5 when and who composed the moonlight sonata. The history of the creation of L. Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata"

Today we will get acquainted with piano sonata No. 14, better known as “Moonlight” or “Moonlight Sonata”.

• Page 1:
• Introduction. The phenomenon of popularity of this work
• Why was the sonata called “Moonlight” (the myth of Beethoven and the “blind girl”, the real story behind the name)
• General characteristics of the “Moonlight Sonata” (brief description of the work with the opportunity to listen to the performance on video)
• A brief description of each part of the sonata - we comment on the features of all three parts of the work.

Introduction

I welcome everyone who is interested in Beethoven's work! My name is Yuri Vanyan, and I am the editor of the site you are on now. For more than a year now, I have been publishing detailed and sometimes short introductory articles about a variety of works by the great composer.

However, to my shame, the frequency of publishing new articles on our site has dropped significantly due to my personal busyness lately, which I promise to correct in the near future (I will probably have to involve other authors). But I am even more ashamed that so far this resource has not published a single article about the “calling card” of Beethoven’s work - the famous “Moonlight Sonata”. In today's episode I will finally try to fill this significant gap.

The phenomenon of popularity of this work

I didn't just call the piece that "calling card" composer, because for most people, especially for those who are far from classical music, the name of one of the most influential composers of all time is primarily associated with the “Moonlight Sonata”.

The popularity of this piano sonata has reached incredible heights! Even right now, typing this text, I just asked myself for a second: “What works of Beethoven could eclipse Lunar in terms of popularity?” - And you know what’s the funniest thing? I cannot now, in real time, remember at least one such work!

Look for yourself - in April 2018, in the search bar of the Yandex network alone, the phrase “Beethoven Moonlight Sonata” was mentioned in a variety of declensions more than 35 thousand once. So that you can roughly understand how large this number is, below I will present monthly statistics of requests, but for other famous works of the composer (I compared requests in the format “Beethoven + Title of the work”):

• Sonata No. 17— 2,392 requests
• Pathetic Sonata— almost 6000 requests
• Appassionata— 1500 requests...
• Symphony No. 5— about 25,000 requests
• Symphony No. 9— less than 7000 requests
• Heroic Symphony— just over 3000 requests per month

As you can see, the popularity of “Lunar” significantly exceeds the popularity of other, no less outstanding works of Beethoven. Only the famous “Fifth Symphony” came closest to the mark of 35 thousand requests per month. It is worth noting that the popularity of the sonata was already at its height. during the composer's lifetime, which Beethoven himself even complained about to his student, Karl Czerny.

After all, according to Beethoven, among his creations were much more outstanding works, which I personally absolutely agree with. In particular, it remains a mystery to me why, for example, the same “Ninth Symphony” is much less interested on the Internet than “Moonlight Sonata”.

I wonder what data we will get if we compare the above-mentioned frequency of requests with the most famous works others great composers? Let's check it out now that we've already started:

• Symphony No. 40 (Mozart)- 30,688 requests,
• Requiem (Mozart)- 30,253 requests,
• Hallelujah (Handel)— just over 1000 requests,
• Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninov)- 11,991 requests,
• Concert No. 1 (Tchaikovsky) - 6 930,
• Chopin's Nocturnes(sum of all combined) - 13,383 requests...

As you can see, in the Russian-speaking audience of Yandex, finding a competitor to “Moonlight Sonata” is very difficult, if at all possible. I think the situation abroad is not much different either!

We can talk endlessly about the popularity of “Lunarium”. Therefore, I promise that this issue will not be the only one, and from time to time we will update the site with new interesting details related to this wonderful work.

Today I will try to tell as succinctly as possible (if possible) what I know about the history of the creation of this work, I will try to dispel some myths associated with the origin of its name, and I will also share recommendations for beginning pianists who want to perform this sonata.

The history of the creation of the Moonlight Sonata. Juliet Guicciardi

In one of the articles I mentioned a letter from November 16, 1801 year, which Beethoven sent to his old friend - Wegeler(more about this episode of the biography:).

In that same letter, the composer complained to Wegeler about dubious and unpleasant treatment methods prescribed to him by his attending physician to prevent hearing loss (let me remind you that Beethoven was not completely deaf by that time, but had long since discovered that he was losing his hearing, and Wegeler, in his In turn, he was a professional doctor and, moreover, one of the first people to whom the young composer confessed to the development of deafness).

Further, in the same letter, Beethoven talks about "to the sweet and charming girl whom he loves and who loves him" . But Beethoven immediately makes it clear that this girl is higher than him in social status, which means he needs "actively act" so that there is an opportunity to marry her.

Under the word "act" I understand, first of all, Beethoven’s desire to overcome developing deafness as quickly as possible and, therefore, to significantly improve his financial situation through more intensive creativity and touring. Thus, it seems to me that the composer was trying to achieve marriage with a girl from an aristocratic family.

After all, even despite the young composer’s lack of any title, fame and money could equalize his chances of marrying the young countess in comparison with some potential competitor from a noble family (at least that’s how, in my opinion, he reasoned young composer).

Who is Moonlight Sonata dedicated to?

The girl discussed above was a young countess, by name - the piano sonata “Opus 27, No. 2”, which we now know as “Moonlight”, was dedicated to her.

