5 when and who composed the moonlight sonata. Moonlight Sonata

Immortal Sounds of the Moonlight Sonata

1. Feelings of loneliness, unrequited love, embodied in the music of L. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.
2. Understanding the meaning of the metaphor "Ecology human soul».

Music material:

1. L. Beethoven. Sonata No. 14 for piano. Part I (hearing); II and III parts (at the request of the teacher);
2. A. Rybnikov, lyrics by A. Voznesensky. "I will never forget you" from the rock opera "Juno and Avos" (singing).

Characteristics of activities:

1. Recognize and talk about the influence of music on a person.
2. To identify the possibilities of the emotional impact of music on a person.
3. Evaluate musical works from the standpoint of beauty and truth.
4. Recognize the intonational and figurative foundations of music.
5. Learn by characteristics(intonation, melodies, harmonies) music of individual outstanding composers(L. Beethoven)

“Music in itself is passion and mystery.
Words speak of the human;
music expresses what no one knows, no one can explain,
but what is more or less in everyone ... "

F. Garcia Lorca(Spanish poet, playwright, also known as a musician and graphic artist)

Such eternal sources of suffering as loneliness or unrequited love do not appear pitiful at all in art, on the contrary: they are filled with a kind of grandeur, because it is they who reveal the true dignity of the soul.

Beethoven, rejected by Giulietta Guicciardi, writes the "Moonlight" sonata, even with its dusk illuminating the peaks of world musical art. What is it about this music that attracts new and new generations to it? What immortal song resounds in the Moonlight Sonata, triumphing over all the estates of the world, over vanity and delusion, over fate itself?

Wealth along with power freely roam,
Entering the ocean of good and evil,
When they leave our hands;
Love, even if it was wrong,
Immortal, abide in immortality,
Everything will surpass what was - or will be.

(P. B. Shelley. Love is immortal)

The Moonlight Sonata is one of the most popular works of the great composer and is one of the most remarkable works of world piano music. Lunar owes its well-deserved fame not only to the depth of feelings and the rare beauty of the music, but also to its amazing integrity, thanks to which all three parts of the sonata are perceived as something unified, inseparable. The entire sonata is an increase in a passionate feeling, reaching a real mental storm.

Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor (cis-moll op. 27 No. 2, 1801) became famous during Beethoven's lifetime. The name "Lunar" she received with a light hand of the poet Ludwig Relshtab. In the short story "Theodore" (1823), Relshtab described the night on Lake Firwaldstet in Switzerland: "The surface of the lake is illuminated by the shimmering radiance of the moon; the wave muffledly hits the dark shore; gloomy mountains covered with forests separate this sacred place from the world; swans, like spirits, swim by with a rustling splash, and from the side of the ruins the mysterious sounds of an aeolian harp are heard, plaintively singing about passionate and unrequited love.

Readers easily associated this romantic landscape with the long-established Part I of Beethoven's sonata, especially since all these associations looked completely natural to the ears of musicians and the public of the 1820s and 1830s.

Ghostly arpeggios on the foggy enveloping right pedal (an effect possible on pianos of that time) could be perceived as the mystical and melancholic sound of an aeolian harp, an instrument that was extremely common at that time in everyday life and in gardens and parks. The soft swaying of the triplet figures even visually resembled light ripples on the surface of the lake, and the majestic-mournful melody floating over the figurations - like the moon illuminating the landscape, or almost ethereal in its pure beauty swan.

It is difficult to say how Beethoven would have reacted to such interpretations (the Relshtab visited him in 1825, but, judging by the poet's memoirs, they discussed completely different topics). It is possible that the composer would not have found anything unacceptable in the picture drawn by Relshtab: he did not mind when his music was interpreted with the help of poetic or pictorial associations.

Relshtab caught only the outer side of this brilliant creation of Beethoven. In fact, behind the pictures of nature, the personal world of a person is revealed - from concentrated, calm contemplation to extreme despair.

Just at this time, when Beethoven felt the approach of deafness, he felt (or, at least, it seemed to him) that for the first time in his life a real love. He began to think of his charming student, the young Countess Juliet Guicciardi, as his future wife. “... She loves me, and I love her. These are the first bright minutes in the last two years,” Beethoven wrote to his doctor, hoping that the happiness of love would help him overcome his terrible illness.
And she? She, brought up in an aristocratic family, looked down on her teacher - albeit of a famous, but humble origin, and besides, deafening.
“Unfortunately, she belongs to a different class,” Beethoven admitted, realizing what an abyss lies between him and his beloved. But Juliet could not understand her brilliant teacher, she was too frivolous and superficial for this. She dealt Beethoven a double blow: she turned away from him and married Robert Gallenberg, a mediocre music composer, but a count ...
Beethoven was a great musician and a great person. A man of titanic will, a mighty spirit, a man of lofty thoughts and deepest feelings. How great must have been his love, and his sufferings, and his desire to overcome these sufferings!
"Moonlight Sonata" was created in this difficult time of his life. Under its real name "Sonata quasi una Fantasia", that is, "Sonata like a fantasy", Beethoven wrote: "Dedicated to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi" ...
“Listen now to this music! Listen to it not only with your ears, but with all your heart! And perhaps now you will hear in the first part such immeasurable sorrow as you have never heard before; in the second part - such a bright and at the same time such a sad smile, which had not been noticed before; and, finally, in the finale - such a stormy boiling of passions, such an incredible desire to break out of the shackles of sadness and suffering, which only a true titan can do. Beethoven, struck by misfortune, but not bent under its weight, was such a titan. D. Kabalevsky.

