Beethoven’s „Moonlight Sonata“The Original and the Romantic

TransfigurationSpecial Exhibition at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn

28th June to 16th November 2003

Beethoven’s piano sonata in C sharp minor, opus27 no. 2, is one of the world’s best loved pieces ofpiano music. Written in 1801, the sonata wasreceived with particular enthusiasm, althoughstrictly speaking it cannot claim any special placewithin Beethoven’s remarkably varied cycle of 32piano sonatas. It provoked the imagination ofaudiences in a way that no other composition ofBeethoven’s did. The sonata is still known univer-sally as the „Moonlight Sonata“, a name given toit long after it was written and withoutBeethoven’s blessing. Nevertheless the piece ofmusic and its „title“ seem to be irrevocably linkedwith each other.

The aim of this special exhibition at theBeethoven-Haus is to show to what great extentthe composition is dominated by the history ofhow it has been received by audiences. For thispurpose the original sources, made available in anew facsimile edition, have been consciously jux-taposed with selected documents relating to thestory of the sonata’s reception, which have influ-enced its interpretation until this day.

The composition of the Sonata in C sharp minorThe first two showcases contain the five knowngenuine sketches for the piano sonata opus 27 no. 2.They all refer to the third movement and wereoriginally part of a sketchbook used by the com-

sad my life has been during the last two years, mypoor hearing has appeared to me everywhere as aghost, and I have fled - from the people“).Strengthened by his affection for Countess GiuliettaGuicciardi (1784-1856), to whom the sonata isdedicated, Beethoven set himself to oppose hisfate with extraordinary vigour: „I shall grab mydestiny by the throat, it certainly will not manageto overcome me completely“ (showcase 2).

Beethoven’s ManuscriptThe manuscript of the piano sonata in C sharpminor opus 27 no. 2., written in 1801, has been inthe possession of Beethoven-Haus since 1898(showcase 3). The minutes of the auction ofBeethoven’s musical estate show that it was soldas article No. 85, described as the Fantasy Sonata,to the Viennese music publisher Tobias Haslingerfor the very moderate price of 1 Florin 40Kreuzer.

As it is today the manuscript consists of 16 eight-line sheets with 30 pages containing music. Since1830 at the latest, the first and last sheets, contain-ing the title page, the first 13 bars of the openingmovement and the final three bars, have beenmissing. Why and when these sheets wereremoved remains a mystery. The numbering ofthe pages, in red ink, was undertaken later by anunknown hand. All instructions for the use ofpedals were added retrospectively in light brownink during a final revision.

First Edition and ReprintsThe First Edition (showcase 4), published in Viennain March 1802 by Giovanni Cappi, was dedicated

poser between spring and autumn 1801. The artand music dealer Ignaz Sauer, after whom thesketchbook is now named, bought it on 5thNovember 1827 at the auction of Beethoven’smusical estate for 2 Florins 50 Kreuzer. He divid-ed it up into single sheets, which he then tried tosell for 20-30 Kreuzer each (60 Kreuzer made up1 Florin). On the cover of the sketchleaf, which ispart of the Beethoven-Haus collection, Sauerconfirms its authenticity (showcase 1). This is theoldest surviving sketch connected with the sonatain C sharp minor. On the front (lines 1-6) is adraft of the second theme of the third movement,which is much more simple in its constructionthan the final version. In the top left-hand corneris the abbreviation „M.G.“ („Mittelgedanke“ or„intermediate idea“). The second original sketchin the exhibition has been lent by the MusashinoAcademia Musicae in Tokyo, where it is normallykept. In the first two lines of music it contains adraft for the last four bars of the movement andbelow that an idea for the composition up to thesecond bar of the reprise. This idea was not incor-porated into the final version. The rest of the frontand the following back show a draft for the codato the end of the movement.

The copperplate engraving by Johann JosephNeidl shows Beethoven in the year the pianosonata was written. In the two letters written thesame year to his old boyhood friend Franz GerhardWegeler (shown in an etching by Rudolf vonNormann, 1839), the physical and psychologicalproblems become obvious, from whichBeethoven suffered through his increasing deaf-ness, which is referred to here directly for the firsttime („you can hardly imagine how gloomy, how

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a metaphor for death and bereavement as well ascopying the musical techniques of the minor keyand the calculation of triads in triplets. The unau-thentic three-bar piano introduction, which wasadded later, should be understood as a parody ofthe opening bars of the „Moonlight Sonata“.

And Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny describes theadagio in his Piano Tutor of 1842 as being „high-ly poetic and at the same time easily understand-able to everyman. It is a nocturnal scene, in whicha grieving voice sounds in the far distance“.

The Romantic Transfiguration(Showcase 6) In the middle of the 19th centurythere arose a striking fable surrounding the com-position of Beethoven’s „Moonlight Sonata“.Beethoven meets a blind girl sitting at a pianoand, stricken by her fate, he sits down himself atthe piano and can suddenly feel the rays of moon-light coming in through the window and weavingthemselves into the notes he is playing. He rusheshome and writes down the „Moonlight Sonata“.In another version he watches how the moonlightis reflected in the features of a blind girl while heis playing for her and her brother. The tale and itssymbolism were of particular interest to visualartists and some of their interpretations of the sub-ject are displayed on the walls.

The coining of the name „Moonshine Sonata“was attributed in 1852 by Wilhelm von Lenz tothe poet and music writer Ludwig Rellstab, whoapparently as early as 1832 had compared the ada-gio to a barque sailing in the moonlight againstthe backdrop of the wild scenery on Lake Lucernein Switzerland. It has however never been possi-

ble to find the quoted passage in Rellstab’sworks, so one can assume that Lenz wove hisown interpretation into what he had read in Rell-stab. In his novel Theodor: A Musical Sketch of1823 Rellstab provides the first visual descriptionof the meaning contained in the music of theadagio when he calls it „a lake which shimmersin the rays of the setting moon“. The richness ofthis description is intended as an analogy to thelanguage of Beethoven’s music.

The French musician and music writer PaulScudo took up the biographical connection, i.e.:Beethoven’s feelings towards Giulietta Guicciardi,in his story Une Sonate de Beethoven. In it thehero describes how his beloved is „transfiguredby a moonbeam“ which strikes her while she isplaying the sonata in C sharp minor.

The early facsimile editions of the sonata provedto be very popular. On display is the first facsimileedition by Heinrich Schenker, published in 1921and owned by the Swiss Beethoven collectorHans Conrad Bodmer. Its importance to him isunderlined by the fact that he had it personallyautographed by the famous pianists and conduc-tors Eugen d’Albert, Felix Weingartner, FredericLamond and Arturo Toscanini.

The „Moonlight Sonata“ can be heard in theoriginal version and in an arrangement as a Kyrieby Bierey in the lecture room on the ground floor.

N.K.

(translation: John Simons)

by Beethoven to the beautiful Giulietta Guicciardi(a bust of her is also on display), towards whomhis feelings went far beyond the normal relation-ship between teacher and pupil. The sonata waspublished simultaneously with the sonata in E flatmajor opus 27 no. 1, although due to the separatededications they had to be printed with differentfront covers. In many subsequent reprints, inclu-ding the one on display from the original publisher,the wrong front cover was used, i.e.: that of thesonata opus 27 no. 1, which was dedicated toJosephine Duchess of Liechtenstein. Also ondisplay are four more contemporary editions ofthe sonata in C sharp minor.

The small table-piano was built by JohannAndreas Mahr in the year the sonata in C sharpminor was first published and represents a typicalinstrument of that time.

Arrangements(Showcase 5) The many different arrangements ofthe sonata in C sharp minor are an indication ofthe remarkable popularity it achieved. In 1831Gottlob Benedikt Bierey arranged the adagio as akyrie by using the original piano part, writing anorchestral instrumentation and adding a simplechoral part. The interpretation of the adagio as aplea for mercy had been underlined duringBeethoven’s lifetime when the Kassel composerGeorg Christoph Grosheim asked him, albeitunsuccessfully, to make that movement of thesonata into a choral work by underlaying it withthe poem „The Praying Woman“ („Die Beterin“).

When in 1815 Franz Schubert set „To the Moon“(„An den Mond“) to music, he used moonlight as

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