In a nutshell I will tell you about biographies this girl, although very little is known about her. So, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi was born on November 23, 1782 (and not 1784, as is often mistakenly written) in the town Premysl(at that time he was part of Kingdoms of Galicia and Lodomeria, and is now located in Poland) in the family of an Italian count Francesco Giuseppe Guicciardi And Suzanne Guicciardi.

I do not know about the biographical details of this girl’s childhood and early youth, but it is known that in 1800, Juliet and her family moved from Trieste, Italy, to Vienna. At that time, Beethoven was in close contact with the young Hungarian count Franz Brunswik and his sisters - Teresa, Josephine And Carolina(Charlotte).

Beethoven loved this family very much, because, despite their high social position and decent financial condition, the young count and his sisters were not too “spoiled” by the luxury of aristocratic life, but, on the contrary, communicated with the young and far from rich composer absolutely on equal terms, bypassing any psychological difference in classes. And, of course, they all admired the talent of Beethoven, who by that time had already established himself not only as one of the best pianists in Europe, but also quite famous as a composer.

Moreover, Franz Brunswik and his sisters were themselves fond of music. The young count played the cello well, and Beethoven himself taught piano lessons to his older sisters, Teresa and Josephine, and, as far as I know, he did it for free. At the same time, the girls were quite talented pianists - the older sister, Teresa, was especially successful in this. Well, in a few years the composer will start an affair with Josephine, but that’s another story.

We will talk about members of the Brunswick family in separate issues. I mention them here only for the reason that it was through the Brunswick family that the young Countess Giulietta Guicciardi met Beethoven, since Juliet's mother, Susanna Guicciardi (maiden name Brunsvik), was the aunt of Franz and his siblings. Well, Juliet, therefore, was their cousin.

In general, upon arriving in Vienna, the charming Juliet quickly joined this company. The close connection of her relatives with Beethoven, their sincere friendship and unconditional recognition of the talent of the young composer in this family one way or another contributed to Juliet’s acquaintance with Ludwig.

However, unfortunately, I cannot give the exact date of this acquaintance. Western sources usually write that the composer met the young countess at the end of 1801, but, in my opinion, this is not entirely true. At least, I know for sure that in the late spring of 1800, Ludwig spent time on the Brunswick estate. The point is that Juliet was also in this place at that time, and, therefore, by that time the young people should have, if not been friends, then at least met. Moreover, already in June the girl moved to Vienna, and, given her close connection with Beethoven’s friends, I very much doubt that the young people really did not meet until 1801.

Other events date back to the end of 1801 - most likely, it was at this time that Juliet takes his first piano lessons from Beethoven, for which, as is known, the teacher did not take money. Beethoven took any attempts to pay for music lessons as a personal insult. It is known that one day Juliet's mother, Suzanne Guicciardi, sent Ludwig shirts as a gift. Beethoven, taking this gift as payment for his daughter’s education (perhaps this was so), wrote a rather emotional letter to his “potential mother-in-law” (January 23, 1802), in which he expressed his indignation and resentment, and made it clear that he was engaged with Juliet not at all for the sake of material reward, and also asked the countess not to do such things again, otherwise he "won't appear in their house again" .

As various biographers note, Beethoven’s new student wouldStro attracts him with her beauty, charm and talent (let me remind you that beautiful and talented pianists were one of Beethoven’s most pronounced weaknesses). At the same time, withit is read that this sympathy was mutual, and later turned into a fairly strong romance. It is worth noting that Juliet was much younger than Beethoven - at the time of sending the above-mentioned letter to Wegeler (let me remind you, it was November 16, 1801) she was only seventeen years old. However, apparently, the girl was not particularly worried about the age difference (Beethoven was 30 at the time).

Has Juliet and Ludwig's relationship progressed to a marriage proposal? - Most biographers believe that this really happened, citing mainly the famous Beethoven scholar - Alexandra Wheelock Thayer. I quote the latter (the translation is not exact, but approximate):

A careful analysis and comparison of both published data and personal habits and hints received during several years of stay in Vienna leads to the opinion that Beethoven nevertheless decided to propose marriage to Countess Julia, and that she did not object, and that one parent agreed to this marriage, but the other parent, probably the father, expressed his refusal.

(A.W. Thayer, Part 1, page 292)

In the quote I marked the word in red opinion, since Thayer himself emphasized this and emphasized in parentheses that this note is not a fact based on competent evidence, but his personal conclusion obtained through the analysis of a variety of data. But the fact is that it was precisely this opinion (which I am in no way trying to dispute) of such an authoritative Beethoven scholar as Thayer, which became the most popular in the works of other biographers.

Thayer further emphasized that the refusal of the second parent (father) was primarily due to Beethoven's lack of any rank (probably means “title”), status, permanent position and so on. In principle, if Thayer's assumption is correct, then Juliet's father can be understood! After all, the Guicciardi family, despite the count's title, was far from rich, and the pragmatism of Juliet's father did not allow him to give his beautiful daughter into the hands of a poor musician, whose constant income at that time was only a patronage allowance of 600 florins a year (and that, thanks to Prince Likhnovsky).

One way or another, even if Thayer’s assumption was inaccurate (which I doubt, however), and the matter did not come to a marriage proposal, then the romance of Ludwig and Juliet was still not destined to move to another level.

If in the summer of 1801 young people had a great time in Krompachy * , and in the fall Beethoven sends that very letter in which he tells his old friend about his feelings and shares his dream of marriage, then already in 1802 the romantic relationship between the composer and the young countess noticeably fades away (and, first of all, on the part of the girl, for the composer is still was in love with her). * Krompachy is a small town in what is now Slovakia, and at that time it was part of Hungary. The Brunswicks' Hungarian estate was located there, including the gazebo where Beethoven is believed to have worked on the Moonlight Sonata.