Sounds of music

The first movement of the Lunar Adagio sostenuto differs sharply from the first movements of Beethoven's other sonatas: there are no contrasts or abrupt transitions in it. The unhurried, calm flow of music speaks of a pure lyrical feeling. The composer noted that this part requires the "most delicate" performance. The listener definitely enters the enchanted world of dreams and memories of a lonely person. Slow, wave-like accompaniment gives rise to singing full of deep expressiveness. The feeling, at first calm, very concentrated, grows to a passionate appeal. Calmness gradually sets in, and again a sad, full of melancholy melody is heard, then fading in deep basses against the background of continuously sounding waves of accompaniment.

The second, very small, part of the "Moonlight" sonata is full of soft contrasts, light intonations, the play of light and shadow. This music has been compared to the dances of the elves from Dream in midsummer night» Shakespeare. The second part serves as a wonderful transition from the dreaminess of the first part to the mighty, proud finale.

The finale of the "Moonlight" sonata, written in a full-blooded, rich sonata form, is the center of gravity of the work. In a swift whirlwind of passionate impulses, themes are rushing through - menacing, plaintive and sad - a whole world of an agitated and shocked human soul. A real drama is being played out. The “Moonlight” sonata, for the first time in the world history of music, gives an image so rare in integrity peace of mind artist.

All three parts of "Lunar" give the impression of unity due to the finest motivic work. In addition, many of the expressive elements contained in the restrained first movement develop and culminate in a stormy dramatic finale. The rapid upward movement of the arpeggios in the final Presto begins with the same sounds as the calm undulating beginning of the first movement (tonic triad in C-sharp minor). The very upward movement through two or three octaves came from the central episode of the first movement.

Love is immortal: even though it is a rare guest in the world, it still exists as long as works like the Moonlight Sonata are heard. Isn't this the high ethical (ethical - moral, noble) value of art, capable of educating human feelings, calling people to goodness and mercy with each other?

Think about how thin and gentle the inner world of a person is, how easy it is to injure him, hurt him, sometimes on long years. We are increasingly aware of the need to protect the environment, the ecology of nature, but we are still blind to the "ecology" of the human soul. But this is the most dynamic and mobile world, which sometimes declares itself when nothing can be corrected.

Listen to all sorts of shades of sadness that music is so rich in, and imagine that living human voices tell you about their sorrows and doubts. Indeed, often we act carelessly not because we are evil by nature, but because we do not know how to understand other people. This understanding can be taught by music: you just need to believe. That it does not sound some abstract ideas, but real, today's problems and sufferings of people.

Questions and tasks:

1. What "immortal song" sounds in L. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata? Explain your answer.
2. Do you agree with the statement that the problem of the "ecology" of the human soul is one of the most important, urgent problems of mankind? What should be the role of art in its solution? Think about it.
3. What problems and sufferings of people are reflected in the art of the present? How are they implemented?

Presentation

Included:
1. Presentation, ppsx;
2. Sounds of music:
Beethoven. Moonlight Sonata:
I. Adagio sostenuto, mp3;
II. allegretto .mp3;
III. Presto agitato, mp3;
Beethoven. Moonlight Sonata, part I (performed by a symphony orchestra), mp3;
3. Accompanying article, docx.

The girl won the heart young composer and then severely smashed it. But it is to Juliet that we owe the fact that we can listen to the music of the best sonata of a brilliant composer that penetrates so deeply into the soul.

The full name of the sonata is “piano sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, op. 27, No. 2". "Lunar" is the name of the first movement of the sonata, this name was not given by Beethoven himself. The German music critic, poet and friend of Beethoven, Ludwig Relshtab compared the first movement of the sonata with "moonlight over Lake Firwaldstet" after the author's death. This "nickname" turned out to be so successful that it instantly became stronger all over the world, and until now most people believe that "Moonlight Sonata" is the real name.

The sonata has another name "Sonata - Arbor" or "Garden House Sonata". According to one version, Beethoven began to write it in the gazebo of the Brunvik aristocratic park in Korompa.

The music of the sonata seems simple, concise, clear, natural, while it is full of sensuality and goes “from heart to heart” (these are the words of Beethoven himself). Love, betrayal, hope, suffering, everything is reflected in the Moonlight Sonata. But one of the main ideas is the ability of a person to overcome difficulties, the ability to revive, this main topic all the music of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was born in the German city of Bonn. The years of childhood can be called the most difficult in the life of the future composer. It was difficult for a proud and independent boy to survive the fact that his father, a rude and despotic man, noticing his son's musical talent, decided to use him for selfish purposes. Forcing little Ludwig to sit at the harpsichord from morning till night, he did not think that his son needed childhood so much. At the age of eight, Beethoven earned his first money - he gave a public concert, and by the age of twelve the boy was playing the violin and organ freely. Together with success, isolation, a need for solitude and unsociableness came to the young musician. At the same time, Nefe, his wise and kind mentor, appeared in the life of the future composer. It was he who instilled in the boy a sense of beauty, taught him to understand nature, art, to understand human life. Nefe taught Ludwig ancient languages, philosophy, literature, history, and ethics. Subsequently, being a deeply and broadly thinking person, Beethoven became an adherent of the principles of freedom, humanism, equality of all people.

In 1787 the young Beethoven left Bonn for Vienna.
Beautiful Vienna - a city of theaters and cathedrals, street orchestras and love serenades under the windows - won the heart of a young genius.

But it was there that the young musician was struck by deafness: at first the sounds seemed muffled to him, then he repeated the unheard phrases several times, then he realized that he was finally losing his hearing. “I drag out a bitter existence,” Beethoven wrote to his friend. - I'm deaf. With my craft, nothing can be more terrible ... Oh, if I got rid of this disease, I would embrace the whole world.

