Beethoven Moonlight Analysis

[thejeev]

Hello, I'm new here and this might sound crazy.

I've played casually for almost 20 years, but only recently started noticing something.

I think I have either discovered something or gone crazy. I think I understand (most of) the Moonlight Sonata, why it was written, what it's about etc, and even exactly what notes imply what specific words or thoughts.

If you're still with me, here we go.

First, I'll just put the main stuff but there is a lot more.

I don't think the title "sonata quasi una fantasia" or "almost a fantasy" is a red herring as some people seem to suggest, it's actually a fantasy he's writing about, and I don't think he could have picked a better name. Also, I want to stress that Beethoven, as all great composers usually are, are virtuoso pianists. When they mark something to be fast, they mean really fast, not a sluggish tempo for the masses to be able to play. I believe Gould played this piece best, but he goes FAST, and I mean FAST (and rightfully so I suppose).

MOVEMENT I
-This seems to be about a girl, but the voices contained are that of the girl.
-The triplets seem to be a background call of "Oh Ludwig", this is why they exist throughout the whole movement
-Intro of top voice is again a "Oh Ludwig". This kind of goes on, but my analysis is the line goes Oh Ludwig, Oh Ludwig, next two half notes are Lud Wig, then Oh Ludwig repeated.
-If you apply this Oh Ludwig fantasy theme throughout the movement and actually listen to the voice and pay attention to where the dynamics are, it makes sense to me in terms of phrasing.
-The whole movement seems about to be a girl teasing him, taunting him, causing some sort of constant internal repetition of this thought
MAIN POINT: the triplets are actually a woman's voice in his head.

MOVEMENT II:
I believe this little movement is just filler, Beethoven seemed to really want to say something with movements one and three. If there is something about this movement to be discovered, I haven't yet.

MOVEMENT III:
-This seems to be a different girl here, or many, I don't know if he had a particular one in mind. But I have a hard time believe it's the same one as I.
-Though the triplets are gone, the ascending notes are not. If we apply the "Ludwig" to these notes (including the bouncing base notes), we get a rapid "Ludwig" seven times until the famous sforzandos, I believe this to be yet again massive "LUDWIG!" this happens a whopping 5 times as we know, followed by, what I finally believe to be actually Beethoven responding in his own sforzando by yelling "WHAT!", followed by just high screechy female yappy sounds.
-This develops into that strange single note theme, but if you listen to the development into it, it is actually a female saying "Oh Ludwig" in a nagging manner, and then blabs on again.
-After this goes on for a while, Beethoven hops back in and, using 4 sforzandos, saying "I don't give a s***, or something similarly obscene"
-This applies to most of the piece, there are a few other small passages that I am pretty sure I understand but don't want to write them out, less this be discarded as nonsense.
-The piece, ends, as you know, with a big old f*** you.

CONCLUSION:
This piece (to me) is about a girl Beethoven loved, wanted, but couldn't have due to the possible reason:

There was a certain Jeanette d’Honrath, from Cologne, a friend of Eleonore who would come to Bonn and stay with her. Wegeler describes her as ‘a beautiful, vivacious blonde, of good education and amiable disposition, who enjoyed music greatly and possessed an agreeable voice’. She was clearly well aware of Beethoven’s attraction to her, because she used to sing him a teasing little song, of which the words lamented her being separated from him, and being unable to prevent this, which was too hurtful for her poor heart. We do not know how Beethoven reacted to this. Suffice it to say she went off and married a soldier who later rose to the rank of field marshal.

Instead, Ludwig had to settle for something less, and was so very close to being in a true fantasy, with this Jeanette girl, but ultimately couldn't be with. This is the fantasy part I believe.

Here is the article I quoted:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/26/beethoven-in-love-the-woman-who-captivated-the-young-composer.html

Any thoughts? If you actually think I'm crazy please do say, this (and many other pieces) have been bugging me.

[hardy_practice]

Hate to burst your bubble but he copied the first movement from Act 1 of Mozart's Don Giovanni - the death of the Commendatori.  To be fair Beethoven, along with everyone else, did worship Mozart.

[thejeev]

Thanks for the reply, I did read this but I don't see how borrowing a theme, or an idea of the theme has anything to do with what that theme is saying? Great composers can be inspired too, after all. To me, it makes sense that he borrowed themes from more prominent composers and used them to play with his own ideas and develop his own, rather unique style. If he borrowed the theme for the sake of the theme why did he break the sonata format the way he did?