The turning point in these relations was the appearance of a third person in them - the young count Wenzel Robert Gallenberg (December 28, 1783 - March 13, 1839), an Austrian amateur composer who, despite the lack of any impressive fortune, was able to attract the attention of the young and frivolous Juliet and, thereby, became a competitor to Beethoven, gradually pushing him into the background.

Beethoven will never forgive Juliet for this betrayal. The girl he was crazy about, and for whom he lived, not only preferred another man to him, but also preferred Gallenberg as a composer.

For Beethoven this was a double blow, because Gallenberg's talent as a composer was so mediocre that it was openly reported in the Viennese press. And even studying with such a wonderful teacher as Albrechtsberger (whom, let me remind you, Beethoven himself had previously studied with), did not contribute to the development of Gallenberg’s musical thinkingniya, as evidenced by the obvious theft (plagiarism) by the young count of musical techniques from more famous composers.

As a result, around this time the publishing house Giovanni Cappi, finally publishes the sonata “Opus 27, No. 2” with a dedication to Giulietta Guicciardi.

It is important to note that Beethoven composed this work completely not for Juliet. Previously, the composer had to dedicate a completely different work to this girl (Rondo “G Major”, Opus 51 No. 2), a work much brighter and more cheerful. However, for technical reasons (completely unrelated to the relationship between Juliet and Ludwig), that work had to be dedicated to Princess Likhnovskaya.

Well, now, when “Juliet’s turn has come” again, this time Beethoven dedicates to the girl not a cheerful work at all (in memory of the happy summer of 1801, spent together in Hungary), but that same “C-sharp-minor” sonata, the first part of which has a clearly expressed mourning character(yes, exactly “mourning”, but not “romantic”, as many people think - we will talk about this in more detail on the second page).

In conclusion, it should be noted that the relationship between Juliet and Count Gallenberg reached the point of legal marriage, which took place on November 3, 1803, and in the spring of 1806 the couple moved to Italy (more precisely, to Naples), where Gallenberg continued to compose his music and even what - for the time being, he staged ballets in the theater at the court of Joseph Bonaparte (the elder brother of that same Napoleon, at that time he was the king of Naples, and later became the king of Spain).

In 1821, the famous opera impresario Domenico Barbaia, who directed the above-mentioned theater, became the manager of the famous Viennese theater with an unpronounceable name "Kerntnertor"(it was there that the final edition of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio was staged, and the premiere of the Ninth Symphony took place) and, apparently, “dragged along” Gallenberg, who got a job in the administration of this theater and became responsible for the music archives, Well, from January 1829 (that is, after Beethoven’s death), he himself rented the Kärntnertor Theater. However, by May of the following year the contract was terminated due to Gallenberg's financial difficulties.

There is evidence that Juliet, who moved to Vienna with her husband, who had serious financial problems, dared to ask Beethoven for financial help. The latter, surprisingly, helped her with a considerable sum of 500 florins, although he himself was forced to borrow this money from another rich man (I can’t say who exactly it was). Beethoven himself let slip about this in a dialogue with Anton Schindler. Beethoven also noted that Juliet asked him for reconciliation, but he did not forgive her.

Why was the sonata called “Moonlight”

As the name was popularized and finally consolidated in German society "Moonlight Sonata" people came up with various myths and romantic stories about the origin of both this name and the work itself.

Unfortunately, even in our smart age of the Internet, these myths can sometimes be interpreted as real sources answering the questions of certain network users.

Due to the technical and regulatory features of using the network, we cannot filter “incorrect” information from the Internet that misleads readers (probably this is for the best, since freedom of opinion is an important part of a modern democratic society) and find only “reliable information " Therefore, we will just try to add to the Internet a little of that very “reliable” information, which, I hope, will help at least a few readers to separate myths from real facts.

The most popular myth on the history of the origin of the “Moonlight Sonata” (both the work and its title) is the good old anecdote according to which Beethoven allegedly composed this sonata, being impressed after playing for a blind girl in a room illuminated by moonlight.

I will not copy the full text of the story - you can find it on the Internet. I only worry about one thing, namely the fear that many people can perceive (and perceive) this anecdote as the real story of the sonata’s origin!

After all, this seemingly harmless fictional story, popular in the 19th century, never bothered me until I began to notice it on various Internet resources, posted as an illustration supposedly true history origin of "Moonlight Sonata". I have also heard rumors that this story is used in a “collection of stories” in the Russian language school curriculum - which means that, given that such a beautiful legend can easily be imprinted in the minds of children who may accept this myth as truth, we simply have to add a little authenticity and note that this story is fictional.

Let me clarify: I have nothing against this story, which, in my opinion, is very nice. However, if in the 19th century this anecdote was the subject of only folklore and artistic references (for example, the picture below shows the very first version of this myth, where her brother, a shoemaker, was in the room with the composer and the blind girl), now many people consider it a real biographical fact, and I cannot allow this.Therefore, I just want to note that the famous story about Beethoven and the blind girl, although cute, is still fictional.