But the horror of progressive deafness was replaced by happiness from a meeting with a young aristocrat, an Italian by birth, Giulietta Guicciardi (1784-1856). Juliet, daughter of the wealthy and noble Count Guicciardi, arrived in Vienna in 1800. Then she was not even seventeen, but the love of life and charm of a young girl conquered the thirty-year-old composer, and he immediately confessed to his friends that he fell in love passionately and passionately. He was sure that the same tender feelings arose in the heart of a mocking coquette. In a letter to his friend, Beethoven emphasized: "This wonderful girl is so much loved by me and loves me that I observe a striking change in myself precisely because of her."

Juliet Guicciardi (1784-1856)
A few months after their first meeting, Beethoven invited Juliet to take some free piano lessons from him. She gladly accepted this offer, and in return for such a generous gift, she presented her teacher with several shirts embroidered by her. Beethoven was a strict teacher. When he didn’t like Juliet’s playing, he was annoyed and threw notes on the floor, defiantly turned away from the girl, and she silently collected notebooks from the floor. Six months later, at the peak of his feelings, Beethoven began to create a new sonata, which after his death will be called "Moon". It is dedicated to the Countess Guicciardi and was started in the state great love, excitement and hope.

In turmoil in October 1802, Beethoven left Vienna and went to Heiligenstadt, where he wrote the famous “Heiligenstadt Testament”: “Oh, you people who think that I am malicious, stubborn, ill-mannered - how unfair you are to me; you do not know the secret reason for what you think. Since childhood, I have been predisposed in my heart and mind to a tender feeling of kindness, I have always been ready to do great things. But just think that for six years now I have been in an unfortunate state ... I am completely deaf ... "
Fear, the collapse of hopes give rise to thoughts of suicide in the composer. But Beethoven gathered his strength and decided to start a new life and, in almost absolute deafness, created great masterpieces.

Several years passed, and 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, torn by numerous disappointments. At the end of his life, the composer will write: “I was very loved by her and more than ever, was her husband ...”

Brunswick sisters Teresa (2) and Josephine (3)

Trying to permanently erase his beloved from his memory, the composer met with other women. Once, when he saw the beautiful Josephine Brunswick, he immediately confessed his love to her, but in response he received only a polite, but unequivocal refusal. Then, in desperation, Beethoven proposed to Josephine's older sister, Teresa. But she did the same, inventing a beautiful fairy tale about the impossibility of meeting with the composer.

The genius repeatedly recalled how women humiliated him. One day, a young singer from the Viennese theater, when asked to meet with her, replied with a sneer that “the composer is so ugly in appearance, and besides, it seems too strange to her” that she did not intend to meet with him. Ludwig van Beethoven really did not look after his appearance, often remained untidy. It is unlikely that he could be called independent in everyday life, he needed the constant care of a woman. When Juliet Guicciardi, while still a student of the maestro, and noticing that Beethoven's silk bow was not tied in such a way, tied it up, kissing him on the forehead, the composer did not take off this bow and did not change clothes for several weeks, until his friends hinted at his not quite fresh look suit.

Too sincere and open, contemptuous of hypocrisy and servility, Beethoven often seemed rude and ill-mannered. Often he expressed himself obscenely, which is why many considered him a plebeian and an ignorant boor, although the composer simply spoke the truth.

In the autumn of 1826, Beethoven fell ill. Exhausting treatment, three complex operations could not put the composer on his feet. All winter he, without getting out of bed, absolutely deaf, suffered from the fact that ... he could not continue to work.
Last years The composer's lives are even more difficult than the first ones. He is completely deaf, he is haunted by loneliness, illness, poverty. Family life did not work out. He gives all his unspent love to his nephew, who could replace his son, but grew up as a deceitful, two-faced loafer and spendthrift, who shortened Beethoven's life.
The composer died of a serious, painful illness on March 26, 1827.

Beethoven's grave in Vienna
After his death in a box desk found a letter “To the immortal beloved” (So Beethoven titled the letter himself (A.R. Sardaryan.): “My angel, my everything, my self ... Why is there deep sadness where necessity reigns? Can our love stand only at the cost of sacrifices through renunciation of fullness, can't you change the situation in which you are not completely mine and I am not completely 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

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

Sonata cis minor(op. 27 No. 2) - one of Beethoven's most popular piano sonatas; perhaps the most famous piano sonata in the world and a favorite work for home music-making. For more than two centuries it has been learned, played, softened, tamed - as in all ages 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 death of the composer by Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Relstab (1799–1860), a German music critic, poet and librettist, who left a number of notes in the master's colloquial notebooks. Relshtab compared the images of the first part of the sonata with the movement of a boat sailing under the moon along the Firwaldsted lake in Switzerland.

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

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

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

Switzerland. Vierwaldsted Lake

Different works of Beethoven have many titles that are understandable, as a rule, only in one country. But the adjective "lunar" in relation to this sonata has become international. The lightweight salon name touched the depths of the image from which the music grew. Beethoven himself, inclined to give parts of his works a little ponderous definitions on Italian, named two of his sonatas - op. 27 No. 1 and 2 - quasi una fantasia"Something like a fantasy."

Legend

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

Juliet Guicciardi

Teresa Brunswick. Faithful friend and student of Beethoven

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: the passion of Beethoven, the playing of the sonata by the moonlight, the proposal of a hand rejected by heartless parents due to class prejudice, and, finally, the marriage of a frivolous wreath, which 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, did later Teresa Malfatti, the cousin of his attending physician). There is not even evidence that Beethoven was seriously in love with Juliet. He did not tell anyone about his feelings (as, indeed, he did not talk about his other loves). The portrait of Juliet Guicciardi was found after the death of the composer in a locked box along with other valuable documents - but ... several female portraits lay in a secret box.

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

Whether the girl whom Beethoven was once passionate about was happily married is another question. Already before his death, the deaf composer wrote down in one of his colloquial notebooks that some time ago Juliet wanted to meet him, 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 he had once been in love with, he even wrote to them...

