Here's something you might be interested in.
The Moonlight Sonata is not a piece of music I can write about except to mention some of the background story.
The title of moonlight was given to this sonata by a music critic who compared the first movement to the reflection of the moon on Lake Lucerne.
If you've ever watched the moon set into a calm ocean off Sunset Cliffs, you know exactly what the critic is describing.
This sonata was written as a love song to Beethoven’s seventeen year old pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.
From a letter Beethoven wrote to the young countess:
My Angel, My All, My Very Self,
Just a few words to-day, and only in pencil . . . Can our love endure otherwise than through sacrifices, through restraint in longing. Canst thou help not being wholly mine, can I, not being wholly thine. Oh! gaze at nature in all its beauty, and calmly accept the inevitable - love demands everything, and rightly so. Thus is it for me with thee, for thee with me, only thou so easily forgettest, that I must live for myself and for thee - were we wholly united thou wouldst feel this painful fact as little as I should . . .
Now for a quick change from without to within: we shall probably soon see each other, besides, to-day I cannot tell thee what has been passing through my mind during the past few days concerning my life - were our hearts closely united, I should not do things of this kind. My heart is full of the many things I have to say to thee - ah! - there are moments in which I feel that speech is powerless - cheer up - remain my true, my only treasure, my all !!! as I to thee. The gods must send the rest, what for us must be and ought to be.
Thy faithful, Ludwig
Reading this letter is one thing. Listening to The Moonlight Sonata is another. I think I prefer the listening.
We hear Beethoven’s tender affection and longing in his music more profoundly than we can read it in his letter.
Has anyone ever listened to The Moonlight Sonata and not felt as if they were in love or at least wanted to be in love?
This music will always and forever make our hearts ache. The Moonlight Sonata is a piece of music that makes our lives wonderful while it is being played.
Whatever our circumstances might be, we can listen to this gift from Beethoven and feel love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6txOvK-mAk
The Moonlight Sonata is not a piece of music I can write about except to mention some of the background story.
The title of moonlight was given to this sonata by a music critic who compared the first movement to the reflection of the moon on Lake Lucerne.
If you've ever watched the moon set into a calm ocean off Sunset Cliffs, you know exactly what the critic is describing.
This sonata was written as a love song to Beethoven’s seventeen year old pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.
From a letter Beethoven wrote to the young countess:
My Angel, My All, My Very Self,
Just a few words to-day, and only in pencil . . . Can our love endure otherwise than through sacrifices, through restraint in longing. Canst thou help not being wholly mine, can I, not being wholly thine. Oh! gaze at nature in all its beauty, and calmly accept the inevitable - love demands everything, and rightly so. Thus is it for me with thee, for thee with me, only thou so easily forgettest, that I must live for myself and for thee - were we wholly united thou wouldst feel this painful fact as little as I should . . .
Now for a quick change from without to within: we shall probably soon see each other, besides, to-day I cannot tell thee what has been passing through my mind during the past few days concerning my life - were our hearts closely united, I should not do things of this kind. My heart is full of the many things I have to say to thee - ah! - there are moments in which I feel that speech is powerless - cheer up - remain my true, my only treasure, my all !!! as I to thee. The gods must send the rest, what for us must be and ought to be.
Thy faithful, Ludwig
Reading this letter is one thing. Listening to The Moonlight Sonata is another. I think I prefer the listening.
We hear Beethoven’s tender affection and longing in his music more profoundly than we can read it in his letter.
Has anyone ever listened to The Moonlight Sonata and not felt as if they were in love or at least wanted to be in love?
This music will always and forever make our hearts ache. The Moonlight Sonata is a piece of music that makes our lives wonderful while it is being played.
Whatever our circumstances might be, we can listen to this gift from Beethoven and feel love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6txOvK-mAk