To verify this, it is enough to study any manual on the biography of Beethoven and make sure that the composer composed this sonata at the age of thirty, while in Hungary (probably partly in Vienna), and in the above-mentioned anecdote the action takes place in Bonn, a city that the composer finally left at the age of 21, when there was no talk of any “Moonlight Sonata” (at that time Beethoven had not yet written even the “first” piano sonata, let alone the “fourteenth”).

How did Beethoven feel about the title?

Another myth associated with the name of the piano Sonata No. 14 is the positive or negative attitude of Beethoven himself towards the name “Moonlight Sonata”.

I’ll explain what I’m talking about: several times, while studying Western forums, I came across discussions where one user asked a question like the following: “How did the composer feel about the title “Moonlight Sonata.” At the same time, other participants who answered this question, as a rule, , were divided into two camps.

• The participants of the “first” answered that Beethoven did not like this title, in contrast, for example, to the same “Pathetique” sonata.
• Participants in the “second camp” argued that Beethoven could not have related to the name “Moonlight Sonata” or, moreover, “Moonlight Sonata”, since these names originated a few years after death composer - in 1832 year (the composer died in 1827). At the same time, they noted that this work, indeed, was quite popular during Beethoven’s lifetime (the composer didn’t even like it), but they were talking about the work itself, and not about its title, which could not have existed during the composer’s lifetime.

I would like to note on my own that the participants in the “second camp” are closest to the truth, but there is also an important nuance here, which I will talk about in the next paragraph.

Who came up with the name?

The “nuance” mentioned above is the fact that in fact the first connection between the movement of the “first movement” of the sonata and moonlight was still made during Beethoven’s lifetime, namely in 1823, and not in 1832, as is usually said.

It's about the work "Theodore: a musical study", where at one point the author of this short story compares the first movement (adagio) of the sonata with the following picture:

By “lake” in the screenshot above we mean lake Lucerne(aka “Firvaldstetskoye”, located in Switzerland), but I borrowed the quote itself from Larisa Kirillina (first volume, page 231), who, in turn, refers to Grundman (pages 53-54).

The description of the Relshtab cited above certainly gave first prerequisites to the popularization of associations of the first movement of the sonata with lunar landscapes. However, in fairness, it should be noted that these associations did not initially make a significant impact in society, and, as noted above, During Beethoven’s lifetime this sonata was still not spoken of as “Moonlight”.

Most rapidly, this connection between “adagio” and moonlight began to take hold in society as early as 1852, when the words of Relshtab were suddenly remembered by the famous music critic Wilhelm von Lenz(who referred to the same associations with “lunar landscapes on the lake”, but, apparently, mistakenly named the date not 1823, but 1832), after which a new wave of propaganda of Relshtab associations began in the musical society and, as a result, gradual formation of the now famous name.

Already in 1860, Lenz himself used the term “Moonlight Sonata”, after which this name was finally fixed and used both in the press and in folklore, and, as a result, in society.

Brief description of “Moonlight Sonata”

And now, knowing the history of the creation of the work and the origin of its name, you can finally familiarize yourself with it briefly. I warn you right away: we will not conduct a comprehensive musical analysis, because I still cannot do it better than professional musicologists, whose detailed analyzes of this work you can find on the Internet (Goldenweiser, Kremlev, Kirillina, Bobrovsky and others).

I will only give you the opportunity to listen to this sonata performed by professional pianists, and along the way I will also give my brief comments and advice for beginning pianists who want to perform this sonata. I should note that I am not a professional pianist, but I think that I can give a couple of useful tips for beginners.

So, as noted earlier, this sonata was published under the catalog title "Opus 27, No. 2", and among the thirty-two piano sonatas it is the “fourteenth”. Let me remind you that the “thirteenth” piano sonata (Opus 27, No. 1) was also published under the same opus.

Both of these sonatas share a freer form compared to most other classical sonatas, as the composer’s author’s note openly indicates to us. "Sonata in the manner of fantasy" on the title pages of both sonatas.

Sonata No. 14 consists of three movements:

1. Slow part "Adagio sostenuto" in C sharp minor
2. Calm "Allegretto" minuet character
3. Stormy and swift « "Presto agitato"

Oddly enough, in my opinion, sonata No. 13 deviates much more from the classical sonata form than “Moonlight”. Moreover, even the twelfth sonata (opus 26), where the first movement uses theme and variations, I consider much more revolutionary in terms of form, although this work did not receive the mark “in the manner of fantasy.”

For clarification, let's remember what we talked about in the episode about "". I quote:

“The formula for the structure of Beethoven’s first four-movement sonatas was, as a rule, based on the following template:

• Part 1 - Quick “Allegro”;
• Part 2 - Slow Motion;
• Movement 3 - Minuet or Scherzo;
• Part 4 - The ending is usually quick."

Now imagine what will happen if we cut off the first part of this template and start, as it were, right away with the second. In this case, we will end up with the following three-part sonata template:

• Part 1 - Slow Motion;
• Movement 2 - Minuet or Scherzo;
• Part 3 - The ending is usually quick.

Doesn't remind you of anything? As you can see, the form of the Moonlight Sonata is actually not that revolutionary and is in fact very similar to the form of Beethoven's very first sonatas.

It just feels as if Beethoven, while composing this work, simply decided: “Why don’t I start the sonata right away with the second movement?” and turned this idea into reality - it looks exactly like this (at least in my opinion).

Listen to recordings

Now, finally, I suggest you take a closer look at the work. To begin with, I recommend listening to “audio recordings” of the performance of Sonata No. 14 by professional pianists.