[mjames]

This is conjecture, nothing in here actually qualifies as a musical analysis.

[abbyes]

This is conjecture, nothing in here actually qualifies as a musical analysis.

Still a nice "interpretation" of the piece. I mean, I always have in my imagination this kind of images and conjetures while performing a piece. It really helps me to get into the piece ; it doesnt matter if it was or not composer's intention, I have my own "film" in my head of the pieces I play.

I should open a post sharing with all the stories I've made up for the pieces !!

I liked your interpretation of this piece ^^

But yeah, this is not musical analysis, just conjetures.

[briansaddleback]

This is not an analysis, I did not read the whole thing, I stopped after it started to tell me there is nothing important here but your imaginative interpretation of the piece. Which is fine. We all can have a bit of imagination. But don't pose it as something that it is not.

[hardy_practice]

You misunderstand.  It's not just the borrowing of the 'theme' it's pretty much wholescale plunder, but that's cool - at least we therefore know what it's about which something always hard to be sure of in Beethoven.

[georgey]

When I hear the first movement played beautifully and softly (not double speed like some say), I get the feeling of moonlight shining upon a lake.  When you think about it, moonlight does not make sound so I’m not sure where I got this idea.  I think I get this feeling from the mood of the piece.

[dcstudio]

damn...it is the scene from Don Giovanni... wow...  no doubt where that Moonlight came from. LOL  

c'mon guys don't you love reading these?  You are all correct, of course these posts contain no harmonic, melodic, or form analysis whatsoever...   but I do so love hearing others "fantasy" analysis of piano or any music really...especially when they believe that  they have discovered "the hidden meaning."  they become so excited that they feel the need to share this revelation with people who have been playing that particular sonata, in some cases, for more than 30 years.   What amazes me the most is the hostility these people tend to display when actual pianists fail to be amazed by this newly discovered... "hidden meaning."   It is funny sometimes to hear them continue on with said analysis after you inform them that Beethoven never called it "the moonlight sonata,"  or that he got the whole thing from Mozart.   Somehow that has no bearing.

man, and they wonder why some piano teachers FORBID Sonata no. 14 altogether.
   lol..besides it's really galloping horses in a thunderstorm... as he races towards his gf whose daddy hates him because he is a deaf composer... everybody knows that

jk

wasn't "moonlight shining on a lake" exactly what that publisher said who actually coined the phrase "moonlight sonata?"

[georgey]

I was heart-broken when I read a few minutes ago in Wikipedia the following:  “The name "Moonlight Sonata" comes from remarks made by the German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab.  In 1832, five years after Beethoven's death, Rellstab likened the effect of the first movement to that of moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne.”  I thought this was my idea (just kidding!).

For what is worth to the original author of this subject, again from Wikipedia: Program music is a type of art music that attempts to musically render an extra-musical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience in the form of program notes, inviting imaginative correlations with the music. A paradigmatic example is Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, which relates a drug-induced series of morbid fantasies concerning the unrequited love of a sensitive poet involving murder, execution, and the torments of Hell.

Grout says the start of 19th century program music was Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique was written in 1830.  Beethoven wrote Moonlight Sonata in 1801 and his Pastoral Symphony in 1808.

I think the original author of this post is great to find hidden meanings that are personal to them if it helps (sort of backwards: writing program notes after the music was written, instead of writing music to fit a set of program notes).  Many musicians, poets, etc. in the 1800’s did the same. I also think it is fine that the original author wants to share their thoughts.   Be prepared for a variety of responses though.

[anamnesis]

damn...it is the scene from Don Giovanni... wow...  no doubt where that Moonlight came from. LOL  

c'mon guys don't you love reading these?  You are all correct, of course these posts contain no harmonic, melodic, or form analysis whatsoever...   but I do so love hearing others "fantasy" analysis of piano or any music really...especially when they believe that  they have discovered "the hidden meaning."  they become so excited that they feel the need to share this revelation with people who have been playing that particular sonata, in some cases, for more than 30 years.   What amazes me the most is the hostility these people tend to display when actual pianists fail to be amazed by this newly discovered... "hidden meaning."   It is funny sometimes to hear them continue on with said analysis after you inform them that Beethoven never called it "the moonlight sonata,"  or that he got the whole thing from Mozart.   Somehow that has no bearing.

man, and they wonder why some piano teachers FORBID Sonata no. 14 altogether.
   lol..besides it's really galloping horses in a thunderstorm... as he races towards his gf whose daddy hates him because he is a deaf composer... everybody knows that

jk

wasn't "moonlight shining on a lake" exactly what that publisher said who actually coined the phrase "moonlight sonata?"