The first page of a letter to the "immortal lover"

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

Secrets of the heart

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

Church in the village of Geiligenstadt

In 1802, in Heiligenstadt (a resort suburb of Vienna), he will write his amazing testament: “Oh you people who consider or declare me embittered, stubborn or misanthropic, 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 elegiacity and began to “brighten”. The epithet "lunar" in relation to piece of music late 18th - early XIX V. can mean irrationality, cruelty and gloominess.

No matter how beautiful the legend of unhappy love is, it is hard 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 enigmatic triplets of the Moonlight Sonata, with which the first movement opens, was discovered by Theodor Vizeva and Georges de Saint-Foy in their famous work on the music of Mozart. These triplets, which every child with a parent's piano tries to play with enthusiasm today, 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 the night. In the silence that has come after the explosion in the orchestra, three voices emerge one after another on quiet and deep triplets of strings: the trembling voice of a dying man, the intermittent voice of his killer, and the muttering of a petrified servant.

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

In Mozart, the monotonous accompaniment of strings is superimposed by a chromatic mourning melody by 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 emerging above them (the coherent conduct of which is sometimes the main difficulty for the performer) is almost no longer a melody. It is the illusion of a melody that can be grasped as a last resort.

On the verge of goodbye

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

The endless triads of the "Moonlight" sonata, pouring one into another, have neither end nor beginning. Beethoven reproduced with amazing accuracy that feeling of longing that is evoked by the endless play of scales and triads behind the wall - sounds that, with their endless repetition, can take away music from a person. But Beethoven elevates all this boring nonsense to a generalization of the cosmic order. Before us is a 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, the 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, is brought to an end: it has fulfilled its destiny, has reached its goal , there is no further way, and it dissolves, overcomes itself as a form, says goodbye to the world.

“Death is nothing,” said Beethoven himself, “you live only in the most beautiful moments. What is genuine, what really exists in a person, what is inherent in him, is eternal. The transient is worthless. Life acquires beauty and significance only thanks to fantasy, this flower, which only there, in transcendental heights, flourishes magnificently ... "

The second part 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 coquettish allegretto, similar to a light interlude. The composer's contemporaries, accustomed to thinking in terms of romantic painting, compared the third part to a night storm on the lake. Four waves of sounds rise up one after another, each ending with two sharp blows, as if the waves were hitting a rock.

The musical form itself is torn out, trying to break the framework of the old form, to splash out over the edge - but retreats.

The time has not yet come.

Text: Svetlana Kirillova, Art magazine

... Frankly speaking, putting this work in the school curriculum is as pointless as talking to an aging composer about the enthusiastic feelings of a girl who only recently came out of the cradle and not only to love, but simply did not learn to adequately feel.

Children ... what will you take from them? Personally, I did not understand this work at the time. Yes, I would not understand even now, if one day I did not feel the same as the composer himself felt.

Some restraint, melancholy ... No, where is it. He just wanted to sob, his pain so drowned out his mind that the future seemed devoid of meaning and - like a chimney - of any lumen.

Beethoven had only one grateful listener left. piano.

Or was everything not as simple as it seems at first glance? What if it was even easier?

In fact, not the entire Sonata No. 14 is called "Moonlight Sonata", but only its first part. But this does not diminish the value of the remaining parts, since they can be used to judge the emotional state of the author at that time. Let's just say that if you listen to the Moonlight Sonata alone, then you will most likely simply fall into error. It cannot be taken as a standalone work. Although I really want to.

What do you think about when you hear it? About what a beautiful melody it was, and what a talented composer Beethoven was? Undoubtedly, all this is present.

It is interesting that when I heard her at school in a music lesson, the teacher commented on the introduction in such a way that it seemed that the author was more worried about the approaching deafness than the betrayal of her beloved.

What nonsense. As if at the moment when you see that your chosen one is leaving for another, something else already matters. Although ... if we assume that the whole work ends with "", then it would be so. Allegretto quite dramatically changes the interpretation of the entire work as a whole. Because it becomes clear: this is not just a short composition, it is a whole story.

Real art begins only where there is the utmost sincerity. And for a real composer, his music becomes the very outlet, the means by which he can talk about his feelings.

Very often, victims of unhappy love believe that if their chosen one understands their true feelings, then she will return. At least out of pity, if not out of love. It may be painful to admit, but that is the way things are.

"Hysterical nature" - what do you think it is? It is customary to attribute a hopelessly negative connotation to this expression, as well as its peculiarity to a greater extent to the fair sex than to the strong. Like, this is a desire to attract attention to yourself, as well as highlight your feelings against the background of everything else. It sounds cynical, because it’s customary to hide your feelings. Especially at the time Beethoven lived.

When you actively write music from year to year and put a part of yourself into it, and not just turn it into some kind of handicraft, you begin to feel a lot more sharply than you would like. Including loneliness. The writing of this composition began in 1800, and the sonata was published in 1802.

Was it the sadness of loneliness due to a worsening illness, or did the composer simply become depressed solely because of the beginning of falling in love?

Yes, sometimes it happens! The dedication of the sonata speaks more about unrequited love than the coloring of the introduction itself. Again, the Fourteenth Sonata is not just a melody about an unfortunate composer, it is - independent history. So it could also be a story about how love changed him.

Movement two: Allegretto

"A flower in the middle of the abyss". This is how Liszt put it about the allegretto of Sonata No. 14. Someone ... yes, not someone, but almost everyone at the beginning notes a striking change in emotional coloring. According to the same definition, some compare the introduction with the opening cup of the flower, and the second part with the flowering period. Well, the flowers have already appeared.

Yes, Beethoven was thinking about Juliet while writing this composition. If you forget the chronology, then you might think that this is either the sorrow of unrequited love (but in fact, in 1800, Ludwig had just begun to fall in love with this girl), or reflections on his hard lot.