Part 1(performed by Evgeny Kisin):

Part 2(performed by Wilhelm Kempff):

Part 3(performed by Yenyo Yando):

Important!

On next page we will look at each part of the “Moonlight Sonata”, where I will give my comments along the way.

At the very end of the 18th century, Ludwig van Beethoven was in the prime of his life, he was incredibly popular, led an active social life, and he could rightfully be called the idol of the youth of that time. But one circumstance began to darken the composer’s life - his gradually fading hearing. “I drag out a bitter existence,” Beethoven wrote to his friend. “I am deaf. With my profession, nothing could be more terrible... Oh, if I could get rid of this disease, I would embrace the whole world.”

In 1800, Beethoven met the Guicciardi aristocrats who came from Italy to Vienna. The daughter of a respectable family, sixteen-year-old Juliet, had good musical abilities and wished to take piano lessons from the idol of the Viennese aristocracy. Beethoven does not charge the young countess, and she, in turn, gives him a dozen shirts that she sewed herself.

Beethoven was a strict teacher. When he didn’t like Juliet’s playing, frustrated, he threw the notes on the floor, pointedly turned away from the girl, and she silently collected the notebooks from the floor.
Juliet was pretty, young, sociable and flirtatious with her 30-year-old teacher. And Beethoven succumbed to her charm. “Now I am in society more often, and therefore my life has become more fun,” he wrote to Franz Wegeler in November 1800. “This change was made in me by a sweet, charming girl who loves me, and whom I love. I have bright moments again, and I come to the conviction that marriage can make a person happy.” Beethoven thought about marriage despite the fact that the girl belonged to an aristocratic family. But the composer in love consoled himself with the thought that he would give concerts, achieve independence, and then marriage would become possible.

He spent the summer of 1801 in Hungary on the estate of the Hungarian counts of Brunswick, relatives of Juliet's mother, in Korompa. The summer spent with his beloved was the happiest time for Beethoven.
At the peak of his feelings, the composer began to create a new sonata. The gazebo, in which, according to legend, Beethoven composed magical music, has survived to this day. In the homeland of the work, in Austria, it is known as “Garden House Sonata” or “Gazebo Sonata”.

The sonata began in a state of great love, delight and hope. Beethoven was sure that Juliet had the most tender feelings for him. Many years later, in 1823, Beethoven, then already deaf and communicating with the help of speaking notebooks, talking with Schindler, wrote: “I was very loved by her and more than ever, I was her husband...”
In the winter of 1801 - 1802, Beethoven completed the composition of a new work. And in March 1802, Sonata No. 14, which the composer called quasi una Fantasia, that is, “in the spirit of fantasy,” was published in Bonn with the dedication “Alla Damigella Contessa Giullietta Guicciardri” (“Dedicated to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi”).
The composer finished his masterpiece in anger, rage and extreme resentment: from the first months of 1802, the flighty coquette showed a clear preference for the eighteen-year-old Count Robert von Gallenberg, who was also fond of music and composed very mediocre musical opuses. However, to Juliet, Gallenberg seemed like a genius.
The composer conveys the entire storm of human emotions that was in Beethoven’s soul at that time in his sonata. This is grief, doubt, jealousy, doom, passion, hope, longing, tenderness and, of course, love.

Beethoven and Juliet separated. And even later, the composer received a letter. It ended with cruel words: “I am leaving a genius who has already won, to a genius who is still struggling for recognition. I want to be his guardian angel." It was a “double blow” - as a man and as a musician. In 1803, Giulietta Guicciardi married Gallenberg and left for Italy.
In mental turmoil in October 1802, Beethoven left Vienna and went to Heiligenstadt, where he wrote the famous “Heiligenstadt Testament” (October 6, 1802): “Oh, you people who think that I am evil, stubborn, ill-mannered, how do you they are unfair to me; you do not know the secret reason for what seems to you. In my heart and mind, since childhood, I have been predisposed to a tender sense of kindness, I have always been ready to accomplish great things. But just think that for six years now I have been in an unfortunate state... I am completely deaf..."
Fear and the collapse of hopes give rise to thoughts of suicide in the composer. But Beethoven pulled himself together, decided to start a new life, and in almost absolute deafness created great masterpieces.
In 1821, Juliet returned to Austria and came to Beethoven’s apartment. Crying, she recalled the wonderful time when the composer was her teacher, talked about the poverty and difficulties of her family, asked to forgive her and help with money. Being a kind and noble man, the maestro gave her a significant amount, but asked her to leave and never appear in his house. Beethoven seemed indifferent and indifferent. But who knows what was going on in his heart, tormented by numerous disappointments.
“I despised her,” Beethoven recalled much later. “After all, if I wanted to give my life to this love, what would be left for the noble, for the highest?”

In the autumn of 1826, Beethoven fell ill. Grueling treatment and three complex operations could not get the composer back on his feet. All winter, without getting out of bed, completely deaf, he suffered because... he could not continue to work. On March 26, 1827, the great musical genius Ludwig van Beethoven died.
After his death, a letter “To the Immortal Beloved” was found in a secret wardrobe drawer (as Beethoven himself titled the letter): “My angel, my everything, my self... Why is there deep sadness where necessity reigns? Can our love survive only at the cost of sacrifice by refusing completeness? Can't you change the situation in which you are not entirely mine and I am not entirely yours? What a life! Without you! So close! So far! What longing and tears for you - you - you, my life, my everything...” Many will then argue about who exactly the message is addressed to. But a small fact points specifically to Juliet Guicciardi: next to the letter was kept a tiny portrait of Beethoven’s beloved, made by an unknown master, and the “Heiligenstadt Testament”.

