Moonlight Sonata: Exploring the Third Movement

Hello, everyone!

So let's talk about another feature this great third movement of the Moonlight Sonata has to offer.

Recap of Previous Features

• We discussed the broken arpeggio right at the beginning.
• We covered the Alberti bass, in both right hand and left hand.

Dynamic Changes in Bar 43

Now, in Bar 43, there's another feature:

• Beethoven indicates FFF (forte fortissimo) four times.
• See the indications in Bars 41 and 42? He emphasizes four times forte for all these harmonic changes.

This is crucial!

Importance of the Urtext Edition

• It's essential to have the urtext edition, where these features stand out.
• Beethoven clearly wanted a forte and attack on every single harmonic change.

Alberti Bass and Dissonance

In the left hand, we can see:

• We have the Alberti bass repeating again and again, but with a twist.
• There's a bit of dissonance right there that we should emphasize.

Practicing Chords and Jumps

Now, we come to the jumps:

• These chords and jumps in the piano are not that big, but then we have crescendo.
• This is the biggest leap.

For this incredible dominant knife:

• We need not only space, but sometimes even time.
• We really need to hit it properly.

Practice just this:

• Stall, and then do it again.

Music First

This is very important. With all great music, I always say:

• Music first and not the technical difficulty.
• Sometimes a passage doesn't work for a musical reason.

Once you truly feel this incredible harmony, practicing and analyzing these turns become much more enjoyable.

Exploring Discoveries

You'll have incredible fun when you start exploring.

• For instance, we don't have this E until later; it comes here with the seventh and the ninth.
• There's joy in discovering and exploring, transforming it from mere practice into music-making.

Similar Cases Later in the Piece

We have a similar case later in the piece after we had our four fortes.

• We then move to C sharp minor.
• Here, the piano stays, and there is no crescendo, unlike the first time.

Practice Slowly

Practice it really slowly:

• Focus on this jump.
• It's different here, and you might want more declamato, more freedom.

Predictable Patterns

However, there's no crescendo, and there's no discord, only sevenths.

• Beethoven introduces the non-chord right at the beginning, but later on, he doesn't use it as we might expect.

Understanding Neapolitan Chords

Consider this famous Neapolitan chord:

• We encountered it in the first movement several times.
• In Fortissimo during Bar 33, we see it against Forzanti.

Left Hand Rhythmic Figure

This is the first fortissimo in the piece and follows the Alberti bass again with the Neapolitan.

• Pay attention to the rhythmic figure in the left hand.

Changes Over Time

The next time it appears in Bar 128, we notice:

• The Neapolitan is different; this is not a mistake.
• It's a slight change that brings a whole new world of expressivity to the passage.

Syncopated Rhythm Comparison

After that, we have another Neapolitan.

• If you compare it to the first instance, the syncopated rhythm in the left hand occurs earlier.
• The repetition in the first instance spans two bars, but here it's shorter, only one bar, making it more compressed and faster.

Conclusion

This is one of many reasons why Beethoven is such a great composer, if not the greatest of all.

I wish you luck practicing this great piece, and I'll see you in the next lesson where we'll delve into the coda, arpeggi, and the amazing ending over the last two pages of this piece.

See you there!