Thanks to Allegretto, one can judge a different scenario: the composer, conveying shades of love and tenderness, talks about the world full of sadness in which his soul was BEFORE meeting Juliet.

And in the second, as in his famous letter to a friend, he talks about the change that happened to him due to his acquaintance with this girl.

If we consider the Fourteenth Sonata precisely from this point of view, then any shadow of contradiction instantly disappears, and everything becomes extremely clear and explainable.

What is incomprehensible here?

What can be said about music critics who were perplexed about the inclusion of this very scherzo in the work, and in general having an extremely melancholy tone? Or the fact that they were inattentive, or the fact that they managed to live their whole lives without experiencing all that gamut of feelings and in the same sequence that the composer happened to experience? It's up to you, let it be your opinion.

But at some point, Beethoven was just…happy! And this happiness is spoken of in the allegretto of this sonata.

Part Three: Presto agitato

... And a sharp burst of energy. What was it? Resentment that a young impudent did not accept his love? It can no longer be called suffering alone, in this part bitterness, resentment and, to a much greater extent, indignation are rather intertwined. Yes, yes, indignation! How could you reject his feelings?! How dare she?!

And little by little, feelings become quieter, although certainly not calmer. How insulting… But in the depths of my soul the ocean of emotions continues to rage. The composer seems to be walking around the room back and forth, overwhelmed by conflicting emotions.

It was a sharply wounded vanity, outraged pride and impotent rage, which Beethoven could release in only one way - in music.

Anger is gradually replaced by contempt (“how could you!”), And he breaks off all relations with his beloved, who by that time was already cooing with might and main with Count Wenzel Galenberg. And puts an end to the decisive chord.

"That's it, I've had enough!"

But such determination cannot last long. Yes, this man was extremely emotional, and his feelings were real, although not always controlled. More precisely, that is why it is not controlled.

He could not kill tender feelings, could not kill love, although he sincerely wanted this. He yearned for his student. Even six months later, he couldn't stop thinking about her. This can be seen from his Heiligenstadt will.

Now such a relationship would not be accepted by society. But then the times were different and the customs were different. A seventeen-year-old girl was already considered more than ripe for marriage and was even free to choose her boyfriend.

Now she would have barely finished school and, by default, would still be considered a naive child, and Ludwig himself would have thundered under the article “seduction of minors”. But then again, times were different.

This sonata, composed in 1801 and published in 1802, is dedicated to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. The popular and surprisingly strong name "lunar" was assigned to the sonata at the initiative of the poet Ludwig Relshtab, who compared the music of the first part of the sonata with the landscape of Lake Firwaldstet on a moonlit night.

Against such a name for the sonata was objected more than once. Vigorously protested, in particular, A. Rubinshtein. “Moonlight,” he wrote, “requires something dreamy, melancholy, thoughtful, peaceful, generally gently shining in the musical image. The very first part of the cis-moll sonata is tragic from the first to the last note (the minor mode also hints at this) and thus represents the sky covered with clouds - a gloomy spiritual mood; the last part is stormy, passionate and, therefore, expressing something completely opposite to meek light. Only a small second part allows a momentary moonlight ... "

Nevertheless, the name "lunar" has remained unshakable to this day - it was already justified by the possibility of one poetic word to designate a work so beloved by the audience, without resorting to indicating the opus, number and key.

It is known that the reason for composing the sonata op. 27 No. 2 was Beethoven's relationship with his lover, Giulietta Guicciardi. It was, apparently, the first deep love passion of Beethoven, accompanied by an equally deep disappointment.

Beethoven met Juliet (who came from Italy) at the end of 1800. The heyday of love dates back to 1801. Back in November of this year, Beethoven wrote to Wegeler about Juliet: "she loves me, and I love her." But already at the beginning of 1802, Juliet inclined her sympathies to an empty man and mediocre composer, Count Robert Gallenberg. (The wedding of Juliet and Gallenberg took place on November 3, 1803).

On October 6, 1802, Beethoven wrote the famous "Heiligenstadt Testament" - a tragic document of his life, in which desperate thoughts about hearing loss are combined with the bitterness of deceived love. (The further moral decline of Juliet Guicciardi, who stooped to debauchery and espionage, is succinctly and vividly depicted by Romain Rolland (see R. Rolland. Beethoven. Les grandes epoques creatrices. Le chant de la resurrection. Paris, 1937, pp. 570-571). ).

The object of Beethoven's passionate affection turned out to be completely unworthy. But Beethoven's genius, inspired by love, created an amazing work that expressed the drama of emotions and impulses of feeling with an unusually strong and generalized expression. Therefore, it would be wrong to consider Giulietta Guicciardi as the heroine of the “moonlight” sonata. She only seemed to be such to the consciousness of Beethoven, blinded by love. But in reality she turned out to be only a model, exalted by the work of the great artist.

For 210 years of its existence, the “moon” sonata has evoked and still evokes the delight of musicians and everyone who loves music. This sonata, in particular, was highly valued by Chopin and Liszt (the latter made himself especially famous for its brilliant performance). Even Berlioz, generally speaking rather indifferent to piano music, found poetry in the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata, inexpressible in human words.

In Russia, the "moonlight" sonata has always enjoyed and continues to enjoy the most ardent recognition and love. When Lenz, starting to evaluate the “moonlight” sonata, pays tribute to a lot of lyrical digressions and memoirs, one senses in this an unusual excitement of the critic, which prevents him from concentrating on the analysis of the subject.

Ulybyshev ranks the “moon” sonata among the works marked with the “seal of immortality”, possessing “the rarest and most beautiful of privileges - the privilege of being equally liked by the initiates and the profane, being liked as long as there are ears to hear and hearts to love and suffer".

Serov called the Moonlight Sonata "one of Beethoven's most inspirational sonatas".