Be that as it may, it was Juliet who inspired Beethoven to write his immortal masterpiece.
“The monument of love that he wanted to create with this sonata very naturally turned into a mausoleum. For a person like Beethoven, love could not be anything other than hope beyond the grave and sorrow, spiritual mourning here on earth” (Alexander Serov, composer and music critic).
The sonata “in the spirit of fantasy” was at first simply Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, which consisted of three movements - Adagio, Allegro and Finale. In 1832, the German poet Ludwig Relstab, one of Beethoven's friends, saw in the first part of the work an image of Lake Lucerne on a quiet night, with moonlight reflecting from the surface. He suggested the name “Lunarium”. Years will pass, and the first measured part of the work: “Adagio of Sonata No. 14 quasi una fantasia” will become known to the whole world under the name “Moonlight Sonata”.

Ludwig van Beethoven. Moonlight Sonata. Sonata of love or...

Sonata cis-moll(Op. 27 No. 2) is one of Beethoven's most popular piano sonatas; perhaps the most famous piano sonata in the world and the favorite work for home music playing. For more than two centuries it has been taught, played, softened, tamed - just as in all centuries people have tried to soften and tame death.

Boat on the waves

The name “Lunar” does not belong to Beethoven - it was introduced into circulation after the composer’s death by Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Relstab (1799–1860), a German music critic, poet and librettist, who left a number of notes in the master’s conversation notebooks. Relshtab compared the images of the first movement of the sonata to the movement of a boat sailing under the moon along Lake Vierwaldstedt in Switzerland.

Ludwig van Beethoven. Portrait painted in the second half of the 19th century

Ludwig Relstab
(1799 - 1860)
German novelist, playwright and music critic

K. Friedrich. Monastery cemetery in the snow (1819)
National Gallery, Berlin

Switzerland. Lake Vierwaldstedt

Beethoven's different works have many names, which are usually understood only in one country. But the adjective “lunar” in relation to this sonata has become international. The lightweight salon title touched the depths of the image from which the music grew. Beethoven himself, who tended to give parts of his works slightly ponderous definitions in Italian, called his two sonatas Op. 27 No. 1 and 2 - quasi una fantasia- “something like a fantasy.”

Legend

The romantic tradition connects the emergence of the sonata with the composer’s next love interest - his student, young Giulietta Guicciardi (1784–1856), cousin of Theresa and Josephine Brunswick, two sisters with whom the composer was in turn attracted at different periods of his life (Beethoven, like Mozart, had a tendency to fall in love with entire families).

Juliet Guicciardi

Teresa Brunswick. Beethoven's faithful friend and student

Dorothea Ertman
German pianist, one of the best performers of Beethoven's works
Ertman was famous for her performances of Beethoven's works. The composer dedicated Sonata No. 28 to her

The romantic legend includes four points: Beethoven's passion, playing a sonata under the moon, a marriage proposal rejected by heartless parents due to class prejudices, and, finally, the marriage of a frivolous Viennese, who preferred a rich young aristocrat to the great composer.

Alas, there is nothing to confirm that Beethoven ever proposed to his student (as he, with a high degree of probability, later proposed to Teresa Malfatti, the cousin of his attending physician). There is not even evidence that Beethoven was seriously in love with Juliet. He didn’t tell anyone about his feelings (just as he didn’t talk about his other loves). The portrait of Giulietta Guicciardi was found after the composer's death in a locked box along with other valuable documents - but... in the secret box were several portraits of women.

And finally, Juliet married Count Wenzel Robert von Gallenberg, an elderly ballet composer and musical theater archivist, only a couple of years after the creation of the op. 27 No. 2 - in 1803.

Whether the girl with whom Beethoven was once infatuated was happy in marriage is another question. Before his death, the deaf composer wrote down in one of his conversation notebooks that some time ago Juliet wanted to meet him, she even “cried,” but he refused her.

Caspar David Friedrich. Woman and sunset (Sunset, sunrise, woman in the morning sun)

Beethoven did not push away the women with whom he was once in love, he even wrote to them...

The first page of a letter to the “immortal beloved”

Perhaps in 1801, the hot-tempered composer quarreled with his student over some trifle (as happened, for example, with the violinist Bridgetower, the performer of the Kreutzer Sonata), and even many years later he was ashamed to remember it.

Secrets of the heart

If Beethoven suffered in 1801, it was not at all from unhappy love. At this time, he first told his friends that he had been struggling with impending deafness for three years. On June 1, 1801, his friend, violinist and theologian Karl Amenda (1771–1836) received a desperate letter. (5) , to which Beethoven dedicated his beautiful string quartet op. 18 F major. On June 29, Beethoven informed another friend, Franz Gerhard Wegeler, about his illness: “For two years now I have almost avoided any society, since I cannot tell people: “I am deaf!”

Church in the village of Geiligenstadt

In 1802, in Heiligenstadt (a resort suburb of Vienna), he wrote his stunning will: “O you people who consider or declare me embittered, stubborn or a misanthrope, how unfair you are to me” - this is how this famous document begins.

The image of the “Moonlight” Sonata grew through heavy thoughts and sad thoughts.