I actually enjoyed the OP's...interpretation.  If it helps the OP perform better, so be it.  


Andras Schiff's lecture was actually the first time I directly became aware of Beethoven's quotation from Don Giovanni:

https://audio.theguardian.tv/sys-audio/Arts/Culture/2006/11/22/03_14CSharpMin.mp3

There's even physical evidence.  There's a manuscript in Beethoven's handwriting that copied out this portion from Don Giovanni.  

He also makes interesting point about the tempo that I wish more would hear.  

Benjamin Zander makes the same point here:
https://www.benjaminzander.com/recordings/boston-philharmonic/beet9/review/130

EDIT:

Also, let's not completely think the OP is crazy. 

This sonata was dedicated to Countess Guiletta Guiccardi who Beethoven loved, but was unable to marry. 

[dcstudio]

no the OP is not crazy (at least not for this, anyway).. and I apologize.. my previous post was really rude.. all of us have those kinds of impressions about music at times... IMO that is part of what motivates us to pursue this dream we ALL  have here of being able to really play

I am not even convinced that these impressions come completely from our own imaginations...  it's not that hard to imagine that some degree of spiritualty lies within the music itself, having been deposited there by the composer.

 what we don't usually realize is that most people have no clue what we are talking about when we share these revelations.  They simply don't have the same deep rooted love/obsession with music that most of us here were born with.


When I was learning the 3rd mvmt I spent sometimes `12 hours a day at the piano.  I can remember at 2 or 3 in the morning I would get really "fuzzy."   Once I swear I saw a sleeve on the piano next to me --it was a crushed velvet blue sleeve with white cuffs coming out and a white hand... like Liberace's not Beethoven.   Another time, during my struggles with mvmt 3---I daydreamed that I was riding along in a carriage with none other than Beethoven himself.   I could hear him speaking German, I could feel the bumps from the road, and there was "moonlight on a lake" that we passed.   It was 3am and I had been practicing since 3 that afternoon...  I know I was sleep deprived..but it was still a freaky experience nonetheless.  

so to the OP... I am sorry,  keep up with you analysis please...  

[symphonicdance]

Andras Schiff had argued in the past that the 1st movement looks like funeral march instead.

[distantfieldrelative]

Mvt 1: Through the rain and the muck and the fog a funeral march trudges toward the cemetery. Dressed in black and faces covered the party shuffles its feet closer and closer to the grave of their beloved. The pole bearers feel the weight of the coffin and its contents press down into their shoulders. They set the cradle of death over the pit and assume their places. The long and flowing tail marches slowly and silently to their seats.

One of the bearers looks up and sees the long flow of friends, colleagues and family of the deceased; the hundreds of lanterns give the sky around them a ghastly glow and the faces lit up by the lights seem to be those of the damned. The seats are filled and the march stops.

Mvt 2: In a drastic attempt to breath life into the occasion the eulogy is kept light and happy. The mother and closest friends tell about witty and humorous times they had with their son and comrade. The coffin is lowered into the ground and the dirt is shoveled into the hole but the party focuses on the glad times and puts on fake smiles.

Mvt 3: Upon arriving home the best friend of the now dead slams the door shut behind him and tears through his house. He rippes the curtains off the walls and topples anything in his way. His rage is directed upon anything unfortunate enough to enter his field of vision. Shouting and cursing can be heard through the shattered glass.

"Why?! He was such a good person! Now what? Did you really have to take him from me? From all of us!? You are nothing but selfish and cruel! Taking anything that meets your gaze...Anyone that meets your gaze...".

Tears stream down his face as he lays on the floor of his living room. Broken chairs and torn books litter the floor all around him. He feels stepped on. Death would now be welcomed as a way of easing the pain. His thoughts seethe wrath and sorrow. The cold floor on his back whispers into his ear to end his life and find peace. He stands and walks to his attic; rope in hand.

In a drunken rage he stands upon his wooden hero; the last friend he will know; the one who will help him escape. Cursing the sky one last time in a slanderous and cruel string of twisted and vengeful words he kicks his feet forward.

Another funeral is to be had... 

 

[dcstudio]

man... that was cool. 

[distantfieldrelative]

man... that was cool. 

Thank you.

[hardy_practice]

Tears stream down his face as he lays on the floor of his living room.

Tears of laughter stream down mine! LOL