8+	Period: Classical
Piano score: PS Urtext
Piano score: Ruthardt edition
Piano score: facsimile of first edition
Sonata 14 (Moonlight) Op. 27 No. 2 - FREE SAMPLE (mp3 file)

Hypnotic calm before the storm...

Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 27 no. 2 in C-sharp minor - better known as the Moonlight Sonata - is one of Beethoven's most popular piano works, especially the haunting first movement with its sad melody played against the familiar ostinato triplet rhythm. It's the kind of soothingly beautiful but sad movement that can almost place a listener into a state of hypnosis. The most famous remark about this movement was made by Ludwig Rellstab, a German critic and poet, who likened it to moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne.

Slightly less well known but indeed well worth exploring are the comparatively cheerful second movement - a fairly conventional and straightforward Scherzo and trio in D-flat major - and the heavier, stormier third movement Presto, which revisits the key and material of the first movement. This dramatic composition, with typical Beethovenian sharp accents, is also very difficult to play, especially when compared to the relatively simple first movement. The sonata was completed in 1801 and dedicated to the Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, a pupil of Beethoven, in 1802.