The moon in the romantic poetry of Beethoven's time is an ominous, gloomy luminary. Only decades later, her image in salon poetry acquired elegance and began to “brighten.” The epithet “lunar” in relation to a piece of music from the late 18th – early 19th centuries. can mean irrationality, cruelty and gloom.

No matter how beautiful the legend of unhappy love is, it is difficult to believe that Beethoven could dedicate such a sonata to his beloved girl.

For the “Moonlight” sonata is a sonata about death.

Key

The key to the mysterious triplets of the “Moonlight” sonata, which open the first movement, was discovered by Theodor Visev and Georges de Saint-Foy in their famous work on Mozart’s music. These triplets, which today any child admitted to his parents' piano enthusiastically tries to play, go back to the immortal image created by Mozart in his opera Don Giovanni (1787). Mozart's masterpiece, which Beethoven resented and admired, begins with a senseless murder in the dark of night. In the silence that followed the explosion in the orchestra, three voices emerge one after another on quiet and deep string triplets: the trembling voice of the dying man, the intermittent voice of his killer and the muttering of the numb servant.

With this detached triplet movement, Mozart created the effect of life flowing away, floating away into the darkness, when the body is already numb, and the measured sway of Lethe carries away the fading consciousness on its waves.

In Mozart, the monotonous accompaniment of the strings is superimposed with a chromatic mournful melody in the wind instruments and singing - albeit intermittently - male voices.

In Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, what should have been an accompaniment drowned out and dissolved the melody - the voice of individuality. The upper voice floating above them (the coherence of which is sometimes the main difficulty for the performer) is almost no longer a melody. This is the illusion of a melody that you can grab onto as your last hope.

On the verge of goodbye

In the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven transposes Mozart's death triplets, which had sunk into his memory, a semitone lower - into a more reverent and romantic C sharp minor. This will be an important key for him - in it he will write his last and great quartet cis-moll.

The endless triads of the “Moonlight” Sonata, flowing into one another, have neither end nor beginning. Beethoven reproduced with amazing accuracy that feeling of melancholy that is evoked by the endless play of scales and triads behind the wall - sounds that, with their endless repetition, can take away the music from a person. But Beethoven raises all this boring nonsense to a generalization of the cosmic order. Before us is musical fabric in its purest form.

By the beginning of the twentieth century. and other arts approached the level of this discovery of Beethoven: thus, artists made pure color the hero of their canvases.

What the composer does in his work of 1801 is strikingly consonant with the search of the late Beethoven, with his last sonatas, in which, according to Thomas Mann, “the sonata itself as a genre ends, comes to an end: it has fulfilled its purpose, achieved its goal , there is no further path, and she dissolves, overcomes herself as a form, says goodbye to the world.”

“Death is nothing,” Beethoven himself said, “you live only in the most beautiful moments. That which is genuine, that which really exists in a person, that which is inherent in him, is eternal. What is transitory is worthless. Life acquires beauty and significance only thanks to fantasy, this flower, which only there, in the sky-high heights, blooms magnificently...”

The second movement of the Moonlight Sonata, which Franz Liszt called “a fragrant flower that grew between two abysses - the abyss of sadness and the abyss of despair,” is a flirtatious allegretto, similar to a light interlude. The third part was compared by the composer's contemporaries, accustomed to thinking in images of romantic painting, to a night storm on a lake. Four waves of sound rise up one after another, each ending with two sharp blows, as if the waves hit a rock.

The musical form itself is bursting out, trying to break the boundaries of the old form, splashing out over the edge - but it retreats.

The time has not yet come.

Text: Svetlana Kirillova, Art magazine

Beethoven's famous Moonlight Sonata appeared in 1801. In those years, the composer was not going through the best time in his life. On the one hand, he was successful and popular, his works became increasingly popular, he was invited to famous aristocratic houses. The thirty-year-old composer gave the impression of a cheerful, happy person, independent and despising fashion, proud and contented. But Ludwig was tormented by deep emotions in his soul - he began to lose his hearing. This was a terrible misfortune for the composer, because before his illness Beethoven’s hearing was distinguished by amazing subtlety and accuracy, he was able to notice the slightest wrong shade or note, and almost visually imagined all the subtleties of rich orchestral colors.

The causes of the disease remained unknown. Perhaps it was due to excessive hearing strain, or a cold and inflammation of the ear nerve. Be that as it may, Beethoven suffered from unbearable tinnitus day and night, and the entire community of medical professionals could not help him. Already by 1800, the composer had to stand very close to the stage in order to hear the high sounds of the orchestra playing; he had difficulty distinguishing the words of the people speaking to him. He hid his deafness from friends and family and tried to be in society as little as possible. At this time, young Juliet Guicciardi appeared in his life. She was sixteen, she loved music, played the piano beautifully and became a student of the great composer. And Beethoven fell in love, immediately and irrevocably. He always saw only the best in people, and Juliet seemed to him perfection, an innocent angel who came to him to quench his worries and sorrows. He was captivated by the cheerfulness, good nature and sociability of the young student. Beethoven and Juliet began a relationship, and he felt a taste for life. He began to go out more often, he learned again to enjoy simple things - music, the sun, the smile of his beloved. Beethoven dreamed that one day he would call Juliet his wife. Filled with happiness, he began work on a sonata, which he called “Sonata in the Spirit of Fantasy.”

