You have more going on than the key of C (which has no sharps or flats), but it is doable.īut then, Beethoven throws in accidentals in the form of the natural signs (♮) and sharps. This key signature has four sharps, so you play the notes on those lines a half step up on the black keys. The Moonlight Sonata opens with a C-sharp minor key signature. This gradual increase in speed builds energy as the piece continues. Instead of writing the sonata in the fast-slow-fast form, Beethoven writes the movements as slow-medium-fast. Then in the third movement, the frantic pace and crashing chords give a thrilling ending. The second movement is less brooding and becomes almost cheerful and friendly. When it was written, musicians used broken chords and arpeggios to improvise a tune but rarely wrote them into a piece. The haunting melody moves the listener gently through the piece with rolling arpeggios. The first movement is dark, moody, and the most famous. He adds the epithet Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia, which lets the listener know this piece is more free-form than the usual sonata.
Each section creates a mood or theme and focuses on one central instrument (in this case, the piano).īeethoven follows the format of a sonata to a point, but as usual, he breaks more rules than he follows. Like a proper sonata, the Moonlight sonata is divided into three different movements.
