Once every 200 years or so someone with the talent of a Mozart or a Beethoven comes along. Looks like this 12-year old who studies composition at Juliard might be one of them:

If you’re not a musical genius (I’m sure not!), then you might want to learn as much about music theory as you possible can to help your piano playing. Click Here: Music Theory

Beethoven was never much for rules so why obey them for one of his most famous pieces?

Even the title of the piece popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata bears reference to Beethoven’s love of not doing things the way people expected. He called it Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia which means Sonata in the style of a fantasy or literally “Almost a fantasy”.

Listen to most music on the radio today and it follows a very similar style: It starts with a little bit of instrumental introduction, then the singer sings what is known as the verse. Then it goes in to the chorus, that’s the part that you often remember about the song which is why it is also called the hook in most songs. Then the song goes back to the verse, sometimes with different words and after that, the chorus again. Then we get to the bridge where the song changes pretty drastically but eventually makes its way back to the chorus (often played twice) and then a little instrumental at the end. The whole song takes about 4 minutes but rarely more than 5 minutes. Songs on the radio today are fairly predictable.

In Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven’s day, they had the Sonata. It was a very predictable style and although we’ll save a discussion of sonata form for another article, what defined a sonata form was a fast and lively beginning with a slow movement somewhere in the middle and ending with a medium and then fast tempo movements or just a fast movement. Moonlight Sonata is slow, medium, fast.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, a Fantasy is often a piece of music based on an improvisatory style. In other words, by throwing in the word Fantasy (fantasia) Beethoven is giving himself license to do whatever he wants. (Not that he needed it. He often did whatever he wanted anyway)

Every piece of art has to have a story and if they don’t, we romantic humans with big hearts will often make up a story to give a piece of art more personality. Here are the two stories behind Moonlight Sonata. Beethoven wasn’t much in to giving piano lessons to people and there seems to be evidence that he wasn’t all that personable as a general rule but around 1800 Beethoven was giving lessons to a royal family who was most likely paying him well when he met Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.

He fell in love with her (artists fall hard, you know) and wanted to marry her. Sadly, Beethoven being a commoner couldn’t marry royalty. Instead, she married another amateur composer. Beethoven dedicated this piece to her and judging by the not so happy sound of it, one wouldn’t think that it was an upcoming wedding gift. If you believe this story, you can certainly hear the sorrow of a broken heart present in this piece.

On the other hand, some stories, far more boring, say that Beethoven visited Lake Balaton, located in Hungary. (yawn) If a lake was his inspiration, it must have been raining when he visited. We’ll let you decide which story you like better.

The term “Moonlight Sonata” was given to this piece by Ludwig Rellstab who said that the piece sounded like moonlight shining down on Lake Lucerne. (Yes, another lake.) Beethoven didn’t live long enough to know of his piece as Moonlight Sonata.

The piece starts with a slow movement that is absolutely beautiful and when a pianist plays it, they can’t help but hear the sorrow that comes from the piece. It is commonly known that the first movement is played with dampers and very softly the entire way as to not only paint a picture of sorrow but also deep reflection by a tired soul. (As you learn it, see what the piece says to you.)
The second movement sounds much more like a classical period piece, a little more lighthearted than the movements surrounding it. This is probably the least liked movement as many people only know the first and last movements.

The third movement, a technically challenging and musically complicated composition speaks to anger and not just inner anger but anger that bursts out of the soul. As you listen to it, think about what the inspiration for such a piece would have been.

This piece was wildly popular in Beethoven’s day. In fact, he got tired of hearing it himself. He once said, “Surely, I’ve written better things”.

If you’re about to embark on learning this piece, you’re most likely starting with the first movement and quite possibly, not playing the second and third. That’s ok with Beethoven as some of his students and other musicians of the period often did not play complete sonatas.

Now that you know a little bit more about the piece, dive in and have a great time with it.

To learn the first movement of Moonlight Sonata (that’s the theme — the part everyone recognizes) click on the link below to learn about our audio CD course (not a video — an audio course with the original sheet music of the first movement):

Learn to play Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” on the piano

Between 1817 and 1823, Ludwig van Beethoven composed Symphony No.9 in D Minor, Opus 125 “Choral.” Nestled in the fourth movement of this classical masterpiece is ‘Ode to Joy.’ It’s a composition of exquisite beauty, which to this day continues to give pleasure to listeners of fine music.

Beethoven finalized this masterwork of symphonic construction in 1824. The Ninth Symphony was the last complete symphony he composed.

The Ode to Joy section of the music originates from a work by Friedrich von Schiller. This German poet, playwright, and historian wrote a poem entitled ‘Ode to Happiness’ in 1785. Beethoven, inspired by this poem, used it as the basis for Ode to Joy as the finale of his great symphony.
Beethoven’s attraction to Schiller’s poem began in his more youthful days. When he was twenty-two, he had a desire to put music to the poem. In fact, by 1811, some of the text of Ode to Happiness found its way into the sketches for Beethoven’s seventh and eighth symphonies.

Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770. He was the second-oldest child of Johann van Beethoven, a man of musical background himself. Johann was a court musician and tenor in Bonn’s Electoral court. Ludwig followed into music and gave his first piano performance in public at the tender age of eight.

For a short period, Franz Joseph Haydn taught Beethoven. The young Beethoven even had the opportunity to play for Mozart. By 1795 Beethoven’s reputation as an excellent pianist was solid. His talents as an improviser were impressive, and he had the gift of composing ‘off-the-cuff’ with flair.

Beethoven began to notice signs of hearing loss around 1798. In 1801, he wrote a letter to his friend Karl Ameda that stated:

“My greatest faculty, my hearing, is greatly deteriorated.”

When his Ninth Symphony premiered on May 7, 1824, he could not hear its performance. This first public performance took place in Vienna’s Karntnertorm Theater. Of necessity, Beethoven’s deafness required another conductor to direct the symphony orchestra. Beethoven did stand next to this conductor during the performance in order to give tempo directions.

When the performance ended, and the audience erupted with emotion and applause, Beethoven didn’t notice. He stood with his back to the audience, facing the orchestra, still regulating tempo. Not until Fraulein Unger, a contralto, had him turn around did Beethoven witness the reception to his masterpiece.

The symphony as a whole is the work of a musical genius who labored over every facet of it. The famous Ode to Joy choral melody involved nose-to-the-grindstone work by Beethoven. It developed over many years – draft by draft – until he deemed it right. Although written for solo voice and chorus, Beethoven did consider an instrumental only version of the melody.

Through the years, the Ode to Joy has been a source of inspiration to peoples and cultures around the world. During China’s Cultural Revolution, it received some distinction as a work that speaks of progressive class struggle.

It was the Ode to Joy that provided musical inspiration in Europe in 1989. That year, after the Berlin Wall came crumbling down, Leonard Bernstein performed the piece in Berlin. It was renamed Ode to Freedom, the word ‘freedom’ replacing the word ‘joy’ in the text. This beautiful melody filled the air to celebrate the end of the dividing wall between East and West Germany.

Today the music of Ode to Joy is the official anthem of the European Union. Its German lyrics, however, are not, out of deference to the many languages that make up the Union.

Ode to Joy remains a piece of pure art. It continues to give hope, inspiration, and plain old musical joy to peoples all over the world.