Characteristic are V. Stasov's reminiscences of his younger years, when he and Serov enthusiastically perceived Liszt's performance of the Moonlight Sonata. “It was,” Stasov writes in his memoirs “School of Jurisprudence forty years ago,” “the very “dramatic music” that Serov and I dreamed about most in those days and exchanged thoughts every minute in our correspondence, considering it to be that form into which all music must finally turn. It seemed to me that in this sonata there are a number of scenes, a tragic drama: “in the 1st part - a dreamy meek love and a state of mind, at times filled with gloomy forebodings; further, in the second part (in Scherzo) - a state of mind is depicted more calm, even playful - hope is reborn; finally, in the third part - despair, jealousy rages, and everything ends with a dagger and death).

Stasov experienced similar impressions from the “moonlight” sonata later, listening to the game of A. Rubinstein: “... suddenly quiet, important sounds rushed as if from some invisible spiritual depths, from afar, from afar. Some were sad, full of endless sadness, others were thoughtful, crowded memories, forebodings of terrible expectations ... I was infinitely happy in those moments and only remembered to myself how 47 years earlier, in 1842, I heard this most great sonata performed by Liszt, in his third Petersburg concert... and now, after so many years, I again see another new brilliant musician and again I hear this great sonata, this wonderful drama, with love, jealousy and a formidable blow of the dagger at the end - again I am happy and drunk on music and poetry.

"Moonlight" sonata entered the Russian fiction. So, for example, this sonata is played at the time of cordial relations with her husband by the heroine " family happiness» Leo Tolstoy (chapters I and IX).

Naturally, Romain Rolland, an inspired researcher of the spiritual world and Beethoven's work, devoted quite a few statements to the "moon" sonata.

Romain Rolland aptly characterizes the circle of images of the sonata, linking them with Beethoven's early disappointment in Juliet: "The illusion did not last long, and already in the sonata one can see more suffering and anger than love." Calling the "moon" sonata "gloomy and fiery", Romain Rolland very correctly derives its form from the content, shows that freedom is combined in the sonata with harmony, that "the miracle of art and hearts, feeling shows himself here as a powerful builder. The unity that the artist does not seek in the architectonic laws of a given passage or musical genre he finds in the laws of his own passion. Let's add - and in knowledge on personal experience laws of passionate experiences in general.

In realistic psychologism, the “moon” sonata is the most important reason for its popularity. And, of course, B. V. Asafiev was right when he wrote: “The emotional tone of this sonata is filled with strength and romantic pathos. The music, nervous and excited, now flares up with a bright flame, then collapses in agonizing despair. Melody sings, crying. The deep cordiality inherent in the described sonata makes it one of the most beloved and most accessible. It is difficult not to be influenced by such sincere music - the expressor of direct feelings.

The “Moonlight” sonata is a brilliant proof of the position of aesthetics that the form is subordinate to the content, that the content creates, crystallizes the form. The power of experience gives rise to the persuasiveness of logic. And it is not for nothing that Beethoven achieves a brilliant synthesis of those most important factors in the “moonlight” sonata, which appear more isolated in previous sonatas. These factors are: 1) deep drama, 2) thematic integrity and 3) the continuity of the development of the "action" from the first part to the final inclusive (crescendo forms).

First part(Adagio sostenuto, cis-moll) is written in a special form. Two-partness is complicated here by the introduction of advanced development elements and extensive preparation of the reprise. All this partly brings the form of this Adagio closer to sonata form.

In the music of the first part, Ulybyshev saw the "heartbreaking sadness" of lonely love, like "fire without food." Romain Rolland is also inclined to interpret the first movement in the spirit of melancholy, lamentations and sobs.

We think that such an interpretation is one-sided, and that Stasov was much more right (see above).

The music of the first part is emotionally rich. Here and calm contemplation, and sadness, and moments of bright faith, and woeful doubts, and restrained impulses, and heavy forebodings. All this is brilliantly expressed by Beethoven within the general boundaries of concentrated thought. This is the beginning of every deep and demanding feeling - it hopes, it worries, it penetrates with trepidation into its own fullness, into the power of experience over the soul. Recognition to oneself and an excited thought about how to be, what to do.

Beethoven finds unusually means of expression implementation of such an idea.

Constant triplets of harmonic tones are designed to convey that sound background of monotonous external impressions that envelops the thoughts and feelings of a deeply thoughtful person.

One can hardly doubt that Beethoven, a passionate admirer of nature, gave images of his emotional unrest against the backdrop of a quiet, calm, monotonous-sounding landscape in the first part of the "lunar" part. Therefore, the music of the first part is easily associated with the nocturne genre (apparently, an understanding of the special poetic qualities of the night, when silence deepens and sharpens the ability to dream, has already taken shape!).

The very first bars of the “moonlight” sonata are a very vivid example of the “organism” of Beethoven's pianism. But this is not a church organ, but the organ of nature, the full, solemn sounds of her peaceful bosom.

Harmony sings from the very beginning - this is the secret of the exclusive intonational unity of all music. The appearance of quiet, hidden sol-sharp(“romantic” fifth of the tonic!) in the right hand (bars 5-6) is a superbly found intonation of persistent, haunting thought. An affectionate chant grows out of it (bars 7-9), leading to E-major. But this bright dream is short-lived - from t. 10 (E-minor) the music is darkened again.

However, elements of will, ripening determination begin to slip in it. They, in turn, disappear with a turn to B minor (p. 15), where the accents then stand out. do-becara(tt. 16 and 18), like a timid request.

The music faded, but only to rise again. Carrying out the theme in F-sharp minor (from t. 23) - new stage. The element of will grows stronger, the emotion becomes stronger and more courageous - but here new doubts and reflections are on its way. Such is the whole period of the organ point of the octave sol-sharp in the bass leading to a reprise in C-sharp minor. At this organ point, soft accents of fourths are first heard (bars 28-32). Then the thematic element temporarily disappears: the former harmonic background came to the fore - as if there was confusion in the harmonious train of thought, and their thread broke. Balance is gradually restored, and the reprise in C-sharp minor indicates the persistence, constancy, insurmountability of the initial circle of experiences.

