Download PDF:	000005-Moonlight_Sonata.pdf
Download MIDI:	000005-Moonlight_Sonata.mid

---

Source: ‘Well Known Piano Solos – How to Play Them, Charles W. Wilkinson, Theo. Presser Co. 1915’

Although everyone is agreed as to the unfairness of "dubbing" a work with a title after the composer's lifetime, yet here there is a certain aptitude which is at least useful in enabling many people, who know little of C sharp minor, to designate this sonata. Beethoven marked it Quasi una Fantasia and left the world to interpret the music as it would. The stories of a boat floating by moonlight on a lake, and of the blind girl playing one of the composer's sonatas in the dark at an open window, are probably unauthenticated.

My own first impression, however, especially in the finale, has stuck to me - that of hurrying clouds sweeping across the moon on a wild, stormy night. Later on in life, I always associate the first movement with the rising moon; and who that has been in a boat some golden September, when the harvest moon was rising over the water, can have failed to feel this affinity? Besides, there is the voice part (surely one of the earliest "songs without words") which the quiet motion of a boat, in such absorbing circumstances, usually engenders. Even the gentle pull of the oar seems to be typified in the triplet accompaniment.

Of course, we know, from the dedication of the sonata to his beloved Julia, that the hidden meaning is purely psychological, and may embody his personal feelings in their differing phases. Yet many may associate the mood of nature with the sonata to advantage, and have their imagination stirred thereby to interpret the moods of the soul.

The greatest possible delicacy of touch is absolutely necessary if you would succeed with the Beethoven "adagio." Not only delicacy of finger, but of ear, so that every note on your "well-tempered clavier" may be properly adjusted. You must weigh them in the balance and find none wanting. Do not endure any roughness, but more and more chasten your tone until you are satisfied it is beautiful. At the Berlin Hochschule, Professor Rudorff would repeatedly cry out to his pupils, "Hübscher! Hübscher!" exacting a prettier, more elegant, or artistic rendering. So here, if you cannot succeed with the finale, you should not only play the note of the adagio correctly, but also aim at the utmost delicacy at your command; then, if you possess musical taste and refinement, you will get very near to Beethoven's ideal.

Where young players fail most is in the ascending arpeggios over the dominant pedal in the development. Notice the first is a diminished seventh with equidistant notes on the keyboard; the second, a common chord of the tonic; and then two more diminished sevenths, the last one covering three measures. If you once gain familiarity with the intervals of this chord, each containing three half-steps, you need not exert the eye to read the double sharp, but can spell them out on the keyboard.

The pedal should be used to each bass note, except, of course, where it may be held down for two or more measures, as at the diminished seventh above mentioned. Great care should be taken that the pedal is pressed down exactly at the right moment, neither too soon nor too late; if the former, a muddy tinge will be the result; if the latter, the best part of the tone, that nearest the stroke, will be lost. The most objectionable fault with young players is that they do not let it up sufficiently; they intend to do so, but the foot action is poor and only partially effective. Those who watch the foot of a public pianist will see the curious way in which the foot works after the hands.