# What do you think of when you play the first movement of moonlight?



## Warre (Nov 11, 2014)

Hello, I learned how to play the first movement of moonlight a year ago. But I'm still struggling with the interpretation. I was wondering what other people think of when they play it? 

I think about in being love with someone, who feels some kind of love for you. But doesn't feel the same love you feel for him. 

Thank's for reading my post!


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I don't play it myself. Beethoven himself didn't name it Moonlight, someone else did, and people play it to make it sound romantic and all that.

I don't really attribute any program to it.


----------



## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

I think about the beauty of the music, how to make the music sound the best I can make it, and how I could improve my playing. 
I don't think it needs a program. It's good enough to look after itself.


----------



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I think about the fact that it is very monotonous and undramatic for a first movement of a classical piece and I don't mean that in a negative way. The bare bones of sonata form are there but they manifest in a very unclassical way. Also, when I'm playing, I think about the fact that I need to bring out the eighth notes that are doubled by quarter notes so that people can hear the melody under the current of triplets. I also think about how much I should be pedaling. Beethoven instructs the pedal to always be held down throughout the movement, but of course the pedals of today are different from the ones back then and how much a performer should compensate for that fact is a somewhat controversial argument. 

I also think about the fact that I really dislike the nickname Moonlight sonata for this piece and that it distracts from how Beethoven or the original audience members may have heard it. From Beethoven's notes, we know he took inspiration from a funeral march theme (of Mozart's, I believe), nothing to do with Moonlight. Also, he named it Qusai Una Fantasia so it has some kinship with Mozart's Piano fantasies in its free and somewhat unidiomatic way of handling classical form.

As for images of lovers having dinner and stuff like that, I just don't get that kind of imagery from music...sorry. I get expression and emotion, but not specific imagery like that.


----------



## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

I feel like it's one of those deeply instinctive pieces, where you just *get* it.

For me, it's a very pensive, introspective piece - somewhat melancholy even but strong and beautiful in the deeply Beethoven-esque sense of the word. The first chord gives a rumbling-thunder kind of subtly ominous feeling and it builds surely yet gracefully, inevitably from there in caressing waves. It has a curious comforting quality about it, and the emotions change so frequently - bright and gloomy interchangeably. There's pain there, but a hopeful, incredibly serene feeling - as if Beethoven is telling us it'll be alright. The arpeggios are hypnotizing - they add to that strong feeling of inevitability of the piece while the melody, along with the dissonant notes, tells the "story". 

Anyways, these are some of my general impressions upon listening. It was deeply emotional to me as a kid, and one of my favourite pieces ever. I avoid listening to it much, to avoid over-familiarity. 

Conclusion: pain, gloominess, introspection, hopefulness and comfort coupled with the boundless beauty and graceful Romanticism all pulled together by the intensity and strong buildup/ inevitability that is so characteristic of our headstrong Beethoven.


----------



## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Warre said:


> Hello, I learned how to play the first movement of moonlight a year ago. But I'm still struggling with the interpretation. I was wondering what other people think of when they play it?
> 
> I think about in being love with someone, who feels some kind of love for you. But doesn't feel the same love you feel for him.
> 
> Thank's for reading my post!


I agree with MoonlightSonata - I don't really think of anything but the music when I play. 
I would listen to what Beethoven's saying through the Sonata more than anything else - try to find out what he intended the "program" to be through the music itself.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Warre said:


> Hello, I learned how to play the first movement of moonlight a year ago. But I'm still struggling with the interpretation. I was wondering what other people think of when they play it?
> 
> I think about in being love with someone, who feels some kind of love for you. But doesn't feel the same love you feel for him.
> 
> Thank's for reading my post!


I think about my own death.


----------