So, in the first part of the Adagio, Beethoven gives a whole series of shades and tendencies of the main emotion. Changes in harmonic colors, register contrasts, compressions and expansions rhythmically contribute to the convexity of all these shades and trends.

In the second part of the Adagio, the circle of images is the same, but the stage of development is different. E major is now held longer (bars 46-48), and the appearance in it of the characteristic punctuated figurine of the theme seems to promise a bright hope. The presentation as a whole is dynamically compressed. If at the beginning of the Adagio the melody took twenty-two measures to rise from G-sharp of the first octave to E of the second octave, now, in the reprise, the melody overcomes this distance in just seven measures. Such an acceleration in the pace of development is also accompanied by the appearance of new volitional elements of intonation. But the outcome has not been found, and indeed cannot, must not be found (after all, this is only the first part!). The coda, with its sound of haunting punctuated figures in the bass, with immersion in a low register, in a deaf and vague pianissimo, sets off indecision and mystery. Feeling has become aware of its depth and inevitability - but it stands bewildered before the fact and must turn to the outside in order to overcome contemplation.

It is precisely this "turning outwards" that gives The second part(Allegretto, Des-dur).

Liszt characterized this part as "a flower between two abysses" - a comparison that is poetically brilliant, but still superficial!

Nagel saw in the second part "a picture real life fluttering with charming images around the dreamer. This, I think, is closer to the truth, but not enough to understand the plot core of the sonata.

Romain Rolland refrains from a refined characterization of Allegretto and confines himself to saying that “everyone can accurately assess the desired effect achieved by this small picture, placed precisely in this place in the work. This playful, smiling grace must inevitably cause - and does cause - an increase in grief; her appearance turns the soul, at first weeping and depressed, into a fury of passion.

We saw above that Romain Rolland boldly tried to interpret the previous sonata (the first of the same opus) as a portrait of Princess Liechtenstein. It is not clear why he this case refrains from the naturally suggestive thought that the Allegretto of the “moonlight” sonata is directly related to the image of Giulietta Guicciardi.

Having accepted this possibility (it seems natural to us), we will also understand the intention of the entire sonata opus - that is, both sonatas with a common subtitle "quasi una Fantasia". Drawing the secular superficiality of the spiritual image of Princess Liechtenstein, Beethoven ends with the tearing off of secular masks and the loud laughter of the finale. In the "lunar" this is not possible, since love has deeply wounded the heart.

But thought and will do not give up their positions. In Allegretto "lunar" created an extremely life image, combining charm with frivolity, seeming cordiality with indifferent coquetry. Even Liszt noted the extreme difficulty of the perfect performance of this part in view of its extreme rhythmic capriciousness. In fact, already the first four measures contain a contrast of intonations of affectionate and mocking. And then - continuous emotional turns, as if teasing and not bringing the desired satisfaction.

The tense expectation of the end of the first part of Adagio is replaced as if by the fall of the veil. And what? The soul is in the power of charm, but at the same time, it is aware of its fragility and deceit every moment.

When, after the inspired, gloomy song Adagio sostenuto, gracefully whimsical figures of Allegretto sound, it is difficult to get rid of the dual feeling. Graceful music attracts, but at the same time, it seems unworthy of just experienced. In this contrast - the amazing genius of Beethoven's design and implementation. A few words about the place of Allegretto in the structure of the whole. This is in essence delayed scherzo, and its purpose, among other things, is to serve as a link in the three phases of the movement, the transition from the slow reflection of the first movement to the storm of the finale.

The final(Presto agitato, cis-moll) has long been surprising with the irrepressible energy of his emotions. Lenz compared it "with a stream of burning lava", Ulybyshev called it "a masterpiece of ardent expressiveness".

Romain Rolland speaks of the "immortal explosion of the final presto agitato", of the "wild night storm", of the "giant picture of the soul".

The finale completes the "moonlight" sonata extremely strongly, giving not a decline (as even in the "pathetic" sonata), but a great increase in tension and drama.

It is not difficult to notice the close intonational connections of the finale with the first movement - they play a special role in the active harmonic figurations (background of the first movement, both themes of the finale), in the ostinato rhythmic background. But the contrast of emotions is the maximum.

Nothing equal to the scope of these seething waves of arpeggios with loud blows on the tops of their crests can be found in Beethoven's earlier sonatas - not to mention Haydn or Mozart.

The entire first theme of the finale is an image of that extreme degree of excitement when a person is completely incapable of reasoning, when he does not even distinguish between the boundaries of the external and inner peace. Therefore, there is no clearly expressed thematism, but only uncontrollable boiling and explosions of passions capable of the most unexpected antics (Romain Rolland's definition is apt, according to which in bars 9-14 - "fury, hardened and, as it were, stamping their feet"). Fermata v. 14 is very truthful: so suddenly for a moment a person stops in his impulse, in order to then again surrender to him.

The secondary part (vol. 21, etc.) is a new phase. The roar of the sixteenths went into the bass, became the background, and the theme of the right hand testifies to the appearance of a strong-willed beginning.

More than once it was said and written about the historical connections of Beethoven's music with the music of his immediate predecessors. These connections are completely undeniable. But here is an example of how an innovative artist rethinks traditions. The following excerpt from the side game of the "lunar" finale:

in its "context" expresses swiftness and determination. Is it not indicative to compare with him the intonations of Haydn and Mozart's sonatas, similar in terms of speed, but different in character (example 51 - from the second part of the Haydn sonata Es-dur; example 52 - from the first part of the Mozart sonata C-dur; example 53 - from the first part sonatas by Mozart in B-dur) (Haydn here (as in a number of other cases) is closer to Beethoven, more straightforward; Mozart is more gallant.):

Such is the constant rethinking of the intonational traditions widely used by Beethoven.