But his dreams were not destined to come true. The flighty and frivolous coquette began an affair with the aristocratic Count Robert Gallenberg. She became uninterested in the deaf, poor composer from a simple family. Very soon Juliet became Countess of Gallenberg. The sonata, which Beethoven began to write in a state of true happiness, delight and trembling hope, was completed in anger and rage. Its first part is slow and gentle, and the finale sounds like a hurricane, sweeping away everything in its path. After Beethoven's death, a letter was found in his desk drawer, which Ludwig addressed to the careless Juliet. In it, he wrote about how much she meant to him, and what melancholy washed over him after Juliet’s betrayal. The composer's world collapsed, and life lost its meaning. One of Beethoven’s best friends, the poet Ludwig Relstab, called the “Moonlight” sonata after his death. At the sound of the sonata, he imagined the quiet surface of the lake and a lonely boat floating on it under the uncertain light of the moon.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Moonlight Sonata

This happened in 1801. The gloomy and unsociable composer fell in love. Who is she who won the heart of the brilliant creator? Sweet, spring-beautiful, with an angelic face and a divine smile, eyes in which you wanted to drown, sixteen-year-old aristocrat Juliet Guicciardi.

In a letter to Franz Wegeler, Beethoven asks a friend about his birth certificate, explaining that he is thinking about getting married. His chosen one was Juliet Guicciardi. Having rejected Beethoven, the inspiration for the Moonlight Sonata married a mediocre musician, the young Count Gallenberg, and went with him to Italy.

“Moonlight Sonata” was supposed to be an engagement gift with which Beethoven hoped to convince Giulietta Guicciardi to accept his marriage proposal. However, the matrimonial hopes of the composers had nothing to do with the birth of the sonata. "Moonlight" was one of two sonatas published under the general title Opus 27, both composed in the summer of 1801, the same year that Beethoven wrote his emotional and tragic letter to his school friend Franz Wegeler in Bonn and first admitted that he had I started having hearing problems.

The "Moonlight Sonata" was originally called the "Garden Arbor Sonata", after its publication Beethoven gave it and the second sonata the general title "Quasi una Fantasia" (which can be translated as "Fantasy Sonata"); this gives us a clue to the mood of the composer at that time. Beethoven desperately wanted to take his mind off his impending deafness, while at the same time he met and fell in love with his student Juliet. The famous name “Lunar” arose almost by accident; it was given to the sonata by the German novelist, playwright and music critic Ludwig Relstab.

A German poet, novelist and music critic, Relstab met Beethoven in Vienna shortly before the composer's death. He sent Beethoven several of his poems in the hope that he would set them to music. Beethoven looked through the poems and even marked a few of them; but I didn’t have time to do anything more. During the posthumous performance of Beethoven's works, Relstab heard Opus 27 No. 2, and in his article enthusiastically noted that the beginning of the sonata reminded him of the play of moonlight on the surface of Lake Lucerne. Since then, this work has been called “Moonlight Sonata”.

The first movement of the sonata is undoubtedly one of Beethoven's most famous works composed for piano. This passage shared the fate of Fur Elise and became a favorite piece of amateur pianists for the simple reason that they can perform it without much difficulty (of course, if they do it slowly enough).
This is slow and dark music, and Beethoven specifically states that the damper pedal should not be used here, since each note in this section must be clearly distinguishable.

But there is one strange thing here. Despite the worldwide fame of this movement and the widespread recognition of its first bars, if you try to hum or whistle it, you will almost certainly fail: you will find it almost impossible to catch the melody. And this is not the only case. This is the characteristic feature of Beethoven's music: he could create incredibly popular works that lack melody. Such works include the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata, as well as the no less famous fragment of the Fifth Symphony.

The second part is the complete opposite of the first - it is cheerful, almost happy music. But listen more closely, and you will notice shades of regret in it, as if happiness, even if it existed, turned out to be too fleeting. The third part bursts into anger and confusion. Non-professional musicians, who proudly perform the first part of the sonata, very rarely approach the second part and never attempt the third, which requires virtuoso skill.

No evidence has reached us that Giulietta Guicciardi ever played a sonata dedicated to her; most likely, this work disappointed her. The gloomy beginning of the sonata did not at all correspond to its light and cheerful character. As for the third movement, poor Juliet must have turned pale with fear at the sight of hundreds of notes, and finally realized that she would never be able to perform in front of her friends the sonata that the famous composer dedicated to her.

Subsequently, Juliet, with respectable honesty, told researchers of Beethoven’s life that the great composer did not think about her at all when creating his masterpiece. Guicciardi's evidence raises the possibility that Beethoven composed both sonatas Opus 27, as well as the String Quintet Opus 29, in an attempt to somehow come to terms with his impending deafness. This is also indicated by the fact that in November 1801, that is, several months after the previous letter and the writing of the “Moonlight Sonata,” Beethoven mentioned in a letter about Juliet Guicciardi, a “charming girl” who loves me, and whom I love "

Beethoven himself was irritated by the unprecedented popularity of his Moonlight Sonata. “Everyone is talking about the C-sharp-minor sonata! I wrote the best things!” he once said angrily to his student Cherny.

Presentation

Included:
1. Presentation - 7 slides, ppsx;
2. Sounds of music:
Beethoven. Moonlight Sonata - I. Adagio sostenuto, mp3;
Beethoven. Moonlight Sonata - II. Allegretto, mp3;
Beethoven. Moonlight Sonata - III. Presto agitato, mp3;
Beethoven. Moonlight Sonata 1 part Symph. ork, mp3;
3. Accompanying article, docx.