The further development of the secondary party strengthens the strong-willed, organizing element. True, in the beats of sustained chords and in the running of the whirling scales (m. 33, etc.), passion again recklessly rages. However, in the final game, a preliminary denouement is planned.

The first section of the final part (bars 43-56) with its chased rhythm of eighths (which replaced the sixteenths) (Romain Rolland very rightly points out the mistake of the publishers, who replaced (contrary to the author's instructions) here, as well as in the bass accompaniment of the beginning of the movement, the stress marks with dots (R. Rolland, Volume 7, pp. 125-126).) full of irresistible impulse (this is the determination of passion). And in the second section (v. 57, etc.) an element of sublime reconciliation appears (in the melody - a fifth of the tonic, which also dominated in the dotted group of the first part!). At the same time, the returned rhythmic background of the sixteenths maintains the necessary pace of movement (which would inevitably fall if it calmed down against the background of the eighths).

It should be especially noted that the end of the exposition directly (activation of the background, modulation) flows into its repetition, and secondarily into development. This is an essential point. None of Beethoven's earlier allegro sonatas in Beethoven's piano sonatas has such a dynamic and direct merging of exposition with development, although in some places there are prerequisites, "outlines" of such continuity. If the first parts of sonatas Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11 (as well as the last parts of sonatas Nos. 5 and 6 and the second part of sonata No. 11) are completely "fenced off" from further exposure, then in in the first parts of sonatas nos. 7, 8, 9, close, direct connections between expositions and developments are already outlined (although the dynamics of the transition, characteristic of the third movement of the “moonlight” sonata, is absent everywhere). Turning for comparison to parts of Haydn's and Mozart's clavier sonatas (written in sonata form), we will see that there the “fencing off” of the exposition by the cadence from the subsequent one is a strict law, and individual cases of its violation are dynamically neutral. Thus, it is impossible not to recognize Beethoven as an innovator on the way of dynamically overcoming the "absolute" boundaries of exposition and development; this important innovative trend is confirmed by later sonatas.

In the development of the finale, along with the variation of the previous elements, new expressive factors play a role. Thus, the holding of a side part in the left hand acquires, thanks to the lengthening of the thematic period, features of slowness, prudence. The music of descending sequences on the organ point of the dominant in C-sharp minor at the end of development is also deliberately restrained. All these are subtle psychological details that paint a picture of a passion that seeks rational restraint. However, after finishing the development of the chords, the pianissimo kick of the beginning of the reprise (This unexpected "hit", again, is innovative. Later Beethoven achieved even more stunning dynamic contrasts - in the first and last parts of the Appassionata.) proclaims that all such attempts are deceptive.

Compressing the first section of the reprise (to the side part) speeds up the action and sets the stage for further expansion.

It is significant to compare the intonations of the first section of the final part of the reprise (from p. 137 - a continuous movement of eighths) with the corresponding section of the exposition. In tt. 49-56 the movements of the upper voice of the group of eighths are directed first down and then up. In tt. 143-150 movements first give fractures (down - up, down - up), and then fall off. This gives the music a more dramatic character than before. The calming of the second section of the final part, however, does not complete the sonata.

The return of the first theme (code) expresses the indestructibility, constancy of passion, and in the rumble of the thirty-second passages ascending and freezing on chords (bars 163-166), its paroxysm is given. But this is not all.

A new wave, starting with a quiet side part in the bass and leading to stormy rumbles of arpeggios (three types of subdominants prepare a cadence!), breaks off into a trill, a short cadenza (It is curious that the turns of the falling passages of the eighth cadenza after the trill (before the two-bar Adagio) are almost literally reproduced in Chopin's cis-moll phantasy-impromptu. By the way, these two pieces (the "moon" finale and the phantasy-impromptu) can serve as comparative examples of the two historical stages development musical thinking. The melodic lines of the "lunar" finale are strict lines of harmonic figuration. Melodic lines of fantasy-impromptu - lines of ornamental triads played with side chromatic tones. But in the said passage the cadenza is planned historical connection Beethoven with Chopin. Beethoven himself later paid a generous tribute to such plays.) and two deep bass octaves (Adagio). This is the exhaustion of passion that has reached its highest limits. In the final tempo I - an echo of a futile attempt to find reconciliation. The subsequent avalanche of arpeggios only says that the spirit is alive and powerful, despite all the painful trials (Later, Beethoven used this extremely expressive innovation even more vividly in the code of the finale of the Appassionata. Chopin tragically rethought this technique in the code of the fourth ballad.).

The figurative meaning of the finale of the “moonlight” sonata is in the grandiose battle of emotion and will, in the great anger of the soul, which fails to master its passions. Not a trace of the enthusiastically disturbing daydreaming of the first part and the deceptive illusions of the second part remained. But passion and suffering dug into the soul with a force never before known.

The final victory has not yet been won. In a wild battle, experiences and will, passion and reason were closely, inextricably intertwined with each other. And the code of the final does not give a denouement, it only affirms the continuation of the struggle.

But if victory is not achieved in the final, then there is no bitterness, no reconciliation. The grandiose strength, the mighty individuality of the hero appear in the very impetuosity and indefatigability of his experiences. In the "moonlight" sonata, both the theatricality of the "pathetic" and the external heroism of the sonata op. are overcome, left behind. 22. The huge step of the “moon” sonata to the deepest humanity, to the highest truthfulness of musical images determined its milestone significance.

All musical quotations are given according to the edition: Beethoven. Sonatas for piano. M., Muzgiz, 1946 (edited by F. Lamond), in two volumes. Bar numbering is also given in this edition.